Sermon for Mother's Day

Tough Love

May 10 / 2015  Year B  Easter 6

Sometimes it is easy to love, the baby that is first placed in our arms, that has been planned for and has grown within us for nine months and waited with wonder and anticipation to arrive.  But what is  they cry all the time and require constant care, or do not turn out the way we had hope they would or make choices as they get older that we abhor.  Is it easy to love then?

Sometimes it is easy to love our partner, when things are going well and the relationship is on track and you feel supported and cared for.  But what if they betray us or do not love us the way we need to be loved, or we discover something about them that we do not know if we can accept.  Is it easy to love then?

Sometimes it is easy to love our neighbour, when we know what to expect from them.  When it is easy to engage in a conversation, and share tomatoes back and forth over the fence.   But what if they live a lifestyle that we do not understand, or you find repulsive, what if their rituals confuse you, or their lifestyle confound you or culture offend you.  Is it easy to love our neighbour then?

Sometimes it is easy to love in the church, when we find comfort and caring within its walls.  When we come and are assured that what we think about God and Jesus is good and that our lives are on track and the funds are being spent well – but what if we don’t find that here, what if instead of comfort we find challenge, what if we do not approve of the way the money is used or the direction the church is going, or agree with what the minister is saying or do not like any of the music, prayers or program the at the church has to offer.  Is it easy to love the church then?

Easy love is not what we are talking about today – easy love – the loving without challenge – that makes us feel good and is never hard – no - what we are talking about today is hard love, is real love.

The hard part about this love is that it is not always a feel good kind of love. This kind of love is kind of like the part of the story of the Velveteen Rabbit where the Skin Horse talks about being real.

You see, the Skin Horse was very old and very wise "and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does is mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?'

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."[1]

Our readings today all focus on what it means to have real love, not about the meaning of love – but what it means to love - how love is not just an emotional feeling that one experiences when you look at the one you love – or see something beautiful or feel good about yourself but instead, love is a verb, an action, love is doing something, love is energetic, love is full of life and requires attention and work – love requires hard work – ....love is hard, it is not ‘never having to say your sorry – it most definitely is about being able to say you’re sorry, and forgive another and to learn about another, and to let go of prejudice and fear and mistrust – and sticking with it when the going gets tough, and when things get ugly – and fractious and challenging – that is the kind of love Jesus talks about today – that is the kind of love the writer of both John and the Acts have to talk about today, both stories that help us to glimpse what it is to love God with heart and soul and mind and to love our neighbour as ourselves, the love that makes you real.

Jesus and his friends are still at the last supper – we are still reading through this part of John where Jesus is in the midst of praying for and saying goodbye to his friends as he prepares his heart mind and body for the next stage of his journey which is to the cross.  These are the thoughts and the feelings – the words, according to John, that Jesus shares with his friends and disciples just before he goes to the garden, and subsequently his arrest, trial, crucifixion and death.  Judas has left the building by this point, to go and play out his role in the drama. The rest of the disciples have assured Jesus that they are on board and along side of him and will be there even if things get tough (and as we know – a few short hours later, most have deserted him)  But Jesus is not focused on the future in this moment – he is focused  instead on the present – and he reminds his friends and followers just how much they mean to him, and reminds them that even after he is gone, even after he is not physically with them any longer – he will still be there – still be there loving, caring and comforting them.   He says “I am your friend”   what he is saying really is that “I Love you – I love you Peter and James and John and Matthew and Mary – I love you for real, and because I love you – and because you love me – you will be able to go from this place and from their very confusing time and spread the good news – and tell the world about God’s love and share with your brothers and sisters on this earth more than you ever thought you could – I love you says Jesus and you love me and because of that love – you will be able to go into places you never dreamed possible and face situations that challenge that confront you with love – and be with people whose ways you may not understand, and yet because of my love – you will love them too.  I love you says Jesus and because of my love, you will become more than you ever could be on your own – I love you says Jesus and because I love you, you can become real.

A few months later, after the death, resurrection, and the new reality of what it is to be a disciple of Jesus, Peter is trying to live in the love the at Jesus , he is at the home of Roman Centurion named Cornelius.  It is a pretty risky thing that Peter is doing, hanging out in the home of a Roman, who as a centurion has publicly pledged allegiance to the Caesar who you remember is held up as a god in his culture.  And here he is in the midst of this household sharing with the owners, their servants and others just who Jesus was, what he came to say and how this God that Jesus shared with the world was the only God, and a God of love – and this love – this love of Jesus – this love of God.  I love you says Peter, and God loves you and of course you can be baptized – and feel this love of God running down you like the water on your skin – I love you says Peter even though I am a Jew and you are a Roman – I am a former fisherman and a Christian – and you are a soldier and have grown up with god’s called Apollo and Venus and Diana and Jupiter.  I love you says Peter in spite of our different backgrounds and cultures and lifestyles.  Real love- life giving love – God’s love.  I love you says Peter to everyone around, and let me show you how much – let me wash you with the waters of baptism and help you bathe in the love of God.  I love you says Peter….

 “Love one another as I have loved you,” Jesus says to his disciples.  He’s not talking about a feeling.  He’s not talking about a kind of extended liking.  He’s talking about a way of living that involves coming back again and again to those one loves.  

·       A way of forgiving time and again. 

·       A love that welcomes people as they are. 

·       A love that delights in people. 

·       A love that says in ways big and small, “You are my beloved.  With you I am well pleased.” 

·       A nurturing kind of love. 

·       A life-giving love. 

·       The kind of love we all long for.

Today is Mothers Day—a day fraught with complexities.  For some this is a day that reminds them of the nurturing love they longed for but never received.  Others find in this day a painful reminder of losses—mothers gone, children never born, children dead before their time.  I like to think of this day as a day that invites us to remember the nurturing, loving mothering that runs through every life.  Mothering we receive sometimes from our mothers, sometimes from our fathers, sometimes from our friends, sometimes from teachers or bosses or neighbors, and sometimes from total strangers.  Mothering that is not gendered.  Mothering that is simply an expression of deep, life-giving love.  Mothering love—the love of Christ and the love Christ calls us to.  Real love –

I love you says Jesus, now go and love one another as I have loved you.

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[1] Margery Williams:  The Velveteen Rabbit:  George H. Doran Company,  1922

Earth Day Sermon

To Live With Respect in Creation

Easter 3 - April 19/2015

In 1968 something happened to change the world.  Well the world did not actually change, how we perceived the world changed.  What shifted was how we looked at the world – up until then we saw the earth as an infinite object that could continue to provide new resources to fuel our human consumption.  Our culture, especially viewed the earth as a vast resource to use as we saw fit to meet whatever needs we had.  But something changed that year and the beginning of the idea that the earth was finite and that resources could run out began to enter into our consciousness.  What caused the change in the way we saw the world was a photograph, it was taken by Bill Anders who was an astronaut on Apollo 8.  I am sure you have all seen it.  It is the one  the photo of earth, floating there against a deep blue sea of stars - It was the first time human beings had seen the earth from space, the first time we had seen earth as it is - a smallish, marbled globe, floating in space, holding all that we know and will ever know here. That one photo changed the way human beings understood the earth and because of that understanding it changed how we live on the earth. The first Earth Day was one of the direct results, in 1970. Anders said, “We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth."

The earth that we inhabit, this creation that we live on is a remarkable incredible thing – it is completely unique and even after years and years of scientists staring out into the galaxy, with high power telescopes, no one has ever seen a planet like this one that can support life, what is found instead are giant gas balls and floating rocks at temperatures too hot or too cold for life or planets without any atmosphere at all.  This unique planet that we inhabit is also a closed system, that is to say that everything that we are, everything about every living creature, from mammals to bugs to fish to microscopic organism, everything exists only on this planet – and all the air that we need to breath, and all the water that we need to drink, and all the resources that we need for food and shelter – it is all here, there is no other place, no other resource that supplies this planet.  And it is a closed system right from the beginning so the air that we breathe is the same air that was around when the dinosaurs were and the same air that Jesus and Peter and Mary and James breathed and also breathed by Queen Victoria, Adolf Hitler and Mahatma Gandhi, you and me our children and all who come after us as well.

There is a reason our Bible begins with the story of God breathing across the void creating the heavens and the earth, breathing across the earth calling into life the night and the day, plants and animals; breathing to life humankind imprinted with the image of the Creator. There is a reason that Creation is the first story and in it we witness the love that God has for the earth as each of it intricate parts are being born – and it was morning and it was evening and God saw that it was good, very good - it was good and it is good this amazing, incredible earth, our fragile complex, connected home.

“Scripture will go on to explain to us that we cannot be in right relationship with God unless we are in right relationship with the land. In the Hebrew, the “land” means all that is: the ground, the trees and plants, the rivers and seas, the animals and all other human beings, even the air we breathe. All of it. God imagined an astonishing world of beauty and plenty for all of us; it is our gift.”[1]

So what does it mean to not love this earth as God loves it, what does it mean to squander this gift of creation to take advantage of this gift – a fellow preacher shared her struggle with the groaning of creation as she reflected on the thought that one day creation would have an opportunity to tell us how it feels to be treated so thoughtlessly.  And she writes:

“I imagined hearing the ocean weeping as it was clogged with billions, literally billions of pounds of trash I had helped dump into it; the air choked with pollution I had pumped out; I would hear the pain of trees being clear-cut and mountains being reduced to sludge; I would hear icebergs melting, ground water rotting and I would have to hear the cries of animals being eaten into extinction. I would hear the hunger of mothers and fathers and the thirst of small children, 5000 who die every day for want of clean water while I let the tap run just so the water I drink will be colder. I was devastated.

Truthfully, I was also completely overwhelmed. How could I do anything about this, I wondered? Was I being asked to change my whole life? And anyway, what could one person like me really do that would make any difference at all?”[2]   I like her find it difficult to get my head around the issues which plague our planet in 2015, I have seen the pictures of poisoned waters and air filled with so much smog the people where masks when they are outside.  I have heard the statistics about raising temperatures and melting sea ice.  I know that are many, many species of animals and birds and fish and bugs that are on an endangered species list.  Every day I drive to work I pass through areas of land that used to be used for growing food that now houses a new subdivision.  The irony of the names of the new subdivisions does not escape me:  Riverwood, Hawksview, and Deer Run Estates.  I hear stories about droughts in California that have lasted for four years and some people no longer have running water in their homes.  Rivers are damned for hydro electric power, and whole ecosystems are forever changed.  The hole is the ozone layer is growing that we are now putting SPF 50 on our children to protect them from the sun’s damaging rays.  The list goes on and on and on and I find myself overwhelmed with the enormity of the problem – not even sure what to do, where to start, how to respond to such overwhelming issues. 

“Maybe the first step is to really wrap our heads around the reality that we are all connected; everything is connected, all of it. What I do matters to people I will never meet; the choices we make will affect countries we may never visit; the chemicals we pour down our kitchen sink will sour our neighbors water years from now. Simply waking up to the ways that each of us affects just the ground around our own homes is a start.  And I believe that actually, we can do something and that something can make a difference.”  and as people of faith, the place to start is with God, the Creator.  Because just when things seem like all is lost, just when it seems like there is no hope – just when it feels like it is over – God gets in, resurrection happens and the world is transformed.  Take this morning’s story for instance.

We never can know fully what God is going to do next – the disciples think they know – they think that God is done with their story – because didn’t they just witness not 36 hours ago – the death of their friend, the death of the Christ on the cross, and as all rational human beings – they know that things end with death.  Even though the woman had witnessed the empty tomb, even though the woman had told them about their encounter a few hours ago with risen Christ – it is still too hard to believe – and as they speculate, and wonder about what is going on I bet you a large  part of them are refusing to believe the signs… and then Cleopas and his friend who had gone to Emmaus just that morning have returned with this amazing story of their encounter with the risen Christ – first the woman and then now the two men who went to Emmaus – sharing these stories that seem so farfetched, so unreal, so unbelievable – but then into this moment of disbelieve and confusion, into this time of speculations and hope – the Christ comes – the Christ comes to the disciples and they are transformed – the Christ comes into their midst and nothing is the same again.  And the wonderful thing that Jesus does in this time is he reminds them of how it all worked – that the signs were there that God had this in mind.  And he shared food – isn’t it interesting that Luke thought that the very act of Jesus eating fish was important to report – it seems at first glance as a small insignificant moment and yet when you really thing about it reminds you just how truly human the risen Christ was.  And from this place and from this time – where it seemed like there was no hope – where it felt like all was lost – from that place after the Christ comes and God got in – the church began – this moment 2000 years ago is part of what we are doing here this morning, our gathering here is thanks in part to that group of mixed up men and woman in that room being transformed because they encountered the risen Christ.  

And this story gives me hope – for is these people, these ordinary people who were probably a lot like you and me, and they were transformed by an encounter with the risen Christ, so can we.  And if the feeling of helplessness and not knowing what to do can shift after an encounter with the Christ – well it can for us too!  And if their situation seemed hopeless and overwhelming to those first disciples and the Christ appeared and they were transformed, like our situations as well, the risen Christ can transform it too!

And it gives me hope that this story is that it marks a shift in thinking, and a shift in understanding for the disciples about who they are and what they are about.  When Jesus appeared to this group of people, they came to a new understanding about how they were to live in the world and what their life purpose was.  And it was with this newly enlivened group of disciples that the Christian movement began.  And it gives me hope to know that it took some time – the disciples did not form the Christian church in a couple of days after Jesus appeared – nor a couple of months, not even a couple of years – forming the Christian movement that leads us to the church of today took decades, and centuries to create and it is still shifting and changing today.

It is amazing what a small group of people who have had an encounter with the Risen Christ can do!  It is amazing what a group of highly motivated cohesive group of people can do together!  So what do we do?  How are we called to face the challenges of the generation?  How are we called to care for Creation?  What is our responsibility to the earth and all its creatures?

I think that as complex as the issues are as complex as the response is – but just because it is a big issue does not give us the pass on the response.   I think that we are at another shift in human conscious, much like the one in 1968 – where we realize that the choices that we make today, from the simple things such as what shampoo to use, to what fresh produce we place in our grocery cart and the complex choices about fracking and wind energy and nuclear power and urban development– these choices matter now more than they have ever mattered before – because if we do not change how we live and how we treat this earth, we may create a planet that is no longer able to sustain life and this beautiful, glorious, amazing creation that we live upon may cease to exist in the form that we know it.  

And our hope – well you are the hope – we are the hope – each of us have the opportunity to allow the risen Christ to come into our lives, come into this time and this place and enliven and mobilize us.  There is enough people in this room to change the world.  We have enough resources here in our midst to make a difference.  The people that are needed in this time to save the planet are right here, they are you and they are me – and when we allow the Risen Christ to enter in and transform us we can transform the world.  Amen.

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[1] http://www.trinityepiscopalchurch.org/Sermons/Vinnie_s_Sermons/Earth_Day_Sermon/

[2] Ibid.

Easter Sermon

Easter – Joy Comes with the Dawn

April 5, 2015

“Christ is Risen” – That’s good news people.  Christ has risen! – did you notice that when I say ‘Christ is Risen’ I did not use one single qualifier – I did not say “Christ is risen for Christians”, or “Christ is Risen” for church goers,  or even “Christ is Risen” for those who profess their faith in Jesus Christ. 

I did not say “Christ is Risen” for Canadians or Americans or those of white skin and speak English.  I did not say “Christ is Risen” for all those who walk the straight and narrow, or “Christ has Risen” for those who live virtuous lives and pay their taxes on time.  Nor did I say “Christ is Risen” for students who get ‘A’s or successful people who have all the cultural goodies like a house and car and good job.  I did not say that “Christ is Risen” for good people or people who are trying their best or the those who live a good life.  I said “Christ is Risen” and when I say that I mean…Christ has risen for all.

Christ is risen for everyone which includes you and me and everyone in between.  Christ is risen for all those who sit in church pews this morning and those still lingering in their warm beds.  Christ has risen for the successful and the failures, for the lost and the found, for the good and the bad and the beautiful and the ugly – Christ is risen for Foolish and wise people, kind and mean people, law abiders and rule breakers too.  Jesus Christ has risen today –– out of the darkness of the tomb, from the despair of Holy week - joy comes with the dawn and “Christ is Risen”

Joy comes with the dawn;

         joy comes with the morning sun;

         joy springs from the tomb

         and scatters the night with her song

         joy comes with the dawn

        

The resurrection happened.  Long ago I accepted that fact that the evidence of the resurrection requires faith to understand, this central truth of what it means to be Christian.  Our former moderator, David Guliano, in an Easter reflection in the Observer said:   “what we call the resurrection is the defining moment, the birth of our people.  It is the pinnacle of God’s self-revealing through Jesus – there is suffering there is death and there is end and always there is rising to new life.”  The Easter story is not only an experience, it is event. It is a way of life. The resurrection lives into the truth that death is never the end -- resurrection is. We not only look forward to a future that has been designed by God but also we have the opportunity to experience Easter moments in the midst of our everyday lives. We know that death and sorrow stand nearby -- whether it be physical death, the loss of a job, the loss of a relationship, the loss of a dream -- but resurrection also waits to be noticed at the edges of our life. We have all known the wonder of a healing, a new job, a new love, a new dream being born out of the agony of hopelessness. Making Easter a way of life means that we are unwilling to settle for death in any of its forms. We are unwilling to give up hope and belief that new life is always being offered to us by God. We are unwilling to be ground down by grief when God's grace gives and gives and gives. This has to mean something to each one of us, then, when we face the "empty tombs" of our lives: the losses and disappointments, heartbreaks and failures, tragic deaths and prolonged illnesses, loneliness and despair. Those tombs are our "Friday" lives, and Jesus shares them with us.  But Jesus also shares Sunday, and resurrection, new life and new hope, with us. It wasn't a one-time thing, the resurrection of Jesus. It was, instead, the dawning of a new day, and new life as well.  Out of the darkness of the tomb, from the despair of Holy week - joy comes with the dawn and “Christ is Risen”

Joy comes with the dawn;

         joy comes with the morning sun;

         joy springs from the tomb

         and scatters the night with her song,

         joy comes with the dawn.     

A group of women, have gotten up really early in the morning, they have job to finish.  Because of the Sabbath, they could not finish preparing Jesus body for burial, so they set off in darkness to finish what they started.  I imagine they were a dispirited grieving group of woman suffering because of the loss of one they held so dear.  When they arrived at the tomb they realize that something is not right – the stone that was supposed to be in front of the opening was rolled away – they cautiously go inside to do what they came to do, spice the body and wrap it in burial clothes.  But the body is not there, and as they are sort of shocked into this first unnatural occurrence they are suddenly in the presence of a dazzling man – who tells them that Jesus has risen – the first Easter moment – which I think would take some time to sink in – and so they are reminded that Jesus had told them that this was to happen.  In this new understanding they are told to go to share this incredible news with the 11 disciples –but they don’t – they tell no one – ‘they say nothing to any one, for they were afraid – Resurrection?  Something has happened, something has shifted – these woman’s lives will never be the same again.  I imagine that besides the fear within the woman there must also have been a sense of wonder, a little bit of awe and that burgeoning hopeful feeling when you can’t quite believe that it is true but there is this growing sense of joy in your heart.   And even though the woman tell no one, the word gets out – It does not tell us in this version of the resurrection when they finally experienced the joy that came with that dawn, but we know from the rest of the story that they did – and these woman and men’s lives were forever transformed, that morning for them – dawned with new life.  Out of the darkness of the tomb, from the despair of Holy week - joy comes with the dawn and “Christ is Risen”

Joy comes with the dawn;

         joy comes with the morning sun;

         joy springs from the tomb

         and scatters the night with her song,

         joy comes with the dawn.

One of my favorite books The Color Purple.  The main character, the narrator who tells us her story through her letters addressed to God, is Celie, a poor black woman who has been abused all her life. But she has somebody in her life who loves her, her sister Nettie, who gets chased away by Celie's violent husband, Albert. Albert doesn't let Celie ever see the mail, so Celie never hears from Nettie and starts to believe that her sister is dead. But Nettie isn't dead. She has gone to Africa as a missionary and writes to Celie many letters over the years; she never gets a reply, but she keeps writing letters to Celie anyway. Then, one day, Celie finds the packet of letter from Nettie that Albert has stashed away under the floorboards. "Dear Celie," Nettie writes, "I know you think I am dead. But I am not. I been writing to you, too, over the years, but Albert said you'd never hear from me again and since I never heard from you all this time, I guess he was right. There is so much to tell you that I don't know, hardly, where to begin….but if this do get through, one thing I want you to know, I love you, and I am not dead."

I love you, and I am not dead. You may think that I am dead and that you are unloved, but I am not dead, and you are loved. Celie suffers terrible childhood abuse from her father, and further abuse through her forced marriage to a violent man, has her babies taken away from her and her sister driven from her, but God loves Celie, and her life, so full of hardship because of the hard-heartedness of others, is transformed anyway. When Celie and Nettie are both old and gray, they are finally reunited, and they fall down on the ground with joy. And these are Celie words:  “Everyone, must be thinking about how old we look.  "But I don't think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt."  Celie finally experienced the joy that came with that dawn, and her life was forever transformed.  Out of the darkness of the tomb, from the despair of Holy week - joy comes with the dawn and “Christ is Risen”

Christ is Risen – here in Kitchener in 2015, and meets us here today in this church this morning. – It is Easter Sunday – the day of resurrection – the day that we step back and realize one more time that this is God’s world and that somehow and in someway out of the darkness of the tomb, the light has come and everything changes in a blink of an eye because this is God’s resurrection moment –and so

We all need a resurrection – we all need to know that God is in charge and that our world is going to turn, and that death is never the last word – and into the midst of our everyday life – our breathing in and breathing out – there is God.

I know that for me here in this moment I welcome this resurrection, I need to feel that God gets in and my life is transformed because....

Our family is still living in transition
and my dad has been ill and my sisters and I live far away from him
and my daughter still won't sleep through the night
and my mom’s no longer here
My second granddaughter will soon be born three provinces away from me.

and Spring is late
 

I need a resurrection because ... It promises that in the end life prevails
And death looses that the world turns and
Wrongs are made right and
Hope triumphs and
Life and love prevail and
Light wins out over darkness every time, every single time.

The resurrection offers a lens so that we can see things as God intended them to be
 

Resurrection transform tragedy and heals brokenness
Resurrection awakens me to Jesus presence in the ordinary and challenging events in life-

Resurrection is God's resounding “yes”.

We are about to share a resurrection meal – eat from the table where we proclaims that the table belongs to God so therefore

All are welcome, the last the least especially

Everyone is invited especially the poor and the prostitute, the weak and the heavy laden, the troubled and the stricken

The bread and the cup are shared with all, young and old, rich and poor, the prisoner and the free, male and female, straight or gay, black or white, pink or green – this table belongs to God – this resurrection God – this “Christ is Risen God”.

So come one and come all come share in this feast on this day as we celebrate resurrection event! Out of the darkness of the tomb, from the despair of Holy week - joy comes with the dawn and “Christ is Risen”.  Amen.