Sermon for March 15th, 2020 – Living Water

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable to you this day, our Rock and our Redeemer.

I am going to start today with something I have never done before. When I was in seminary, I met with a Spiritual Director regularly. Sometimes, she required me to write a reflective piece to keep in my journal with no thought of sharing it. However, there is one which I wrote which is connected with today’s Gospel reading, and I felt that it would be good to begin my sermon today with this.

I am the woman of Samaria. I have been searching, searching, searching, all my life.
But for what?
That I cannot tell you. But I know that this morning, at the well, before sunrise, I found it. And now I will never lose it. This living water. This water that refreshes. This water that cleanses. This water that renews. It is mine, and I want to share it. For I know that others are also looking, are also seeking, are also lost. Take what I have. Use it for yourself. And when you are ready, you will find that you, too, have enough to share. That is something He didn’t tell me about the living water. It goes on forever. It expands until it will fill the whole world. But now I know as Adam and Eve knew, with the difference being they learned about good and evil and I learned about love.

So often, we do not realize what this encounter at the well was really about. We think that it was about Jesus revealing himself to a Gentile, to a Samaritan. We think that it was about guilt on her part and forgiveness on his. We use it to show how we can all be forgiven. But Jesus giving her what he called living water is really all about love.

As an illustration, I want to talk for just a minute about our Bella. As most of you know, she is a rather large Labradoodle, who insists on thinking that she is a lap dog. She and I spend a lot of time together. Often, when I am working at my desk, she is lying under it, keeping my feet warm, whether they need it or not. When we leave her at home alone, she is not happy, but when we get back after an absence – no matter how long – she is thrilled to see us. Of course, since we acquired OhchoCat, Bella spends a bit more time alone, or at least, away from us. But no matter how often we put her in a room where she can’t get at the cat, and no matter how often we leave her at home alone, whenever she sees us, she welcomes us with a wagging tail, and a loving lick – again, whether we want it or not.

This is love. This is something like the love that Jesus was offering to the woman at the well. This is the love that doesn’t let anything get in its way –not absence, not adultery, not living a life that others condemn. Someone once mentioned that it is no coincidence that “God” spelled backwards is “dog”, and there are times when I agree with that assessment.

And it would seem that I am not the only one. There was a recent newspaper article called “In Times of Stress, Just Call on Rover”. I found this article on the internet, and thought that it was appropriate to use today, considering my own illustration. When it comes to times of stress, the most reassuring companion isn’t your sweetheart – it’s your schnauzer. A study has found that people who were under stress showed the least amount of tension when accompanied by their dog. The stress levels were highest when the people were with their husbands or wives. “I think that dogs are non-evaluative, and they love us,” said Karen Allen,  a research scientist at State University of New York at Buffalo’s medical school.

This item caught my attention – not because of what it says about stress and our spouses. Frankly, I don’t believe that, because I know that being with Keith reduces my stress significantly, most of the time. But what attracted me was what it says about the ways dogs love us, and the benefits that this kind of love has. You see, there is something very biblical in the assertion that non-evaluative love, non-judgmental love, can reduce tension. In fact, if we look at scripture, we will learn that it does much more than just reduce tension. It gives life; it gives hope; it gives assurance to all who receive it.

Non-judgmental, accepting, all-embracing love – this is the essence of the Good News contained in the gospel. We find in statements like this one: Do not judge others lest you be judged, for the judgment you give will be the judgment you receive. Jesus accepts and embraces people whom others find wanting, people living on the margins, sinners of all kinds, tax collectors, lepers – all those people whom the scribes and Pharisees reject; all those people whom we are still rejecting.

In my time, I have been a gardener, and one thing I learned about gardening that every plant needs water to grow. Even the desert cactus must still have a source of water in order to thrive. I know that the plants that in the driest soil, the plants whose leaves are beginning to curl and lose their colour – these plants need more water than the plants which are in damp ground. And I know that plants respond to water. I have seen plants which were shriveling in their beds – or in their pots – suddenly come back to life after a good watering. Their roots go down deep, looking for water. Their leaves turn over so that they can catch water from above and absorb it. And after they do this, then they produce whatever they were meant to produce, whether it is flower or fruit.

We are – all of us – plants in God’s garden. We have been placed here for a reason. But some of us are pretty dry and we need the living water. In fact, all of us need the living water. It is just that some of us have been without it for a long time. And it is this living water which wells up to eternal life. It is this living water which overflows and brings life to other plants nearby.

There is a story about a water bearer in India. He had two large pots, each hung on one end of the pole he carried across the back of his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream, the cracked pot arrived only half full. This went on every day for two years, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots of water to his master’s house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishment and saw itself as perfectly suited for the purpose for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its imperfection and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived as bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. “I am ashamed of myself and I want to apologize to you.”

“Why?” asked the bearer. “What are you ashamed of?”

“For the past two years, I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master’s house. Because of my flaws you have to work without getting the full value of your efforts,” the pot said.

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and out of compassion he said, “As we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.” Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the wildflowers on the side of the path. The pot felt cheered.

But at the end of the trail, the pot still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and again it apologized for its failure. The bearer said to the pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot’s side? That’s because I knew about your flaw and took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you’ve watered them for me. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table. If you were not just the way you are, he would not have such beauty to grace his house.

Just so did the Samaritan woman at the well bring the Good News to the other people in her village. Just so are we called to share it with others. And, even more, just so are we called to thank God for the living water he has given us, for the Good News which has been shared with us. Every day, I thank God for his love, for the living water which is constantly being poured on me, even when – or maybe ESPECIALLY when – I feel that I don’t deserve it. And in giving thanks, I do what the woman at the well did after she first met Jesus, after she first realized who he was. I point to him, to the one who is the promised Saviour, the one who accepted me and calls me sister, the one who encourages me and challenges me, the one who never rejects me, but who loves me unconditionally.

This woman at the well had three strikes against her, and Jesus ignored them all. First of all, she was a Gentile, and, as we know, many people believed that his message was first and foremost for the chosen people. But he revealed himself to her before he revealed himself to his own. Secondly, she was a Samaritan, and, as you know, Jews and Samaritans were enemies of long standing. But that didn’t matter. Jesus gave her what she needed, just as he gives us what we need. Finally, and probably most damning of all, she was a woman. Women of that time were treated as property, and as not being worthy of conversation. This did not stop him from blessing her, and calling her sister.

And this, this is why she spoke of him in her village. Not just because he knew her past; not just because he could tell her things that no stranger should know about her. It was because in knowing her, in knowing all about her – her nationality, her gender, her religion, and the history of her marriages – he treated her as an equal. He treated her as someone worthy of respect, worthy of affection, worthy of love. This isn’t just a woman, but a Samaritan woman, one with many husbands– but let’s just boil it all down to the single story: she’s an unclean sinner. Jesus, as a Jewish male, is not supposed to be talking with her, let alone accepting water from anything she has touched. Those were the rules, and life is simpler when the rules are clear. But Jesus broke the rules. Over and over again, Jesus broke the rules.

And that is the point of this whole story and of this whole sermon. Just as Jesus did, we are called to treat others as we would like to be treated. We are called to speak with people in high places in the same way as we speak to people in low places. We are called to talk to sinners and saints with respect, whether we agree with them or not. We are called to open ourselves to friends and strangers alike, and to feel that both of them are open to us. We are called to meet people where they are, and not to judge them. We are told not to patronize people because we feel that they are somehow less than we are. When we do all this, then it is that we are starting to learn something of God’s love. Then it is that we are starting to show something of God’s love. Thanks be to God.

 

Sermon for March 8th, 2020 – We Are Called

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable to you this day, our Rock and our Redeemer. Usually on this day, I preach on Nicodemus, simply because that is one of the stories that often puzzles people. Also, I don’t often preach using John’s Gospel, because that is one of the difficult ones for me. John is often vague, so I think that sometimes we just end up more confused than before. However, since I have preached on Nicodemus several times already, and since we are about to start the New Beginnings project, I thought that I would look at the Old Testament reading, which talks about Abram accepting God’s call. For that is what we are doing, when we move into the future here at St. Andrew’s. We are accepting a call to do something new, to do something different, to move out of our comfort zone where we have been sitting for over 250 years. It is exciting, but it is also a little scary. Any time we make changes, there is a certain amount of trepidation involved. We are not sure what will be happening. We are not certain where we will end up. But if, like Abram, we put our faith in God and where God is leading us, we cannot go far wrong.

Today, we heard about God’s call to Abram when we read: Leave your country, your people, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you. Abram was 75 years old when he got this call, of an age when you would think that he would be ready to sit back and relax. But God had other plans for him. God wanted him to go to a land he did not know, and leave behind everything that was familiar to him. Remember, this was before Isaac was born, and as far as Abram knew, he and Sarai would never have children. So this was a huge step for him, since family was so important to the Israelites. But regardless, Abram and Sarai packed up everything they had, including his nephew Lot, and headed off for the land of Canaan.

It is no wonder then, that Abram and Sarai are often held up as examples for people who are starting something new. They struck out and did as God wanted, and, as we know from further reading in the book of Genesis, they were well rewarded for their faith. Like Abram and Sarai, we are being pulled into God’s future. Like Abram and Sarai, we do not know what lies ahead, only that God will be with us on the way.

Our second reading today referenced Abraham and Sarah – note the name change. This often happens when people answer God’s call. Remember Simon who became Peter, and Saul who was later known as Saul. I don’t think that there will be any name changing going on with us, but you never know!

Now, back to Paul’s letter to the Romans. In this, Paul praised Abraham and Sarah, not for what they did, but for their attitude towards what they did, for the fact that they lived as God wanted them to. If we look at Paul’s words and at Abraham and Sarah’s actions, we will see that they had faith in God. They acted as people who truly believed in Gods promises. They believed so much in the promises that they were able to live with confidence in the present, and that is what we are asked to do.

Abraham and Sarah let go of what was familiar, and we have already done some of that. I have moved from the large Manse across the parking lot to the smaller one in Valcartier. And if you think that wasn’t a huge leap of faith – to think that we would get everything from that place into the new one – well, we will talk later! We are now worshiping in the Kirk Hall instead of in our comfortable sanctuary, and we are gradually getting used to that. Someone commented to me just last week that it was nice to be warm during worship instead of shivering throughout the entire hour. I have to agree. I often mention the 12-step programmes, and one of their mottos definitely applies here. They say that we need to let go and let God. This means that we place our trust in God, knowing that he will do what is best for us.

Sadly, most of us were brought up under what is called the Protestant work ethic. This means that we should work, work, work to bring about the kingdom of God. It means that we should push for God’s domain, trying to create and work towards a better world. Drawing from my time in Labrador, this could show us as miners working in a pit, striving to get to the light at the end of the tunnel. God’s future is always ahead of us, and we will never quite get there. But we will continue to work. And, you know, that is not exactly what we should be doing. We waste too much of our time struggling, and not enough of it putting our faith in God. Paul himself enjoins us not to do this, but instead, to put our full faith in God, knowing that he will be with us as we move into the future.

You see, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are already living in God’s future. And through faith, Abraham and Sarah were already living into the future that God planned for them. This is rather a radical way of looking at things, isn’t it? And yet, that is what Paul would have us do.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we can become complacent and get lazy in our present. I am reminded of The Comfortable Pewby Pierre Berton, in which he called out most churches in Canada. He said that we had lost our focus, and that we were more of a Rotary Club than a place in which people gather to worship God and to do God’s work in the world. And you know, that is not far from the truth. For if we believe that God is going to do it all, and all we need to do is allow ourselves to be pulled along, then the church will self-destruct.

And there is the other side of it – if we believe that God’s future NEEDS our participation, then we could start living as functional atheists. In case you are not familiar with that expression, I will give you Parker Palmer’s definition: “…functional atheism, [is] the belief that ultimate

responsibility for everything rests with us.  This is the unconscious, unexamined conviction that if anything decent is going to happen here, we are the ones who must make it happen – a conviction held even by people who talk a good game about God.  It often leads to burnout, depression, and despair, as we learn that the world will not bend to our will and we become

embittered about that fact…”

Neither attitude will help us move into our future. Neither sitting back and letting God do it all nor assuming that we have to be the ones to do everything will help us move into the future. What we must do, instead, is live as though we are already living in God’s realm and therefore, it is not possible for us to act in any other way. We will not be seeking to create some kind of utopian order or some kind of mega church. Instead, we will be living what God promised us. We would look for signs of God’s justice, and we would be upset when justice here fell short of the mark. This past week, there have been many stories about women trying to escape from abusive relationships. I listen to the stories, and my heart aches for the women AND their children and even for their partners. But unless I am willing to do something about it, my aching heart means little.

Living as though we are already in God’s realm means that we would love kindness, treating ourselves and other people as God treats us. We would truly mean the words we say each week in the Lord’s Prayer – Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And, like you, I wonder what is God’s will for us. I wonder where he is taking us. And I am hoping that, over the next several weeks and months, we will find out where we are going.

One thing I do know is that we are not going to be trying to bring about God’s righteous realm, but we will be starting to live IN his realm right here, right now. We know that we will not be creating some kind of utopian St. Andrew’s, but we will become the flesh and blood manifestation of what we believe is the future promise of God.

Can you tell that I am a little excited about this? Can you tell that I am looking forward to the future and where it will bring us? I don’t know if you remember that, when I accepted the call to come here 10 years ago, I made a commitment to stay for three years. Well, I am still here, with no intention of going anywhere, until God tells me that it is time to leave. Then I will answer another call – which, by the way, I hope will be a call to retirement. But for now, I am happy that God has left me here, and that I am still here. I believe that I – and all of you – are being called to watch and to celebrate where we see God’s future among us. I believe that we are also being called to recognize those situations which interfere with God’s future, and then to do something about it. I believe that we are called to give witness that – not only can things change – but that the world has already changed, and God’s promise is being fulfilled among us. And furthermore, we are being called to live into that future, even if, like Abraham and Sarah, we are not really sure where we are going. Thanks be to God.

 

Sermon for February 23rd, Transfiguration Sunday – It’s All About Change – Or Is It?

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable to you this day, our Rock and our Redeemer. Today is Transfiguration Sunday, and I thought that it was very appropriate that I start a sermon series on this day. This is something that is new to me, and it is connected with the New Beginnings programme which we will shortly be starting here at St. Andrew’s. New Beginnings is all about transformation, and that is what the transfiguration was also all about.

Today is the last Sunday in the season of Epiphany, which is the season of light, and on Wednesday, we will begin our journey through Lent, a time of preparation for the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. So it seems suitable that on this Sunday, our Gospel reading is all about light. In the version which Pasha read, we heard that sunlight poured from Jesus’ face, and that his clothes were filled with light. And while Peter was busy making a fool of himself, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them. If the three who had accompanied Jesus up the mountain had had any doubts about who Jesus was, this even must surely have erased them. So how fitting it is that this is what we read on the last Sunday after the Epiphany every single year? How fitting is it that, on the last Sunday after the Epiphany, we go mountain climbing every single year? And how much more fitting is that we are doing it this year, as we prepare to embark on our very own transformation?

We follow Jesus up the mountain, not knowing what we will find there. We are starting many things at St. Andrew’s, not knowing for sure what the end result will be. But we do know that we are ready for change. We are ready to be transformed. We are ready to move into the future.

If you will remember, the season of Epiphany began when the Magi followed a star, a star which led them to Jesus. And it is ending with Jesus himself almost transformed into a star, glowing brightly so much so that even his clothes seemed to shine. Peter, James, and John shared this moment with Jesus, and I am sure that we have all had our own mountain=top experiences, when we felt as though we were enveloped in some kind of other-worldly light. I have heard this experience compared to a movie preview, one which just hints a little at what is to come. So just imagine what it will be like eventually when we are all gathered together. Imagine how bright the light will be then.

But that is not where we are now. For now, we have to live in the present, with occasional extraordinary moments. And once the extraordinary is over, then we come back to real life, to the work and ministry that awaits us. When I met with Jen DeCombe, from our National Office, I felt one of those amazing moments, and knew that something wonderful was about to happen. And over the last several months, we have been feeling the same thing from Kamaï. All of it is about to start happening. Kamaï will be taking care of the logistics and we, with the help of a mentor, will take care of the church. This will involve outreach and what I call inreach. Because we don’t only want to attract new members – although that would be nice – we want to clarify for ourselves what it is we have been called to do.

On the weekend of March 12^th, Ken will be with us, working with me and the Session to help us figure out where we are, and where we want to go. After the initial assessment, there will be a report, which will be shared with members of the congregation. This will serve as the base document from which the rest of our New Beginnings process will unfold. The hope of going through this is to help us be all that we can be – not what we are now. Not that there is anything wrong with what we are now, but we can be so much more.

In today’s Gospel reading, Peter started to make a plan. He said, “Master, this is a great moment! What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain—one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah?” Peter interrupted a conversation to make his suggestion. He started to make his plan without listening to whatever it was that Jesus was going to say. And we will be listening to what our coach has to say. We will be taking advice from an outside party, which is something very strange for us. But the time has come for us to look to the future, instead of resting on our laurels.

We recognize that there will be difficulties. Even the fact that we are worshiping here for the time being instead of in the sanctuary is a little strange for us. But we share a vision of a new St. Andrew’s, a St. Andrew’s filled with people who are answering God’s call on their lives, and not just coming here on Sunday because that is what we do. We have a vision – not completely formulated yet – but we DO have a vision. And God will give us the strength we need to face our apprehensions. He will give us the vision AND the strength to respond to his call to live beyond ourselves, to live lives of sacrifice and courage.

It will take us longer than the six weeks of Lent which are about to start for us to accomplish everything we have to do, but we have made a beginning. We have committed to New Beginnings, and by the time Lent is over, we may be a little clearer on where this will be leading us. You will be asked to help with the process, by becoming involved in the small groups that will be established, and by supporting us through your prayers. I have spoken with several ministers whose congregations have already gone through this process, and they have all been enthusiastic about the results. So I will expect nothing less from us here. Thanks be to God.

 

Sermon for March 1st, 1st Sunday of Lent – Temptation

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable to you this day, our Rock and our Redeemer. Well, we are entering the season of Lent with a bang, aren’t we? Our Old Testament reading talks about the first sin, the one that is often called “original sin”, the one which led to Adam and Eve being cast out of the Garden of Eden, and opening the world to all kinds of trouble ever since. This is the passage which church patriarchs of old – and, truthfully, some church leaders today – use to blame women for all kinds of things. This is the passage which assumes that men are so weak that they will give into temptation at the drop of an apple.

Paul’s letter to the Romans does admit that it was thanks to one man – not one woman – that sin came into the world. This is not the great thing that you might think, however, because Paul just glides right over the role of Eve in the story, acting as though if Adam had resisted her wiles, we would not still be living under the shadow of what happened then.

But then we come to Jesus, who DID resist temptation. He spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness, after his baptism by John, and at the end of those forty days, he was hungry. Some translations use the word “famished”, and I would think that this word would be closer to the truth. But whichever word is used, we can identify at least a little bit with the hunger Jesus must have felt. We have all had times when – for one reason or another – we have missed a meal. And we all know what it is to feel hunger. And I certainly have wondered if I would have been able to resist temptation as Jesus did, or if I would give into it at Adam and Eve both did.

So what was the difference? Why was Jesus able to resist, while Adam and Eve weren’t? Let’s put aside for a bit the fact that Jesus was God, and let us remember instead that he was also fully human, with a human body and human appetites. I believe that the biggest difference was faith – faith in God, faith that temptation could be resisted. Jesus had this, while Adam and Eve, it seems to me, didn’t.

When you think about it, temptation can lead to sin, but it doesn’t have to. Faith can help us not to sin, but sometimes it is harder than at other times. As Christians, we believe in sin; we believe in the power of Satan. Or at least, we should, if we are following what we were taught. I remember when I was teaching high school, one of my students asked me if I believed in Satan. I said, “Of course!”. The poor young man was horrified. He KNEW, you see, that anyone who believed in Satan was a Satanist, a worshipper of the evil one. So I had to explain it to him. I had to tell him that if I didn’t believe in Satan, if I didn’t believe in the power of evil in the world, then I would not be able to resist temptation. As Christians, not only do we believe that there is such a thing as evil, such a thing as sin, we believe that it has power, and that the only way to overcome that power is through faith in God. Each time we pray the Lords’ prayer, we ask that God will deliver us from evil, and we have to have faith that he will do this.

Our entire lives are pretty much a battlefield, one in which good and evil are at war. There is a story, which I may have told you before, about an old Cherokee grandfather who was teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil–he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you–and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

And you know something? This story is true of each one of us. The fight is always going on; the wolves are always present. But we choose which one to feed. We choose whether or not we will give into temptation or to resist. And let me tell you, we can never relax; we can never let our guards down, for once we do, the evil wolf will jump in and take over. Jesus resisted the temptations; Adam and Eve didn’t. Of course, they were very different temptations. For Adam and Eve, they were tempted to disobey a specific command from God. They were told not to eat from ONE tree. The serpent knew of this tree, and he appealed to the vanity of the woman, telling her that she would be like God once she ate the fruit of it. How many times have you given into a temptation like that? This was probably the earliest instance of peer pressure, and we all know how difficult that is to resist. But resist it we must, if we are to feed the good wolf.

Henri Nouwen wrote what was probably the best analysis of the temptations of Jesus, and many people have showed each one of them can confront us when we least expect it.

Think about the first temptation. Jesus was hungry. After 4o days and nights in the desert, I would guess that he WAS hungry. And the devil tempted him to change the stones into bread. This, Nouwen described as the temptation of being relevant – after all, hunger needs to be satisfied, doesn’t it? And it is easy for us in the church to give into the temptation of being relevant. We are called to serve – in fact, every week our bulletin contains the words “Worship is over; let the service begin”. But it isn’t ALL about service; it isn’t ALL about being relevant. Jesus replied, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” This means that, in the middle of our serving, we need to remember that we are doing it to the glory of God, and not to the glory of ourselves. If we do something hoping to be thanked for it, then we are not doing it to the glory of God, and we have fallen into temptation.

The second temptation, according to Nouwen’s interpretation, Satan challenged Jesus to do something spectacular – “Throw yourself from the highest point of the temple,”, he said, “for it is written that he will command the angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Why is being spectacular a temptation? Well, think about it for a minute. So many of us want to do things on our own. So many of us never liked group assignments in school, at least partly because we didn’t think that we could depend on other people to do their fair share of the work. And besides, if we did it ourselves, then we would get more credit, right? We would get higher praise. And besides, having to work around the agendas of other people was a bit of a pain. But that is not the way God wants us to work. He wants us to work together, just as we will be working together during the New Beginnings project.

And now we come to the third temptation of Christ, which Nouwen categorizes as the temptation to be powerful. Satan offers Jesus the opportunity to have all of the kingdoms of the world, if only he will bow down and worship him. Sometimes, this is the most difficult one for us. You see, each one of us is sure that we have the answer; each one of us is sure that, if only people would do things OUR way, everything would be fine. But, of course, that isn’t true. For just about everything, we need to work together. And this is especially true as we move into the future with our coach.

You know, one of the things we often forget about temptation is that, after we give into it – for we will be giving into it over and over again, no matter how hard we try to resist it – forgiveness is waiting for us. Jesus is our saviour, and he will forgive us over and over again. He does not rejoice when we hurt others or when we hurt ourselves through sin. Instead, he reaches out his hand to rescue us. He is always ready to guide and help us, and that is something we need to remember.

I found something on the internet the other day which I think demonstrates what it is that Jesus does for us. It was written by Kenneth Filkins, and I thought I would share some of it with you. Visualize, if you will, a great pit – either a pit of your own making, or one made for you by others. In either case, it is a huge pit, and you have fallen into it, and cannot get out. Filkins

wrote: A man fell into a pit and he couldn’t get out.

BUDDHA said: “Your pit is only a state of mind.”

A HINDU said: “This pit is for purging you and making you more perfect.”

CONFUCIUS said: “If you would have listened to me, you would  never have fallen into that pit.” A NEW AGER said: “Maybe you should network with some other pit dwellers.”

A SELF-PITYING PERSON said: “You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen my pit.”

A NEWS REPORTER said: “Could I have the exclusive story on your pit?”

A FEDERAL BUREAUCRAT said: “Have you paid your taxes on that pit?”

A COUNTY INSPECTOR said: “Do you have a permit for that pit?”

A REALIST said: “That’s a pit.”

An IDEALIST said: “The world shouldn’t have pits.”

An OPTIMIST said: “Things could be worse.”

A PESSIMIST said: “Things will get worse.”

BUT JESUS, SEEING THE MAN, TOOK HIM BY THE HAND AND LIFTED HIM OUT OF THE PIT.

I think that you will agree that it is not a good thing to be in a pit – especially in a pit made up of sin and temptation. A pit can be considered a trap, and once we are in one, we need help to get out of it. As Filkins pointed out, Jesus is the one who can lift us out of any pit, out of any trap. Nouwen wrote: “Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection….When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions….Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the ‘Beloved.’ Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”

And we are ALL the beloved. Thanks be to God.

 

 

Sermon for February 16th – 5th Sunday after the Epiphany Unconditional Love

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable to you this day, our Rock and our Redeemer. During the past week, I have mulled over the Gospel many times, trying to figure out how I was going to preach on it. Several of the groups I belong to have been having similar problems, and I know that some people decided to preach on something else entirely. After all, it is not unheard of for us to preach from the Old Testament reading, or from the Epistle, or even from the Psalm. But being a kind of stubborn person, and also thinking that maybe God wanted to challenge me a bit, I decided that the Gospel would provide our text for today, with maybe a little jump into the other readings.

The Jesus who is preaching today – continuing the Sermon on the Mount – is not the one we have come to expect. You know, that gentle Jesus, meek and mild, who encourages us to love one another, and assures us of forgiveness. Today, he hits the hard topics – anger, adultery, divorce, taking oaths. And if we had read a few more verses, we would have heard about retaliation or vengeance and loving our enemies, not just our friends. I suppose I could do a hell-fire and brimstone kind of sermon, but I am not that kind of preacher. I don’t think that there are too many of those in this day and age.

So let’s get started. I will begin by using something from Fred Craddock who shows how Jesus reinterprets the law. If you will remember, at one point, he assured his followers that he had not come to get rid of the law. In fact, he assured them that he had not come to abolish it but to fulfill it. And he went on to say, “Truly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.” That seems pretty clear to me, and tells me that we are meant to follow the ten commandments, which, of course, are included in the two great commandments which Jesus left for us.

As an English teacher, I recognized that this part of Jesus’ Sermon is antithetical in nature, which means that after Jesus named the law, he elaborated on it to apply it to a current situation. This is what most preachers try to do every week – apply Scripture from many years ago to the lives we are living today. Craddock said that “the teaching on each of the six subjects will consist of the work of the law, the word of Jesus, and the interpretation and application of the teaching to a particular circumstance.”

The first commandment that Jesus talked about was ‘You shall not murder”. That seems pretty straightforward, and one which would be easy to keep. I know that I have never murdered anyone – even though there have been times when I was tempted. But then Jesus went on to talk about being angry, and he was quite blunt about it, saying that if you are angry with your brother of sister, you will be liable for judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say “you fool”, you will be liable to the hell of fire. Now, that’s carrying it to an extreme, isn’t it? But if we think about it, this is really about relationships. You see, the people in Jesus’ time knew that murder was wrong, as do we. But the people in Jesus time, like us, also got angry with each other. And Jesus was pointing out that we need to consider how we treat others, and how we value them. There are many times when my temper flares – often over little things, unimportant things. As some of you know, we have a new cat, and when I am sitting at the computer, she loves to jump on my lap, and from there to the keyboard. This often results in odd things happening, and I frequently yell at her. And you know, what? It has absolutely no effect on her. It makes more sense to gently lift her off the keyboard, and either put her on the floor, or back on my lap.

If we look at the rest of what Jesus said about anger, we will see that he also dealt with reconciliation, which is crucial in relationships. In the Presbyterian Church in Canada, we are going through a difficult time, a time which has the potential of destroying the church as we know it. But that doesn’t have to happen, if we treat each other with respect, and if we realize that this is the church of Jesus Christ, and not the church of any particular individual. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he addressed this very issue, reminding us that we are God’s servants, working together. More than that, we are God’s field and God’s building. This, I think, is something we need to remember now perhaps more than ever.

The next section is often even more of a challenge for preachers and for members of a congregation. The commandment, as usual, is very clear. You shall not commit adultery. And we all know what that means. However, what modern people often forget is that – in those days – women were objects, property to be possessed, and not people to be treated with care and respect. Jesus made it clear that this was not the way it was supposed to be, and that we are all responsible for the way we treat other people. So again, this is about relationship. I don’t know if you remember that, years ago, then-President Jimmy Carter made a comment about lusting after another woman. He was quite serious, but the media had a field day with it. I often think that it would be a good idea if more of us took this more seriously, if more of us controlled our eyes a bit. Because, if we are in a relationship with someone, should we not treat that relationship with respect and NOT allow our eyes to stray? Now, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t appreciate beauty. After all, that was given to us by God. But again, it harks back to respect – respect for the other, and respect for ourselves.

I was particularly struck by Jesus’ interpretation of the commandment not to swear falsely. In our version, he said, “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’” And in my childhood, I learned that as, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” But Jesus added to that that we should not swear oaths at all, but to let our yes be yes, and our no be no. Quite simple, really. For if we do that, then our word will always be enough.

What Jesus was doing, throughout this part of his sermon, was to call for an entirely new way of viewing human relationships. And that is something that we still have not accomplished. We still do not treat everyone with respect. We still have justice issues that need to be corrected. We are still struggling with ecumenical relationships and reconciliation. So what we are being called to do – just as Jesus’ listeners were called to so – is to examine ourselves closely and honestly, in the light of his reinterpretation of the law, in the light of his expanding of the law.

See, it is fairly easy for us to keep the skeleton of the ten commandments. Just think about it for a minute. I know that I haven’t killed anyone, but there have been times when I have thought that someone was a fool. How about you? The last time you became angry with someone, what did you say to that person? What did you think about that person? If you haven’t committed adultery and felt good because you have resisted the temptation to do so, consider what you may have wanted to do. Are you still holding a grudge from long ago? If so, according to Jesus, you need to make that right. Or maybe you hurt someone long ago, and have not apologized. In the Twelve Step Programmes, the eighth step reads: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

What promises have you made and then broken? And I’m not talking about New Year’s resolutions here, although I suppose we could. I used to tell my children that, if I promised them something, then it would happen. I promised very few things, and they realized that I didn’t use that word lightly. So often, we make promises without thinking, and then life interferes, and we break the promise. We can justify it, I would imagine, but it weakens our promises to others forever after.

On Facebook, I often see posts from people criticizing immigrants for taking jobs away from Canadians. I sometimes react to these posts by reminding the posters that they also likely descended from immigrants. We have been instructed to welcome the stranger, and so often we don’t do that.

Often we are selfish and self-centered. We say hello to people who say hello to us. We do good to people who are likely to do good to us. We lend money to people who will pay us back, and we welcome people into our homes if we are likely to get invited back. But for everyone else – we usually have a reason for what we do, and an excuse for what we do not do. So from today, let us aim to break through the limits imposed by our excuses, and to destroy all reasons we think we have to treat one person as less than another person so that we can enter into relationships with everyone that are passed on our relationship with God. Let us remember that, in God’s eyes, we are all equal; that there is no hierarchy.

I thought that it was really appropriate that this text came up so close to Valentine’s Day, that day on which we celebrate love. Because that is what it is all about, loving each other. But this is more than the love that depends on chemistry or mood. It is not a conditional love, which so often depends on the behaviour of other people. It is the kind of love that shows grace to others; the kind of love that helps heal hurting people; the kind of love that values others regardless of who they are or what they may have done or not done.

I am sure that most of you have heard of the comedian W. C. Fields. One day, someone saw him reading the Bible, and asked him what he was doing. He replied, “Looking for loopholes.” Well, guess what? There are not loopholes. Our love for others must be total and unconditional, or it is not love at all. And that is what Jesus explained to us today. So I want you to surrender your hearts to God, and to love him and each other as deeply as you can. Thanks be to God.