the ice
with cracks like rifle shots broke up, the wind pushed it to the
shoreline and the warmer weather melted it off the lake, except for a
few remnants on the windblown shore.
The
occasional camper ventures out for a weekend.
Allergies
return in force.
But my
favourite by far is the return of the loons.
Calm after, Preparation for, Speck of Haunting Beauty
The
question is always
where
to this day, this month, this year, with this life, precious as
Christ has claimed it to be?
The path toward the light at sunrise
Every
moment opportunities to do well, do the right thing, are before us.
Which will you choose this day?
Will you walk to the light?
Or will you choose to remain in the darkness of greed, self interest, deception, and destruction in order to just make it through the days you’ve filled with such pain for others, and your own soul?
[replace the above with and fill in your own choice of sin, evil, and darkness – we all have our favourites!]
In the
light is truth, grace, health, purpose, and peace.
And
profound joy, even in the midst of grief.
Your
choice?
The haunting loon returns with all the other signs of spring, by instinct, by the pull of nature, and for pure survival. Humans can choose more than survival and instinct. You can choose new life in the light, and choose to share it with everyone,
This
wondrous morning, we remember especially God’s victorious response
to death’s three-day claim on Jesus. We remember Jesus’
resurrection. And we hope for God’s resurrection response to all
claims evil has on us and on all people.
The Proclamation
3x
Christ is Risen, Christ is Risen Indeed!
The Darkness Before
This
past
week,
Holy
Week,
we have remembered Jesus’ story, from the Palm procession into
Jerusalem, to his last meal with his disciples as he gave us the New
Covenant, … to his arrest and
his disciples deserting him, … to the questioning, the scapegoating
and condemning
crowds, … to
his
whipping,
Peter’s denials, and
the
mocking of Jesus, … to
his torture,
and then his death and burial in an unused tomb. Rightfully so his
followers are fearful; they
hide behind locked doors.
All of this is so horrendous and unbearable.
Except
we know the next part of Jesus’ story, because we celebrate it each
Sunday. We know that Jesus is Risen from the dead, back to life.
The Light
Even
though all
that evil played
out
against him and
overwhelmed so many people and then even Jesus himself in death …
Even
so God
defeats death.
Yet
Holy Week leading to Easter is so much more than that:
God did not just step in to defeat the death of Jesus. After all
Jesus is not the first to come back from the dead. Death is
apparently,
– relatively speaking, – easily overcome, one person at a time.
Lazarus steps out of his tomb with grave clothes still covering him.
The young girl answers Jesus’ call Talitha cumi, and walks away
from her death bed.
Today
we remember that God does something much, much larger.
The story is more than one resurrection
The
story is more than one resurrection. God
defeats
all evil. All
death defeated.
It
is not just laying down in one’s own bed and waking up the next
morning in one’s own home. It is to be able to do this after living
on the streets or in the woods for years, with no bed or home to call
one’s own, and
then one night having ones own bed to sleep in, in one’s own home.
It’s not just having three meals a day in the senior’s care centre and being able to give an CLWR offering for Easter, which will give meals to people starving in refugee camps who have fled genocide in their home countries. Rather it is as a child having only grass to eat on the walk out of Stalin’s drought in the Ukraine, and having survived years of hardships and hunger when there were no refugee camps. Then in one’s later years being able to make a donation that will feed others who now have no food.
It’s not just a love story of ‘girl gets guy’, and they waltz off into the sunset of life. It is growing up without friends as an immigrant, an outsider. Then evil being defeated means one finds love in the most unexpected place with the most unexpected person against the most unbeatable odds … in the family of what once was one’s real enemies.
It’s
not just Jesus coming back from the dead to live again, although
that’s a bit terrific already. It’s Jesus having taken on all
Evil and having taken on all the sins of every person who has and
ever will live. It’s having taken on the penalties
for all that sin along with the big
penalty,
death for every person. Then
it is
being brought back to live life. It’s having Jesus
take
on all that and having defeated it!
Home Run
Jesus’
story is not like just standing at home plate and hitting a home run
out of the stadium. It’s standing at the plate, in the bottom of
the thirteenth inning, with a full count, down three runs, bases
loaded, with all your pitchers hurting, having been put up there in
desperation by the manager. You will never be here again, ever, no
matter if you play 1000 more games. Then
…
That’s like Jesus’ story; his life, suffering, death and resurrection mean so much more than we are able to imagine. That’s like our story or rather we each have a variation of that as our own story.
Our Response
In
Jesus’ and in our stories, God defeats all Evil and all death once
and for all time.
Or
sort of. God makes the promise visible to us, that one day, at the
end of this world, new life will be given to all the dead. There will
be a resurrection for everyone. That’s when God will put Evil to
rest.
God’s
promise to Abraham and Sarah took most of their life times before
God’s time was right for them to have a child, long past normal
time. God’s time to make this promise to us will come.
In
the meantime, today
we are God’s saints, not because we have done good things. Rather
we
are saints only because
God takes
us when we cannot
do anything
good.
God
makes
us the people who think the thoughts, who say the words, who do the
deeds of God’s perfect people. Jesus has pulled us from the grips
of evil where we’ve put ourselves, from where we only deserve
eternal death. From the darkest valley of the shadows of death Jesus
has brought blessed things to
us and out of
us. These
blessing
give life abundant to others around us.
How
do we respond to Gods’ work in and through us?
Our
response can be to delve into Jesus’ story, again and again. Our
response can be to learn more and more of God’s purpose for us,
communicated by God from outside of time, beyond matter, from
infinity. God has compressed God’s will into Jesus’ life story.
God has funnelled it to us living inside of time, confined to bodies,
living a finite existence. God communicates everything we need to
know through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection story. Our
response can be to engage with Jesus’ story again and again our
lives long.
The
Holy Spirit works in us to help us understand what we see and hear.
The Holy Spirit works in us so that like Mary in the Garden, we
recognize our shepherd’s voice and follow where he leads us.
Like
Mary, we see angels but we may not know it. The Holy Spirit helps us
fill in the blanks. Like Peter, we may hear the women’s story, even
go to see for ourselves, and find the grave clothes neatly folded on
the stone death bed. Yet we not understand what it is that we see, or
rather what
it is that we do
not see. The Holy Spirit helps us comprehend the obvious but
impossible: namely
that
God’s limitless creative power has just undone death through
Jesus’ sacrifice.
Like
the beloved disciple we may hear the women’s story, and see exactly
what Peter sees, and we may believe that Jesus lives. The Holy Spirit
helps us to grasp how we, as representatives of the human species,
just caught a new glimpse of God’s will and our place in creation.
The
Holy Spirit helps us continually change the rest of our lives, so
that we live as one
person in
the whole fully
changed
human project.
We
no longer need to compete with each other to succeed. God calls us to
the acceptable fast during Lent, giving of ourselves so that others
will have life abundant.
Then
after Easter, God calls us to celebrate every day, not just how the
light of Christ frees us, and how that changes the rest of our lives,
but how we are to be Christ’s
Light for others. Everyone’s life can be changed. God
has a part in the creating the new creation for each of us.
Can
we celebrate, even outright dance, the rest of our lives in Christ’s
Light?
Yes,
we can, if we choose, and not just because Jesus is for us, but
because Jesus sends us to share that light with all people,
especially those in desperate need around the world.
The Holy
Spirit helps us celebrate life with the most difficult people in our
lives, whether its a grouchy neighbour, a mean person we have to
relate to again and again, a nice but nosy relative, a recalcitrant
spouse, or a self-destructive friend.
Yes,
we can celebrate and dance through the challenges that come our way,
because the Holy Spirit inspires and guides us to understand more and
more fully what it means that Jesus lived, taught, healed, suffered,
died and is resurrected back to life!
Jesus
lives!
Alleluia!
For we can, no matter our past or future, live well.
Jesus
lives!
Alleluia!
For we can, no matter our past or future, bring life abundant to all
people!
This
wondrous morning we remember God’s victorious response to death’s
three day claim on Jesus. We remember Jesus’ resurrection. And we
hope for God’s resurrection response to all claims evil has on us
and on all people.
Proclamation
With
this profound hope we proclaim together three times:
Jesus
Christ is Risen!
Christ
is risen indeed!
The Darkness Before
This
past Holy Week we
have remembered Jesus’ story, from his
triumphant procession into Jerusalem, to
his last meal with his disciples as he gave us the New Covenant,
to
his arrest, his disciples deserting him, and
the questioning, … to the
crowds scapegoating and condemning him,
his flogging, and Peter’s
denials, … to the
soldiers mocking
and torturing him.
Finally
we remembered how Jesus died sooner than
expected, nailed to a cross … abandoned
even by God. His
followers scattered and hiding,
filled with fear for their lives.
We
remembered how they buried him
in a rock tomb.
Because
the darkness, portrayed in the last week of Jesus’ life on earth,
is so deep, embracing everything, and so unbearably deadly, the next
part of Jesus’ story is so much more than we can ever expect or
comprehend, yet alone completely remember.
Every
time we encounter it, we see how much more Jesus’ story is. The
Light of Christ outshines such depths of darkness that we are
dumbfounded, astounded and awestruck, …
if we
listen carefully.
The Light
God did
not just step in to defeat the death of Jesus. After all Jesus is not
the first to come back from the dead. Lazarus steps out of his tomb
with grave clothes still covering him. Jesus calls out Talitha cumi,
and the young girl walks away from her death bed.
Jesus story is more than one resurrection
Jesus’
story is more than one more resurrection. With Jesus’ resurrection
it’s all evil, all death defeated.
Home Run
Jesus’
story is not just standing at home plate and hitting a home run out
of the stadium. It’s standing at the plate, in the bottom of the
thirteenth inning, with a full count, down three runs, bases loaded,
with all your pitchers used up. You’ve
been put up there to bat in
desperation by the manager. You are
mostly recovered from a chemotherapy treatment three days ago and
from surgery on
your left shoulder last month. You’re no
spring chicken at 65 years old. You will
never be here again, ever, even if you beat cancer. There’s
is no way you should be here. You just came back to
visit the team on the bench.
Then
you hit a home run to the utter astonishment
of everyone and
to the great benefit
of a home city desperate for a team that would
finally win.
Remember
Remember
what Jesus has taught us, just as Jesus taught his first disciples.
Remember Jesus’
story. It is also
our story, or rather we each have a variation of that as our own
story.
Every
time we listen carefully we will be astounded and amazed at how God
acts out God’s will with love and forgiveness, Grace and mercy,
sacrifice and humility for us, and for all people, even our enemies.
What’s Next?
So
what’s next for us?
It is
easy to come to Easter worship, to be astounded by Jesus’ story and
to bask in the music and words and movements of our celebration of
life in the worship service and at breakfast. It’s easier yet to
then once again walk back out into the world that keeps us occupied,
forgetting what amazing things we’ve heard and seen. Who would
believe us anyway if we told them someone came back from the dead to
share God’s Word with us?
Isaiah’s New Heavens and New Earth
In the
OT lesson from Isaiah for this morning, Isaiah speaks God’s words
of promise to the exiles in Babylon. They’ve lost everything and
been carted thousands of miles from home to be servants in a foreign
land ruled by some not so nice people. They are not only servants,
but they have years ago forgotten so much.
God creates new
God’s
Word comes, not to fix things up, but to create a new heaven and a
new earth. God’s words create, just as at the beginning of time. In
the new creation we will no longer be God’s wayward people. Instead
we will get to remain at home, cry to the Lord in joy and be a
delight to God.
It is a
Shalom vision of the Kingdom of God: there will be no weeping, no
cries of distress.
New creation ends all suffering and need
In
this world of Shalom,
of God’s Peace, there is no homelessness,
no hunger, no
conflict or
climate-change-displaced refugees. There
are no untimely deaths, no
violence or
destruction or
stolen lunches or unrewarded labour.
Even the
dog-eat-dog order of the food chain will end. Predators and prey will
live together in peace.
God’s new work in Jesus even more: perfect
Yet this
vision in Isaiah is nothing compared to God’s work made clear in
Jesus’ story that we have reflected upon this Lent and Holy Week.
In truth
all things in God’s new creation will be re-created perfect.
Now we
have only a foretaste of this new creation, a promise made in Jesus’
story.
Luke: Healing
Luke’s
Gospel emphasizes that Jesus came
to heal people, and with his death and resurrection to heal all
creation.
As
humans we often need healing. We often seek help and sometimes
what ails us is dealt with. Even less
frequently we even see that we are cured.
When it comes to the wholeness of creation
and our spirits we seem to be lost.
The
brokenness of creation is more than we imagine. Our brokenness is
more than we can imagine. The healing we need is so much more than we
can imagine.
Healing, more than duct tape
It
used to be that a good farmer
could fix anything except the economy with
bailing wire and pliers.
Now days we use duct tape and plastic ties.
Which
works out just fine until your life depends on the repair.
It’s
like carabiners. There are so many kinds available today. I can get
two for $1.25. And they work as key chains just fine. Until they do
not, and my keys went missing because the cheap, carabiner I hung my
keys on did not stay closed. Whoosh, click or slip and the key was
goners. So now I use duct tape to hold the carabiner closed.
The fix when our lives depend on it
Which
works just fine. But it would not be the fix needed if I were
mountain climbing and hanging all my weight plus the stress of the
wind blowing against me on that carabiner, tied by a rope into the
rock face.
That
kind of a carabiner cannot be a two-for-$1.25 purchase. For all the
things we might be pleased to repair with
duct tape and plastic ties, God asks so much more of us when
it comes to our part in the new creation.
When we
go through life, expecting that God just uses duct tape and plastic
ties to heal creation, we miss out on the marvellous mystery, the
eye-popping wonder, and the awe-filled power God uses to create a new
heaven and earth for us, in us, and among us.
Sending
After Jesus’ resurrection, God sends us out to share the good news, to voice the prayers of compassion with those who suffer, and to be the hands of Christ that deliver the new creation to all people.
When we listen carefully, do diligently, remember remarkably, we will hear and see Jesus working in ways we hardly understand at first. We will be floored by the amazing tales Jesus has in mind for us to hear and even see for ourselves.
We ask that the Holy Spirit will help us watch carefully, listen intently, and pray fervently, that God’s new creation may come among also us. But most of all we ask that the Holy Spirit help us as we get ready to be bowled over. It not a small fix or even a big fix with duct tape. God creates a new world, a new universe, and even a new you and new me.
We need
the Holy Spirit to help us through it.
Ready or
not, the Holy Spirit will put us up to bat, with the bases load, in
the bottom of the ninth, with the team needing us to hit a home run,
and the world needing it even more.
Breath
deeply and slowly. Keep your eye on the ball. Don’t forget ….
Christ
is Risen!
And
that’s just the start of God’s new creation.
God is
about to use each of us in ways we could not dream of.
What was once alive, once green, once bright, is now in these days dead, withered and dark.
There is
only a faint hint of days long distant in the most recent of times.
What is
it to succeed
and
leave a legacy?
To
overrun others, destroying them with lies, in order to have more, in
order to cover up one’s sins?
Or to
suffer rumours and lies that destroy one’s reputation and finances
leaving one homeless?
This day, Jesus answered God’s call to submit himself to death, a torturous death, and to die.
Did
Jesus succeed? Did Jesus destroy others, or did he allow others to
try to destroy him, and respond with grace and forgiveness?
If more
of the world knew Grace and lived it well, more people would succeed
…
in
bringing the basics of life to others with their sacrifices.
The
world may seem dark, especially in these days when we remember that
God died, and remained so, for three days.
There is
only the reflection in our memories of the light that has guided our
paths. But there will be a great light, that will shine in every
darkness, and bring justice, restitution, and new life to those who
are destroyed by others lies.
And for
those who have destroyed with lies … may God have mercy on them.
This
morning we remember Jesus’ last hours, as the soldiers, by Pilate’s
orders, in response to the crowd’s demands, hung Jesus on the worst
instrument of torture, the cross.
The
characters
Remember
the many characters in Jesus’ last hours. Judas, the soldiers, the
High Priests Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate, Malchus, Peter, the crowd,
Jesus’ Mother Mary, her sister Mary of Clopas, Mary Magdalene,
Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and of course Jesus.
Our part
None
of us were present in that horrific drama more than 2000 years ago.
Yet we are characters in so many terrible dramas that have taken
place in our own life times, dramas that are devastatingly so
similar.
Girard,
Scapegoating
The
French Historian and Anthropological Philosopher Rene Girard
identified the similarity that ties Jesus’ last days with our all
too common dramas as a common human sin, scapegoating. Girard pointed
out that we all greedily strive to have more than just the
necessities of life. Thinking that life is a zero sum project (that
there is not enough for everyone) we try to take from others so that
we will have more. That’s greed. And greed eats at our souls.
What
nearly always happens next is worse. Since we cannot tolerate that we
would be mutually so terrible to those close to us, we together find
an innocent bystander, someone vulnerable and uninvolved, someone who
we do not know well and therefore can bring ourselves to not care
what happens to them. Without any justification we project all our
collective sin and guilt onto that person, condemn them, judge them,
and ruin them. Working together we ease the unbearable conflict
between us.
Like
Joseph’s brothers in the Old Testament getting rid of the evidence
of their horrendous sin against their own brother, we exile the
innocent person. We’ve attached our sins to that person and then
collectively forgotten about them and our sins, so that we can live
together in peace. The darkness hides that our peace is bought at the
price of an innocent bystander’s destruction.
We are
exactly like the characters
In
exactly this manner Judas, the high priests, the crowds, Pilate, and
the soldiers condemn and kill Jesus. And we do this so often to other
people today. We may not use crosses to crucify, because we want to
be able to say we are not as bad as those who have gone before us.
Instead we use gossip, innuendo, and rumours to ruin innocent
people’s reputations, ruin them financially, and drive them from
our communities.
Even
when we are not Judas or soldiers or the crowd, or the high priests
or Pilate, we stand too often with the crowds watching as another
person’s reputation and finances are ruined. We watch and are too
afraid to interfere. We are even entertained and reassured as if to
say to ourselves, “all is well in the world if evil is uncovered in
others and they are made to pay. We, though, are good enough for
God.”
Jesus,
Clear story of God’s intent: the last scapegoat
In
truth Jesus came to be the last scapegoat, the last sacrifice needed
to set us all free from all sins, especially these terrible sins of
greed and scapegoating, of hiding from our own sins.
God
led Abraham to the mountain to sacrifice Isaac. But then God
interrupts the sacrifice providing a goat instead for the ritual. God
says: no more child sacrifice.
Likewise,
God led Jesus to the cross, as the last scapegoat ever needed, and to
give us Jesus’ life and death story so that we might learn more of
God’s intention for us, which includes: no more scapegoats.
Jesus
forgives those who betray, arrest, judge and crucify him. God calls
us, instead of scapegoating innocent bystanders, to be that same
forgiveness for all people.
Yet,
we are still in bondage to sin and unable to free ourselves, and we
continue to sacrifice others instead of ourselves.
Today we
are in the crowd again
Today
we remember how we are just like that crowd again, as Jesus is raised
on the cross to die a torturous death.
We beg for
forgiveness … and time
We
ask for forgiveness. We hope we will learn to stop sacrificing
innocent people as scapegoats. We pray that God will intervene,
transform our sins into blessings, and make God’s will clear also
among us, in our words and through our actions.
…
Even
so, we know we will continue to sin, so remembering Jesus’ story,
we beg God for mercy, and forgiveness, …
No bugs,
lots of water spread across the low spots.
No great
big, throny bushes, no green trees, and no crowds … in fact great
solitude and quiet.
Just a
walk around
a bit
near the
sunset
before
settling in as a guest of the Queen,
honoured
chosen of my Lord,
on the
shores of a small quite lake,
since
the oil company bought it all up,
except a
few pieces
which
means the Queen still has a small plot
that she
shares, by law, with a few homeless,
and
quite a few wealthy land owners looking for
the gift
of nature: health and joy.
There’s also enough detritus left around that proves there are a number of irresponsible beer drinking, condom throwing, and garbage dumping foolish visitors.
So I took a bag with me on my walk around to collect some of the detritus. Lots more, like the condoms, still lay strewn on the ground, things that I needed more than just one bag to be able to pick up and haul out for other fools.
Why does the Queen receive such fools?
Why does the Creator tolerate such fools?
Perhaps because one fool is pretty much like another, and all are fools in one way or another.
My call is to be a fool for Christ, so there is that.
And I took a quiet walk around tonight before enjoying a quiet night, with only a couple parking for hours, depositing another condom and toilet paper to found on a quiet morning walk before the full light of dawn.
Solitude is precious as are a good night’s sleep and the clear light of truth.
Tonight’s Theme Our continuing theme for this Lent is from Isaiah 58, that we hold a fast acceptable to God, one that brings justice, freedom, food, and homes to those in need. That combines with the weekly theme, always having to do with change, and tonight specifically we look at Changing Plans.
Lessons Psalm 2 Isaiah 52:13-15 Mark 10:32-34
God’s Plans are Large Enough for Everything that Comes our Way.
Plans of Mice and [Wo]Men
We
all have had plans. But God’s plans for us are larger. How many of
us have planned our next steps as children moved out for jobs,
university, trade school or full-time employment and even marriage.
Then they rebound back home to recover before leaving again to make
their way in today’s fast changing world.
The
Lessons: God ‘Changes’ Plans OT vs NT God
Tonight’s
readings seem to reflect an old tradition that God approached humans
one way in Old Testament times. Then God changed his plans with
Jesus.
In
Psalm 2 God observes the nations conspiring against God and God’s
anointed. God laughs at them and speaks to them with fury terrifying
them, before warning them to serve the Lord in trembling submission
or else God’s wrath will be quickly kindled against them and they
will perish.
In
comparison listen to the Gospel from Mark where God’s own people
condemn the only Son of God to death. Then they hand him over to
others who mock, spit on, flog and kill him.
The
roles are reversed: God bears the fury and wrath of the people and in
the end God perishes. It is as if instead of demanding obedience God
finally figured out that humans could never stop sinning so
God decided to bear the whole cost of forgiving their sins.
Thereafter God asks, calls, entices, and inspires the people to do
what is right and needs to be done.
Jesus
reveals to us the heart of God
We
know that Jesus came to teach, cure and care for people, and to die
on the cross as the last sacrifice or scapegoat required. The cross
on God’s heart becomes so undeniably visible with Jesus’ death
and resurrection that we can only be astounded.
Even
though we deserve nothing but death and void, God chooses to forgive
our sins. God claims us as children, and we have the most meaningful
work possible: to follow Jesus’ example of giving everything we are
in order that others will have justice, freedom, food and homes.
Call to
abundant life in response to Jesus
Our
sacrifice may even hurt, yet this is what God created us to be and to
do. This is God’s larger plan for us all so that we have life
abundant. Abundant life has very little to do with abundant wealth,
property, possessions, power and influence over others, or
self-serving pleasures. Instead God calls us to sacrifice and to then
celebrate God’s successes, when lost souls return to God. At times
that is each of us.
We see more
of God’s plan, God remains the same
The
tradition that I accept is that God does not change God’s plan or
approach to humans. Rather God was marked by the cross since the
beginning of time as is witnessed to also in the OT, for example in
tonight’s reading from Isaiah concerning the suffering servant.
What certainly does change, and markedly, is who we people think God
is. What changes is how we understand more and more of God’s larger
plan for us.
Stuck with
the ‘OT’ idea of God
Still
we so often get stuck thinking that God demands and we have to obey;
that as we merit we get rewarded with God’s protection or we
perish by God’s fury, and the next generation starts all over
learning to obey God or else.
Our plans
vs God’s larger plans
In
this view of God’s world, we must take control making worthwhile
plans for ourselves. We plan for a great house, or job, or spouse, or
children, or activities in retirement. Some even succeed with our
plans.
God
always has larger plans for us.
More
than 7 decades ago a farm boy, inspired by a missionary visiting at
his church, decided to become a missionary doctor. He worked his way
through college, through a tour with the army in Korea, through
medical school and reported to the church for service.
The
church eventually sent him to Africa. The man planned to spend his
life there with his wife and children. But God’s plan for him was
larger.
The
man got sick, was forced to return home to a family practice. God had
larger plans for him and the man ended up studying again to become a
pathologist. He set up a business in the ever-changing world of
medicine, brought in a partner to expand and improve their services.
Still God’s plan for him was larger.
On
it went with God always moving the man about, even to Antarctica in
the winter when he was 70, until at the age of 75 with his back
crumbling, a double heart by-pass, and needing both knees and a hip
to be replaced the man was ready to rest and stay home. But God’s
plan for him was larger. The church sought him out to return to
Africa to rebuild a medical delivery system that had fallen apart
mostly due to corruption. Now in his 90’s he still travels six
months of every year raising funds and the other six months he
oversees the building of a children’s hospital in Zinga, TZ.
Sometimes
God’s plan sees that we need to be rescued from disaster. I heard
from another pastor about Sarah, who went to college in the States.
Sarah met Jim, through campus ministry. They made great plans. He
planned to be a surgeon and she a nurse. They both wanted lots of
children. God seemed to agree with their plans as they married and
both were accepted into their respective majors.
But
Jim was drafted for Vietnam. He served as a medic and came back in a
wheelchair with one arm and unable to have children. All their plans
were taken from Jim and Sarah.
I’m
not sure that was God’s plan for them, but God was there for
them. Then Jim died suddenly one night, a hidden complication
from his injuries.
Sarah
changed plans and became a family doctor. She married a farmer and
they had three wonderful children, now grown up with families of
their own. God had a large enough plan for Sarah.
Sometimes
the Devil has his way with our lives, but always God’s plans are
larger.
Surprise
If
we’ve thought God is vengeful, demanding, wrathful, and the warrior
protector of us, then we may be in for a great surprise.
The CIA
regime control
To
protect US interests around the world the CIA often provided wet work
and weapons to bring to and keep in power tyrannical dictators who do
the US’s bidding and keep their people in line. It is a devil’s
plan, in response to which God often brings in a larger plan.
CAI vs CIA
In
Three Cups of Teaand Stones into Schools
Greg Mortenson tells the story of the Central Asia Institute, the
CAI, not to be confused with the CIA.
Mortenson’s
project was born of a plan to change the world toward peace through
providing schools and schooling to girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The girls, who would likely become mothers, would then educate their
daughters and their sons. We know education is the most
crucial piece to help the poorest in the world make life better for
themselves.
The
Central Asia Institute was hardly perfect because Mortenson, raised
in Tanzania, was unpredictable and spontaneous. He rarely operated on
a clock or even a calendar. Still the CAI was an effective project
that made a real difference in a real way: by sacrifice and through
real education.
The
idea of education for young girls was picked up by the CIA as a model
for diffusing hostilities, to little effect. Hatred of the west runs
deep.
Terrorists
also adopted the plan, unfortunately with great success, destroying
schools for girls and establishing madrassas for boys which taught
hatred of the west, and trained them for terrorist attacks around the
world.
In
real life the devil has life destroying plans.
As we Grow,
we see the appropriate fast for us
We
grow and change. Our plans change as we grow. As we learn more of
God’s larger plans for us, we can better be God’s agents of grace
for the strangers, refugees, hungry, homeless, the oppressed, and all
those suffering injustice. Yet often God’s large plans catch us off
guard.
The
challenge is to discern at this time a) what is God’s larger
plan for us to bring life abundant to others, and b) what the devil
is trying to do to our lives that takes life from us and others.
God
is always there for us, no matter what plans we have, but God wants
us to change our plans to better match Jesus’ model for our lives.
Jesus’ model is about making the acceptable fast, the sacrifice so
that others may have life abundant.
Psalm
119 starts: Happy are those whose
way is blameless
Wouldn’t
it be spectacular if we could change our hearts and follow all God’s
laws and be blameless for the rest of our lives. We would be
profoundly happy,
loving the Lord our God with all our heart,
mind and strength! Nothing
would defile us from within or from outside ourselves.
But
we confess that we are all sinful and unable to free ourselves.
Jesus, Paul, Augustine, Luther and many others have made it crystal
clear that no one can be entirely blameless. If anyone were able to
be blameless the whole course of human history would be changed.
What then can we do to change our hearts? Can we change our hearts of stone for healthy hearts filled with God’s Spirit?
Since
1967, when Bernard Christian transplanted the first human heart, we
can have
surgeons transplant our diseased hearts
with new hearts.
Heart transplant patients report it
is more than just a physical experience. Something more changes, as
another person’s heart gives them life. The other person has met an
untimely death. The transplant patient carries on with life, for
themselves and in a small yet noticeable way for the donor.
Though
our meaning tonight for changing our hearts
is hardly physically accurate,
we are
talking about changing the seat of our
emotions, the centre
of our wills, and
the motive behind our
thinking and doing.
First
off this is
a very complicated idea.
Secondly
it is nearly out of the realm of human possibility.
We so often get it all wrong.
Once
a well-heeled congregation decided to look
outside themselves and do something really
good for a poor neighbourhood nearby.
After carefully looking through the neighbourhood they found a
deserted chunk of land, filled with weeds, stones, and
syringes. They
decided it would make the perfect neighbourhood playground. They
bought the land, and
brought in topsoil, sod, and playground
equipment. Then they headed to the
community centre
to invite
the community to make use of it. The
community leaders said only a
very polite thank you.
“What’s
wrong?” a congregation member blurted out.
“Well,”
said one of the community leaders, “we had plans for that land. We
had been saving money and applying for grants, gotten corporate
sponsors, and invested in getting drawings made up. We were on track
to break ground in 6 months. Our plans included a picnic area, a play
area, community gardens and even a basketball court on one end.
“Now we’ll have to let all that go and enjoy the playground.”
We
can try to fix the world with our privilege, power, and wealth. Or we
can use our ears to listen to those in need, our minds to discern
what the real issues are, and our hearts to empathize with their
plight so that how we act will actually meet the real needs of the
people we try to help.
There are things we can do to change our hearts, to change how we feel about another person, our situation in life, and the events that happen around us. While we cannot change our individual emotional responses to events, we can slowly, through diligent practice of habits, change the range of our emotions. We can over time move ourselves from a destructive, disengaged range of emotional responses, to a hope-filled, engaged range of emotional responses to the same kind of events. It takes lots of time, diligent work, and a motivation that only the Holy Spirit can maintain in us.
The first thing we can do is forgive others. We act as if the other has not sinned against us. We treat them special, even giving them gifts they really want. When we behave as if they were precious, they become precious to us again. In time we will realize, we have actually forgiven them.
Only
with the help of the Holy Spirit can we truly change our hearts. We
need God to send people to help. Hearts change the course of our
lives, and the course of our communities, our churches, our
countries, and even the course of human history.
St. Augustine, perhaps the most influential of Christianity’s early thinkers, writers, preachers, and practitioners of faith, did not start out a Christian. Born of a Christian mother and a pagan father, he was denied baptism. He spent his youth as a Manichaean, and according to his own account lost himself in pleasures and wanton living. He was befriended by Ambrose, who he met since they both shared exceptional skills as orators. While Ambrose’s preaching was exceptional and his message was the Gospel of Jesus the Christ, it was Ambrose’s friendship that deeply affected Augustine’s heart and drew him to convert to Christianity. St. Augustine gave himself to the work of Christ on earth, ending his life serving as the Bishop of Hippo in north Africa, where he wrote and preached. Imperfect, rescued, and saved Augustine steered the course of Christianity to be the faith we recognize today. He also steered the Roman Empire towards Christianity.
Because
there was one human, Jesus, who lived entirely
blameless before God, the whole of human history is
changed. Yours and mine, and each of our lives are inexorably changed
toward God, toward life, and toward giving everything we have and are
in order that others may know God’s Grace as well. Augustine was
one piece of this course of history.
Our
hearts inform and equip us to turn our lives in new directions. As
the Holy Spirit moves our hearts to love the Lord with all our
hearts, minds, and strength, then we focus on faith, ideas, words,
and actions which can affect others’ hearts with the same Grace
that saves us each day.
We
trust that God is always with us. We can be blameless and joyful
therefore, not because we are perfect,
but because Jesus steps in for us and we are reckoned to have Jesus’
blameless track record.
There
is something spectacular to being the donor of Christ’s heart to
those in need. It is to give to another the
seat of our will
and passion, the centre
of our life,
and to give our hearts
to another in order that
they may live, and that living
they may have life abundant.
Have
a heart. Have a change of heart. Because the Holy Spirit helps us
surrender our hearts to the will, passion, and purpose of Jesus
Christ, therefore we live, heart and all, as God calls and equips us
to live.
We
live as never before. We live the fast that is acceptable to God, the
fast that through our sacrifice others receive justice, freedom,
food, and homes.
This is really still way too rough, but here it is, as a way-point along the way. Before it is done it needs to be half as long, and more focused.
There’s work to be done on it.
Lenten Theme: Isaiah 58: A fast that is acceptable to God: sacrifice for justice, freedom, food, homes.
This week’s Theme: Change of Heart
Lessons: Ezekiel 36.22-28 Psalm 119. 1-16 Mark 7.1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Our Hearts are chaotic, reflecting so much of our lives, but they are not without the Light of Christ! We are never alone.
A Change of Heart
Happy
are those whose way is blameless
Blameless No one!
Jesus,
Paul, Augustine, Luther and many more Christian theologians and
teachers have made it crystal clear that if anyone were to be able to
be blameless the whole course of the human species would be entirely
different. No one can be entirely blameless.
In
fact we confess that we are all sinful and unable to free ourselves,
that we require Jesus’ intervention of grace so that we can live in
God’s promise that we are God’s children, God’s ambassadors of
grace to all people.
Only Obey if written on our Hearts
The
only way that we at all can obey God’s commandments and statutes is
if through the Holy Spirit, they are emblazoned on our hearts, so
that we can do no other than follow them.
Change Hearts: God does us right with God
Wednesdays
after a soup supper we’ve looked at change of season, change of
circumstance, change of habits, and today we look at changing our
hearts.
The
starting reminder is that this is not possible for us alone; and
further that not our habits, nor our words, nor our thoughts, nor
even our beliefs put us right with God. We never are right enough
with God. God takes us in as Children, as recipients and bearers of
Good News, as Ambassadors of Christ, as the voice, the hands, the
feet, and the compassionate Grace of Jesus Christ for other people.
God does it all, and then we get to respond, because the Holy Spirit
equips us to respond.
We
can practice responding, bathing ourselves first in reminders that we
need the Holy Spirit to work in us, in order that our practice will
be any good at all. Then we can set forth, practising all we can;
Praying that the Holy Spirit will transform our feeble efforts into
the real Grace of Jesus the Christ.
What
can we do to change our hearts?
Transplants
Since
1967, when Bernard Christian transplanted the first human heart, we
can have surgeons transplant our diseased heart with a new heart.
Heart transplant patients report that having one’s heart changed is
more than just a physical experience. Something more changes, as
another person’s heart gives them life, a person that has met an
untimely death. The patient carries on with life, for themselves and
in a noticeable small way for the donor of the heart.
What is the heart to us? What exactly are we
trying to change?
In
many ways the heart is much more than it was thought to be in old
Hebrew thought, or even in the thoughts concerning heart, mind and
soul in Jesus’ day.
[fill
in OT thoughts of heart, Greek thoughts of heart, compared to mind
and soul, and compared to today: heart, the seat of emotion. Maybe
maybe not?]
In
many minds today the heart is the seat of emotion, of passion, of a
person’s will. This may not match much of what we know about the
physical anatomy of the human body and mind; but it is common in
literature and in everyday thought.
Whether
our understanding of the heart is accurate or not, this evening’s
theme is precisely about more than changing just a physical heart. We
are talking about changing that which is the seat of one’s
emotions, the center of one’s own will, and the motive center
behind one’s thinking and actions.
Nearly Impossible
To
change the seat of emotions, the center of one’s will, the motives
behind one’s thinking and actions is first off, a very complicated
concept.
Secondly
it is so much more complicated to accomplish. It is nearly out of the
realm of human possibility, but not wholly.
So Many Efforts Miss
A
well-heeled congregation decided to do something really good for a
poor neighbourhood nearby. After carefully looking through the
neighbourhood they found a deserted chunk of land, filled with weeds,
stones, even the odd syringe. They decided it would make the perfect
neighbourhood playground. They bought the land, brought in good
topsoil, sod, and finally playground equipment. Then they headed to a
community hall to “hand over” ownership. The community leaders
said a very polite thank you, but seemed lacking in enthusiasm.
“What’s
wrong?” a congregation member blurted out.
“Well,”
said one of the community leaders, “we had plans for that land. We
had been saving money and applying for grants with corporate
sponsors, invested in getting drawings done and we were about 6
months from startup. It would have had a play area, community gardens
and even a basketball court on one end.
“Now
we’ll have to let all that go and enjoy the playground.”
But still we can start trying
There
are things we can do to change our hearts, to change how we feel
about another person, our situation in life, the events that happen
around us. While we cannot change our individual emotional responses
to events, we can slowly, through diligent practice of habits, change
the range of our emotions that we experience. We can over time,
encountering pretty much the same kind of events, move ourselves from
a sad, downward unengaged emotional response to common enough events,
to a hope-filled, engaged, even joy-filled emotional response to the
same common events.
It
takes lots of time, diligent work, and a motivation that is nearly
without limit.
Holy Spirit is writing on our Hearts
And
that is when we see that, though we may like to think we can
accomplish such a change of heart, the Holy Spirit is required to
change our hearts to be those of people to serve Christ and Christ’s
people.
On
the other hand if we ever would want to change our hearts away from
God, then we need to fight off the Holy Spirit first. We need to
fight against the Spirit to be able to think we taken even one step
distance from God who has promised to be with us for life and beyond.
What
we can do, forgive: act as if the other has not sinned against us.
Treat them special, even. Give them gifts they really want. Behave
that they are precious to us; they become precious, and then we
realize, we have actually forgiven them. We’ve moved beyond the
emotional load experienced when we remember what they have done to
us. We still remember, but it is not an emotional drain. It is more
and more like information that does not impact us.
Changing a Heart makes huge differences
In
many ways we suffer what happens to our hearts.
But
we can choose to set parameters for our hearts. We can choose the
universe that our hearts operate in. Other people influence our
hearts more than we will ever know.
We
can try to fix the world with our privilege, power, and wealth. Or we
can use our ears to listen to those in need, our minds to discern
what the real issues are, and our hearts to empathize with their
plight so that how we act will actually meet the real needs of the
people we try to help.
St.
Augustine, perhaps the most influential of Christianity’s early
thinkers, writers, preachers, and practitioners of faith, did not
start out a Christian. Born of a Christian mother and a pagan father,
he was denied baptism. He spent his youth as a Manichaean, and
according to his own accounts lost himself in pleasures and wanton
living. He was befriended by Ambrose, who he met since they both
shared exceptional skills as rhetoricians. It was Ambrose’s
friendship that deeply effected St. Augustine’s heart. He converted
to Christianity, was baptized, and ended his life serving as the
Bishop of Hippo in north Africa, where he wrote and preached; and
steered the course of Christianity to the faith we recognize today,
as well as the Roman empire towards Christianity.
It
is the heart that informs and equips us to turn our lives in a
different direction, which can either be for ill or for the better.
It is our hearts devoted to Christ, thankful for all Christ has done
to give us breath and renewed life, which focus us on faith, ideas,
words, and actions which can help others experience what we
experience from Christ.
Hearts
change the course of our lives, and the course of our communities,
our churches, our countries, and even the course of human history.
Joyful and blameless; a gift
We
trust that God is always with us. We can be blameless and joyful
therefore, not because it is our track record, but because Jesus
steps in for us and we are reckoned to have Jesus’ blameless track
record.
One person, the Christ, was
blameless, gifts his to us
Because
there was one human who lived and lived entirely blameless
before God, the whole of human history is changed, yours and mine,
and each of our lives are inexorably changed toward God, toward life,
and toward giving everything we have and are in order that others may
know God’s grace as well.
Donor of a Heart; call to sacrifice so others may
live with great hearts
There
is something to being a human heart donor, besides that first one is
on the other side of death. It is to give to another the seat of
one’s will and passion, the center of one’s life, and to give it
to another in order that they may live, and living may have life
abundant.
Have
a heart. Have a change of heart. Give your heart to living as God
calls and equips you to live.
Surrender
you heart to the will, passion, and purpose of Jesus Christ.
And
live as never before: live the fast that is acceptable to God, the
fast that through our sacrifice others receive justice, freedom,
food, and homes.
