Today it is so dry there is a province wide fire ban in place
Though this is the first
as yesteryear’s extreme’s become
today’s normal, and
today’s new extremes become
tomorrow’s normal.
Hang on!
It’s going to be a rough ride for the next 50 years!
First Break in Nice (Thick) Ice
Back
when the ice was just breaking up, the reflection of light and cloud
make the water and shore jump.
Birch White Goldenized
The
Birch Show Their Colours Well
Mud Mirrors
Even
the huge puddles of spring mud and snow melt pick up the the light of
the sky behind the trees’ reflections.
Spring Moon Rises at Sunset
The
moon ascends into the evening sky, brilliant white against the gold
and blue of sunset.
Predawn Moon Going Down
Just
days later the moon settles in the west as the dawn touches the east.
Sunrise Moon Setting
And
settles closer to the water as the early morning breaks.
Open Cold Water
Waves
and White Water return as the wind churns up the lake touched still
with small patches of snow and ice.
Surviving Rodents
The few brush left with partial birch trunks, long since food for the beaver who keep the lake level high, stand out in the gold light at sunset.
Sol Plays with Aqua
The
water and the setting sun play with each other in familiar yet newly
wonderful manners almost each night.
Ugly becomes Gorgeous
Even
the junk, abandoned, and starting to be trashed camper cannot help
but shine with the immense wonders of the setting sun.
My favourite of late
The
reaching thirsty trees along the shore silhouette wonderfully against
the blues and oranges of the sun set reflecting remnants of light on
the water.
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.
Tonight
we remember Jesus’ last supper as he declared Gods’ New Covenant
with us by offering his body, the bread of life, and his blood, the
wine, to all people.
This
Covenant is handed down to us, starting with the disciples present at
Jesus’ last supper, to Paul, and through Paul to generations upon
generations. Each handed Jesus’ story on to the next so that this
Covenant of Life would be remembered and many lives could be lived in
response to it. Jesus uses an ordinary meal.
Salad
There is
nothing quite like an ordinary meal that begins with a crisp, fresh,
green salad, with freshly squeezed lemon on top.
Perhaps
you’d like to add salad dressing, cheese, croutons, or tomatoes.
Or
perhaps you’d actually prefer a lot of tomato sauce, all on one big
crouton with lots of cheese melted on top, with slices of pepperoni.
Okay maybe a big pizza instead of a salad.
Just
an ordinary, nourishing meal.
Setting of the Last Supper
Jesus
knows he and his disciples are at great risk in Jerusalem. For days
now he has taught in public and all has gone well. Jesus is ready for
what must come. They will betray, torture and kill him. He has not
given up, rather he has answered God’s call for him to suffer so
that all people will know about God’s forgiveness for them.
On his
last night he gathers to celebrate the Passover with his disciples.
He makes sure that his disciples for generations to come will
remember him and thereby know God’s Grace. Jesus uses two very
common items of the meal, bread and wine, and instructs his disciples
to remember him every time they eat bread and drink wine. It may
sound like wine was a special component, but the water was not safe
to drink, so, if one could, one drank wine instead.
Each meal, Everyone
Jesus
directed all of us to remember him each time we eat bread and drink
water or wine. The Church ritualized this meal and made it central in
worship so that it would not be forgotten. Still we’ve taken this
common meal, revered it, and reserved it for a special celebration
held sometimes at most once a month. At times we’ve limited who can
take part in the meal to just good people.
Regardless
how we practice it, we do remember Jesus’ words, take it all
of you. Whenever you eat and drink, do this in remembrance of
me.
To drink
Most
of our common meals today include something to drink: a cup of coffee
or tea, or glass of water or even a good glass of fruit juice and
spritzer to whet one’s appetite.
Meal to Remember and Learn from
Jesus
made the New Covenant at their Passover Supper so that his disciples
would take note. He gave us his words to ensure we would remember,
even if we would not practice, what his words tells us.
Jesus
intends that we remember and discover again God’s purpose for each
of us. God gives us Jesus’ example to follow, giving up any
privilege we have, humbling ourselves to serve others, sacrificing of
ourselves so that all others will receive justice, freedom, food and
homes, and everything else they need for the abundant life God
intends for each of us. Jesus shows us how to forgive everyone
always, even as he dies on the cross.
Vegetables
Most of
us commonly have vegetables at our meal, green and dark coloured,
maybe a variety of cut vegetables with a creamy cheese sauce on top.
Common Food Items, With Great Effects
Jesus
does something very uncommon at his last Passover. He washes the feet
of his disciples. It is a task for a servant. Today foot washing is
not part of meal preparation, since we do not walk everywhere on
dusty roads wearing sandals, and we do not recline to eat.
Eating
and drinking, though, will remain common as long as humans live,
ensuring that celebrating the Lord’s Supper may be common enough,
as long as Christians remember and hand on what has been handed on to
them.
Through
the generations remembering Jesus’ Last Supper has held many
families and churches together, kept many falsely incarcerated,
exiled and oppressed people alive when they could not gather for
worship. Along with our simple confession that Jesus is Lord, this
meal has helped preserve the faith in many places many many times in
history when all seeme lost. This meal of simple items has soothed
the anxious souls of countless Christians through the generations.
Protein
The
heart of our common meal comes down to some protein, perhaps a little
roast beef, pork ribs, or chicken. Maybe a fresh fish from the lake
via the grocery store, a handful of mixed nuts, or even eggs.
The New Covenant
At the
heart of his last supper Jesus establishes God’s New Covenant with
us. God has made covenants with the people before.
One of
the first was the covenant with Noah, when God promised never again
to wipe out creation with floods. It is marked by the rainbow in the
sky.
Perhaps
the greatest in the OT is God’s Covenant with Abraham. God promised
Abraham and Sarah descendants enough to make a great people and land
for security and stability. This covenant is marked by the Passover
meal recounting how God delivered our ancestors from slavery,
bringing them through the wilderness into the Promised Land.
The New
Covenant in Jesus’ blood poured out for us is God’s most complete
communication of who God is, and how God relates to us with Grace and
forgiveness made possible through God’s own sacrifice.
Dessert
To top
off our common meal we’ll include a light fruit dish with coffee
hagen daaz ice cream. OK too uncommon and too expensive. So maybe a
slice of apple, cherry or pumpkin pie with a scoop of vanilla ice
cream on top, not a five quart scoop. Just one simple scoop as a bit
of a teaser, on top of a good meal, to help us remember the meal, for
hours to come.
Until we
grow hungry again the next day and start over feeding our bodies so
that we might live.
For Each and Every Christian
God
makes the New Covenant with each of us in our Baptisms with water and
Word. God renews this covenant with all of us at each meal.
When we
offer each person Christ’s body and Christ’s blood, we say
Christ’s body given for you, and Christ’s blood shed for
you.
We
gather as a community to share Jesus’ meal with everyone. Jesus’
gifts, though, are not just generally available. They are very
specifically for each of us, to heal the brokenness and suffering of
each one of us, to nourish our spirits and to give each of us
abundant life.
Tie the two together: our daily meals, Jesus’ Last Supper celebrated
There
are common meals to nourish our bodies. We hope and work so that
everyone has at least one of those each day. We humans also require
meals to sustain our spirits.
There is
no challenge, no work of the devil, no grip of sin, no enemy’s
attack on us that is impossible for us to face, because we feed on
the body and blood of God’s own Son. God’s Spirit in and through
us is undefeatable, even by death.
After
this his last supper, Jesus goes out to pray in Gethsemane, until the
soldiers …
…
Tomorrow
we continue our worship service with the next segment of God’s
story given to us through Jesus’ life, remembered and handed on to
us, so that we can hand it on to others, … so that all may
have life abundant.
Spring Struggles to Break in as Large Flakes Cover the Once Bare Ground Again
My
wood stove, set up to provide heat in the severe -40°C winter worked
wonders. It
even
provided hot water for coffee in
the morning
and tea throughout
the day.
It
was not
without it’s challenges as the stove pipe got so hot that it melted
the plastic tarps of
the shelter around the stove.
Holy
Week is our opportunity to remember and learn ever more from Jesus
story. Jesus’ story is a life full of communication from God to us,
in a way we can understand.
God tried to communicate to us with Word, creating a good creation. We messed it up, with trying to be smarter than we are and blaming others for the results. Kicked out of paradise we even became murderers, for a ‘good’ start.
God tried to communicate to us with the Law, we turned it into control of others.
God
tried to communicate to us with the prophets, and we thought they
were crazy, because they really were, trying to embody God’s Word
does that to humans.
I
rebuilt the damaged tarp sections, put in a heat shield and a remote
thermometer. Now gets as hot as 70°C without problems.
God
sent his Son, a full life story lived that we can learn. Jesus came
to live, teach, heal, and do remarkable things like calming the chaos
of the waters.
God
exists beyond time, matter, limits. Now Jesus has all the limits of a
human. Paul says it well: Jesus emptied himself of being other than
human, and became limited as a human.
Why?
The
real purpose of Jesus’ life was his death. That’s this week’s
story.
No
one really listened at first, and those that did usually got it all
wrong. Listen to the parade as Jesus enters Jerusalem. They think
that Jesus is God’s way of giving them control again of Jerusalem,
maybe. That’s their hope.
Then
things change.
The
harsh winter slowly gives way to cool spring temperatures, and the
2000° C inside the furnace became way too hot in the shelter. Always
the thermometer showed a max of 70°. It dawned finally on me that
the thermometer could read no hotter than 70°C but the actual
temperature could be much more!
Things
change.
After
the triumphant entry parade into Jerusalem, things go downhill fast
and hard. Jesus is betrayed, deserted, tried, denied, whipped,
condemned, mocked, tortured, abandoned, and murdered on a cross.
There
is no greater measure of suffering.
God
came to live and die exactly like this. Why?
God
came to make clear: God understands our suffering, even if our
measure seems to have an upper limit, God has no limits, God
understands us, our pain, our sin, our suffering, our death.
God
lived it to show us God’s intent for us.
As
Jesus dies, he forgives those that mock, torture and kill him.
This
is what God wants us to be to each other. Not sinners, destroyers,
scape-goaters, or mockers, torturers, murderers, or chaos makers, not
even people who cannot listen to others pain and suffering and not
know what to do.
We
know God knows our suffering.
In
our suffering we experience what others suffer. We know what we most
need when we suffer is forgiveness, love and not to be abandoned.
We
learn this so that we can give God’s gifts of forgiveness, love and
being present to others as they suffer.
God
came as Jesus to show us God’s goodness and love for us has no
limits. God’s forgiveness has no limits. We may not easily hear,
listen or understand, but we have Jesus story handed from generation
to generation. We can always learn more if we pay attention.
Jesus’
story is God’s new limitless thermometer by which we can measure
what really goes on in this world. There’s lots of heat. There’s
even more love, forgiveness, and compassion than we are ever capable
of measuring.
This
week, we remember, we listen as we can, we learn anew as we are able.
From
Jesus story we know and trust, no matter what we do, what we succeed
at or fail at, God understands our yearning, our chaos, our
sufferings …
and God
always loves, forgives and is present with us …
In
the Gospel story for this morning Jesus returns to Lazarus’ home
for a meal. This is where Jesus raised Mary and Martha’s brother
Lazarus from the dead. Together with the disciples they share a meal.
Mary
‘wastes’ costly oil washing Jesus’ feet. For a blessing the oil
would have been poured on his head. This, though, is just a foot
washing, a practical kindness offered to guests.
Foot
washing sandaled feet
People
wore sandals. They walked the hot and dusty paths and road ways. On
arrival for a meal, where everyone reclined around the table, feet
washing refreshed the guest and removed the awful smell from the
elite people’s animal waste that lay along the way.
Extravagance
Mary’s
perfume was way too costly for the task – probably worth in excess
of $50,000 in today’s funds. It was an extravagance which no common
person could afford.
It
was an extravagance Mary offered for the man who brought her brother
back to life, for the teacher who carried the Kingdom of God around
him, palpable to all who encountered him, for the man who, Mary
believed from her pondering, was the Saviour, the Christ, God’s Son
sent to fulfill God’s promises of old.
Objections
However
one of the disciples objects to the extravagance, because he would
have liked to have the proceeds from its sale put in the purse that
he stole from. He wanted the extravagance for himself. Who knows what
this disciple really wanted, or if anything would have been enough
for him.
Real
Fear of poverty
Given
all the goodness of life and the luxuries we take for granted, there
is always a part of each one of us that objects to such
extravagances. For we have our hands in the cookie jar, and we want
more. Poor people be … well … ignored, … and condemned to live
lives we are so afraid our lives may become. We justify all kinds of
deceit trying in vain to secure our place far from the poor.
Anxiety is us losing perspective of what is real and large, and what is not.
We
have real cause, every day, to get lost in this and all sorts of
anxiety. Our past is full of sins that should land us not just in the
poor house, but out of the Kingdom of God. Instead Jesus comes to us,
each day, starting by saying, do not be afraid!
What
does Jesus have in store for us?
What
does Jesus have in store for us?
OT
God’s up to something again: something new
In
the OT lesson for today Isaiah writes to the people in exile in
Babylon that God is up to something again. Like they, we too often
give up and stop looking for Christ’s light.
To
the exiles and to us Isaiah repeats God’s words: Do not remember
the things of our past. Yet remember that God is the one who brought
us out of slavery, through the wilderness into the Promised Land.
Free from the anxiety of our past that grips us at the roots, we can
now look to the new work that God is about to begin.
God’s
new thing: living water in the deserts
For
the Creator and Re-creator is acting again: A new thing is about to
become: water will flow in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.
Canada’s
water
In
Canada we have lots of fresh water. Of course there are plenty of
small communities who have not had clean, fresh water for many
decades. And a survey a few
years ago estimated that between one-third and one-half of North
Americans are mildly, chronically dehydrated. (Published
by Dr. Susan Kleiner, dietician in Seattle-area, reported in
Chatelaine April 2000.)
Early signs of
dehydration are fatigue and headaches. We need water. Yet when
we turn on the taps and enjoy clean water, it is difficult to
appreciate that we are
not getting enough water or what
it means not to have water.
Salt
water, fresh water, living water
Imagine
the drought driven dry desperation of thirst caught in an endless
desert. It is worse for people who survive in life rafts after being
shipwrecked at sea, who spend days on the ocean waters without fresh
water. On the sea water is everywhere, but it cannot quench one’s
thirst, it only makes it worse.
We
are surrounded by so much fresh water, and yet we thirst for the
living water that gives life. We are surrounded by luxuries the
people of history could hardly imagine, powered by oil, technology,
and seemingly magical realities. Yet we often deeply thirst for the
meaning of life, for our place in it, for something to be and do that
will fulfill what we were created to be. Our past is riddled with
failures we hardly comprehend.
If
it is as if our tongues were parched so dry that we could barely
swallow because it hurts so much, and we know we deserve even worse.
Paul, Our Efforts = Nothing
Like
Paul we try diligently to be the people that we think God wants and
needs us to be. We may not be as successful as Paul. He was quite an
accomplished man of God. But all that effort Paul counts as nothing,
in order that, still striving to be the man of Grace that Christ
called him to be, he might receive, not earn, but receive without
merit, the Grace of God, the righteousness which is Christ’s. This
righteousness is only Paul’s or ours as a gift through faith by
Grace.
Christ’s
Gifts = everything
Paul
cannot own his righteousness, it is only a gift. He must leave behind
all his struggle, straining, and striving to fulfill the law. Instead
he strains forward to whatever Christ has in store for him. God has a
whole lot in store for Paul. Most of it is challenging.
God’s Gift, flowing, living water
And
when God acts with a shockingly new thing, then water flows, not just
out of our taps in small trickles, not just clean, fresh water. The
water of life flows in broad rivers, assuring us that the drought is
done.
Praise
for the water from all
How
astounding it is to undeservedly receive water, flowing fresh water,
the living water from God.
Does
it really take so much to move our hearts, to make things different
in our minds, hearts, and souls … so that we will forget the past
failures and recognize the wonder of God’s gifts, the gifts so
basic to life as even breath itself? All this just so that we might
give God praise!
Drenched
in the new largess of God, we should be barely able to contain
ourselves. No matter what we need, God provides, so that we can and
will live in praise of our Creator and Re-creator.
What
does God have in store for us?
What
has Christ in store for each of us? For all of us as a community of
faith?
Lenten
fast
This
Lent Jesus has in mind for us a fast named in Isaiah 58 (from Ash
Wednesday’s lessons), a sacrifice of all that is given us, so that
those suffering from injustice will receive justice, so that the
oppressed will be set free, so that those who hunger will have food,
and those who have no homes will find homes in our homes, in our
neighbourhoods, in our families of faith.
Celebration
of Easter Coming
At
the end of our fast, Jesus has in store for us a celebration that is
so great nothing is too extravagant to be shared with those suffering
injustice, those oppressed, those hungry, those homeless, who now are
with us. This is the celebration of new life given to each of us.
Baptismal
water promises
Just
as Jesus raises Lazarus back to life, we receive the promise and
assurance in the waters of our baptisms that we will be raised from
the dead as well. We too, sinners though we be, will be brought into
the New Jerusalem with all the saints of all times.
All
will praise God
Even
the despised jackals and hyenas will sing God’s praise. No matter
how despised the animal, or the person, all will sing God’s praise.
Even the reality denying ostriches, or similarly the people who
stick their heads in the sand at the signs of danger … Even those
who deny reality will be unable to deny Christ’s reality. When God
does God’s new thing among us, the anxieties about our past will be
gone and no one will be able to stop from singing God’s praise.
For
this we were created, redeemed, made God’s children, and promised
eternal life in God’s Kingdom.
Smell
the perfume of extravagant celebration, and sing as we love the Lord
our God with all our heart, mind, and strength.
As
at Daybreak celebrate [extravagantly]
When
God does this new thing, as at daybreak, the darkness will succumb to
the rising dawn. Then the sol of creation begins anew to give purpose
and hope for the hours to come. The Light will reach everywhere. The
New Light will catch even the spider’s string
[in the sermon photo.]
So
… leaving behind all our anxieties, we can close our eyes having
kept the watch,
For
the Christ’s Light now keeps the darkness and danger at bay.
The
hyenas of home are driven back into hiding. We will have challenges
ahead, even more darkness to face, but Christ expects us to trust his
promises, as we will then again wait for the dawn to return.
As way of introductory words to explain Beale Street and ‘Justice’:
“Beale Street is a street in New Orleans, where my father, where Louis Armstrong and the jazz were born,” the quote reads in the opening shot of the movie. “Every black person born in America was born on Beale Street, born in the back neighborhood of some American city, whether in Jackson, Mississippi, or in Harlem, New York. Beale Street is our legacy. This novel deals with the impossibility and the possibility, the absolute necessity, to give expression to this legacy.
“Beale Street is a loud street. It is left to the reader to discern a meaning in the beating of the drums.” James Baldwin
The actual street named Beale Street is located in Memphis. But there is a Beale Street in every city, in every town, in every rural place where people live. While the book/movies is about the racial realities of black discrimination, the injustice of false convictions run rampant in many places against many minorities. In Canada jails are filed with aboriginal peoples. In Alberta and elsewhere the discrimination has turned from <against women falsely accused by their men and then easily convicted> to <men falsely accused by their women and easily convicted without any real proof>. As were men in decades past, these women are encouraged and free to lie even under oath in court, with the courts also freely lying even in decisions to absolve women of their lies and to falsely convict men of things they have never done, and of things that often their women have done to the men. Our courts are no more just than any, ever. Capital punishment is not a sentence given by the judges; it is a sentence worked out by inmates and guards, and by countless people in the communities -not least the RCMP and Police and workers in the ‘Justice’ system, who may or may not believe the lies and false convictions, and who then, regardless, rob reputation, labour opportunities, and health from these innocent not-criminals.
Since the beginning of time people have lied to get ahead, to destroy others who are in their way, or just for the sport of it.
But the truth is known by God, and all will stand before God’s throne to be judged. While Grace is our hope, our proclamation, and God’s promise; there is also the promise that the oppressor, the unrighteous, the destroyers of others will face their end in God’s Judgment. There will be no witnesses needed, no testimony – false or not. God already knows everything.
We trust that what God judges will be gracious. We trust that those who stand against the truth somehow will be brought to stop.
But God is the judge, not us. not any of us
So we leave Justice in God’s hands, because humans botch it so consistently …
and we proclaim grace
and real hope.
…
Now for the sermon proper:
…
Lenten Theme Isaiah 58 The acceptable fast brings justice, freedom, food and homes to those without Lessons for this Sunday: Joshua 5:9-12 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
If Beale
Street Could Talk
One
wonders how the world would be if indeed the streets could speak of
the injustices that God’s people have suffered at the hands of
God’s people. If indeed the disgrace of God’s people would be
removed. If indeed the effects of all the sins of the people would be
erased.
“If Beale Street Could Talk” is a movie (adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel of the same title) about a young black man ruined by the in-justice system. A young white man has made unrelenting advances on his fiancée in a store. He stands up for her, drives the white thug off, but not before a dirty cop tries unsuccessfully to arrest the young black man. The dirty copy gets revenge. It is about the dirty justice system whose people make this wonderful, creative, loving young man into an incarcerated black. Everything about this young human being is reduced to one of many young black men jailed and beaten, though innocent.
It’s dark out There
…
Everything
old has passed away. Everything is made new.
This young man, a sculptor, a young father, makes things new out of chunks of wood. Until a dirty cop and a dirty justice system rob him of his everything, until they rob his family, his wife to be and their child, of everything. The dirty ones rob him by accusing him of a terrible, filthy, horrible rape. They disgrace him. They let him be beaten in jail. They terrorize him with delays upon delays and threats upon threats until he breaks and accepts a plea, a guilty plea of an innocent man, and he serves someone else’s time.
It’s quite the image that Joshua gives as the people gather to celebrate the Passover in the Promised Land: in the English we have God “rolls away” their disgrace. The German gives a hint that the Hebrew is more colourful: ‘Heute habe ich die Schande Ägyptens von euch abgewälzt.’. God ‘waltzes away’ the disgrace of the people. Generations ago they were saved but then enslaved, freed but then trapped in the wilderness … until today with Joshua, they stand in the land promised to Abraham, and they eat from the fruit of the land. No more wandering, no more manna. They have come home, and God welcomes them waltzing away in celebration their layers of slavery and disgrace.
God
waltzes away our disgrace, our sins, our slavery … and God sets us
free.
It may be dark, but the Light comes to find us!
…
For God made Jesus, who did not sin, to bear all the sins of all the people through time, precisely in order that you and I, in order that all of us, would not only be free. God set us free precisely in order that you and I and all of us would be made into the righteousness of God visible, embodied here and now on this earth.
We stand, cut off, but we stand. We stand surrounded by the hard cold, but we stand, for God is with us!
…
Our freedom, our righteousness, in NO WAY is earned by our actions.
Either we are like the younger son, as we claim all sorts of rights and privileges, and all that is due us … and then we squander the precious things God has given us on the oldest vices available to humans who can choose. We can choose because God made us able to love. To love is to be able to choose to love, which means we must be able to choose not to love, which is to choose evil. So we either choose to squander God’s precious gifts to us …
OR
We are
like the older son as we serve God with great labours and
self-righteousness. We do not squander God’s love, but we
comprehend it completely not.
When God wants to celebrate God’s forgiveness, and a lost sinner’s return to life, we get self-righteously angry. We behave as if we somehow owned God’s will. As if we, with our obedience and labours, have earned all that we have, but even more so we own the right to judge other sinners. We’ve allowed ourselves to become so blind to the grace that daily gives us renewed breath. We want to be better than we are, and comparing ourselves to other’s whose sins are more known we think we are somehow good enough. Thus …
We
refuse to celebrate with God. We refuse to celebrate with God exactly
what we are created to be and do: we are created to proclaim and
celebrate that God is gracious, forgiving sins, dancing away
disgrace, and feeding us from the produce of the Promised Land.
This is
the same old, same old that has hung around the necks and souls of
humans since the beginning of time.
Even though, all the time, each and every one of us is like either the younger or the elder son, and sometimes we are like both at the same time … Even so God promises us it is different in the Kingdom of God. It is different now, here and now, in the Kingdom of God. For the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Here in
the Kingdom of God, all confess that only by Grace do we breathe, or
drink, or eat, or work, or celebrate, or love, or hope.
By Grace all our sins, yours and mine and all of ours, are taken up in the person of Jesus Christ, and we are made into God’s righteousness.
We are
not pretenders. God makes us not just good, not just sometimes good,
not better than others. God makes us into God’s own righteousness.
In that righteousness everything old has indeed passed away. In that righteousness everything is made new. You and I, and each one of us, are made into new creatures. All of creation is made new.
As God’s righteousness you and I and each one of us, really have nothing worth doing other than what Jesus calls us to do, what the Holy Spirit makes us capable of doing. We think, pray, speak and act so that those around us know that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and they are welcomed in just as we are; not because we’ve earned it, not at all. They and we are welcomed in because God wants it that way.
Though we remain sinners all the time, unable to free ourselves, God forgives us each day all our new sins, so that we can forgive ourselves, and so that then we can turn to everyone else and forgive them!
God has made us into Christ’s voice, hands and compassion, so that we will reconcile not only ourselves, but all others, and even the creation so broken … so that we will reconcile all people back to God, so that we will reconcile all creation back to God.
You and
I, and each one of us, are God’s ambassadors.
We stand in the promised land, in the Kingdom of God, and we eat of the fruit of this land, the produce of this Kingdom.
The light of God is bright and the hyenas of home are sent scurrying for cover into their own darkness.
We stand, knowing that God is with us and was with us all the way or we would never reach the promised land. We stand and celebrate the return of each lost sinner. For we know that is us, each day. We trust that God will always be with us, as we arrive in the Promised Land anew each day. As we leave our pack of hyenas in the dark and come into the Light of life.
We trust that this Lent our being Christ’s ambassadors, no matter what it costs us, is our Lenten fast, the fast that God finds acceptable, the fast that brings justice, freedom, food and homes to those who most need them. Most of all our fast brings forgiveness and reconciliation to those who need it most: you and me, and each one of us.
If every
Beale Street Could Talk, we would hear not only the Black man’s
story, or the indigenous man’s story, or the refugee’s story. If
everyone’s Beale Street Could Talk, we would hear Jesus’ story
and ourselves in it.
This is my Beale Street, the entrance and exit, to my home;
Here the Light Shines, especially in the darkness!
….
Here,
in this new creation,
the Light Shines!
One day, the Light of Christ will shine Light on every Beale Street story, and the disgrace will be where it belongs.
Jesus calls us to build our homes on solid foundations, foundations of good habits. So how do we change so that our habits reflect the people God created, redeemed, and sanctified us to be?
First
and last remember that any change is practically impossible if we are
coerced. Change only really works if we want it ourselves. From there
the Holy Spirit equips us to be God’s children, with habits of
thoughts, words and actions that reflect God’s love, grace, and
promises.
Habits
are important. When we were children our parents made sure we learned
to wash our hands. Most of us resisted in deviously creative ways
before we finally gave in and we learned to wash our hands. As adults
we learned just how important habitually washing hands is: it is the
number one defence against spreading viruses and deadly infections.
Habits
are important. When we habitually respond to similar situations we
lay down chemical pathways in our brains. That allows us to reach
decisions more quickly. On the downside, habit pathways in our brains
can cloud the full reality of what really is going on before us, and
that can get us into lots of trouble. On the other hand, if we
develop the right habits, those pathways can cloud the threat of
evil, which allows us to respond with grace, no matter the situation
we face.
Since
according to the ways of the world we need to behave to get ahead, we
could understand that we need to develop good habits in order to get
into the Kingdom of God. In tonight’s reading from the
letter to the Galatians, Paul, the first author of Christ’s Grace,
says exactly that. Why?
It
helps to understand that Paul was originally Saul. Well into
adulthood, Saul judged and brutally condemned others. He was the
leader at whose feet the crowd placed their robes as they picked up
rocks to stone to death Stephen the first Christian martyr. On the
road to Damascus Saul was intent on rounding up more Christians to
stone them.
God
had other plans. By grace and a miracle Saul became Paul, but Saul’s
old habit of judging others did not always disappear, even though
Paul championed grace as the only means to salvation.
It’s
so frustrating to see people waste their lives on unnecessary,
destructive sins, sins of choosing pleasure for the self and pain for
others. The temptation is to toss out grace, judge other’s sins,
and tell them they are going to hell if they do not smarten up.
That’s right up there with pride as the most common sin: to judge
others. Which is why Jesus often warns us against it.
Co-operating
with the work of the Holy Spirit, we can choose to change well worn
pathways in our brain, even judging others. By the Holy Spirit we can
become reflectors of grace, imbuing health for ourselves and everyone
we come into contact with. … Or not. Instead we can go with Paul
judging others for their terrible sins, warning them to smarten up
and develop good habits or they’re not going to inherit the Kingdom
of God.
But as for me and my household, we choose to trust God’s grace, not only for ourselves, but for others as well. We trust that judging other people is a waste of our breath. God welcomes all us sinners into the Kingdom of God. The only question is what we are going to do there. So we try to avoid judging others. But let me tell you about the terrible things I saw people doing the other day …. OK, we try. I didn’t say we always succeed. We work at developing good habits, habits formed, fuelled, and completed by grace.
Love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control – those are habits we can choose to develop
because the Holy Spirit so equips us. These and other healthy habits
of Grace are the rock solid foundation Jesus calls us to build our
homes on in the Kingdom of God.
Too
often we are led to believe that the Kingdom of God starts after we
die and God judges us whether we get to go to heaven. That’s where
the Kingdom of God is.
As for me and my household, we hear the words of Jesus saying: the Kingdom of God is at hand now! What we do builds or destroys the Kingdom of God around us. That the Kingdom of God is here, though, is already determined by God.
This
Ash Wednesday God’s Word called us to make an acceptable Lenten
fast, to hold a fast that is not for our benefit. Rather our fast
will bring justice and freedom in the face of injustice and
oppression. Through our sacrifice we bring food and homes to those
who hunger and are homeless. Our fast reflects Christ’s
forgiveness, redemption and love for all who sin.
During
the season of Lent we can choose to live already the life of the
Kingdom. We can change to be generous and kind, patient and faithful,
and hope-filled…
Or
not. Either way, God’s mercy abounds. God’s Kingdom is here now.
Why would we not want to join in?
What
does changing our habits look like? While fasting is about sacrifice,
we do not lose ourselves reflecting God’s Grace. As Nelson Mandela
said forgiveness is not just altruistic. It is the best form of self
interest. Grace makes for a marvellous life.
But how can we change ourselves to practice good habits, and get rid of the old? First, it helps to acknowledge that we will never get rid of our own sin completely. It is destructive to demand others be perfect. It is also self-destructive to expect that we ourselves will be perfect. Instead we trust God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ, for ourselves and everyone.
Second,
it helps to know that emotions happen to us setting off a chemical
event in our brains that last 90 seconds. We can choose to wait 90
seconds before we choose what to do next. We can be free of any
emotion, if we want to be.
Third, it always helps to recognize who our Creator is, what goodness our Creator gives us, including the gift that we can wait 90 seconds to choose to respond, not because we need to in order to be acceptable to God. God already accepts us as we are. We choose to wait and respond with good habits, because the Holy Spirit so equips us.
If we find nothing else so poignant, we can start by practising being kind and gracious to everyone we meet. That’s a habit that makes other good habits possible for us to choose and practice. That makes a great foundation for our home in the Kingdom of God, and it makes for a marvellous life, for us and those around us.
Find your way, see the Light, No matter what God walks with you through the deep snow or … manure
Lent 3 – 24 March 2019
Theme for Lent: what is the acceptable fast?
Isaiah
58
6Is
not this the fast that I choose:
to loose
the bonds of injustice,
to
undo the thongs
of the yoke,
to
let the oppressed
go free,
and
to break every yoke? 7Is
it not to share
your bread with the hungry,
and
bring
the homeless poor into your house;
when
you see the naked,
to cover them,
and
not
to hide yourself from your own kin? 8Then
your light
shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing
shall
spring up quickly;
your
vindicator shall go before you,
the
glory
of the Lord shall
be your rear guard.
Isaiah 55:1-9 Psalm 63:1-8 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Luke 13:1-9
Sermon
No
testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is
faithful, and God will not let you be tested beyond your strength,
but with the testing God will also provide the way out so that you
may be able to endure it.
Coffee and Death
When
our children were not yet teenagers they wanted to drink coffee. I
told them with humour: If you drink coffee you will die. That was
true, but not the whole truth.
The
fatality rate for humans is 100%. The only question is when and how
each of us will die.
Our children were precocious and figured it out. The second time I told them they’d die if they drank coffee, they responded: Yes, but if we do not drink coffee we will die, too.
Coffee
has little if anything to do with it. Everyone is a sinner, all of us
deserve to die, all of us will die.
Because God …, Therefore we can ….
This
is the background to each of the texts, which if forgotten, leaves us
reading as if God’s reality for us were something different than
because God claims
us, therefore we
can live and respond.
Isaiah
writes: listen that you may live.
This
is not listen or else you will die. You will die anyway. Rather
Isaiah calls to us: listen while you still can to God’s Word that
proclaims that God makes it possible for us to live abundantly and
boldly:
Because
God is gracious, even if and when we fail miserably,
Therefore
we can live boldly and abundantly.
Paul
writes that we should learn from the examples of those who died in
the wilderness during the exodus: We must not put Christ to the test,
as some of them did and they were destroyed by the serpent.
This is not Paul telling us that if we put Christ to the test, then we will die. It is Paul having told us first that we are saved by grace, no matter what we cannot earn it. And as God’s children we can learn to not put Christ to the test. Because putting Christ to the test takes the life right out of us. We will die, whether we put Christ to the test or not, but if we avoid putting Christ to the test, we will live more as Christ calls us to live.
And
what is the context of Paul’s admonishments? We will all be tested.
Paul’s readers in Corinth were being tested, so much so that they
felt overwhelmed. Paul reminds them that because God has claimed them
God also gives them the ability to endure any testing that comes
their way; therefore they do not need to live in fear, or be
overwhelmed. They can endure. They can live like children of God.
In
the Gospel from Luke, Jesus answers the question brought to him about
those who suffer Pilate’s cruelty: they are not worse sinners than
any others. Do not repent and you will perish as they did. Repent,
and you will perish in some other way. It’s like coffee. Except
that by repenting we can live more boldly and more abundantly. We can
be the people that Christ calls us to be, so that others will see
God’s grace for them in our sacrifices to bring justice, freedom,
food and homes to those without.
The
story of the fig tree that does not produce fruit is not a threat
that we will be cut down. Someday, no matter what, we will be removed
from the garden. We are here in God’s garden to produce fruit. Yet,
whether we produce fruit or not, only by grace do we continue to
live, ‘one more year’; and we live only ‘one more year’ at a
time, or more accurately, only one day at a time, minute by minute.
Life on our own
This
is the reality of life lived on our own. We broken humans on our own
make life cruel, short and brutish for ourselves and others. Our
faith is tested, our endurance tested, our will to be gracious is
tested; often we are tested beyond our own limits. Evil is suffered
by everyone. And everyone perpetrates evil, for themselves and for
others.
One
only need listen to the news to hear the same old stories told over
and over again, different times, places and characters, but the same
scripts: worshippers are gunned down in Christchurch. Flood waters
and mudslides cover villages people and all. Tsunamis set off by
earthquakes wipe shorelines clear of all life and buildings for miles
inland. Millions face death by starvation even though there is enough
food for everyone. People continue to die from diseases that are
curable. Intentional international chaos of many kinds causes
thousands and millions passed, current and future deaths; the chaos
is created to cover the decimation of the earth leaving it barely
inhabitable for future generations. All this is done to secure
profits and power for a few trillionaires, a few multinational
corporations, and a few unknown power brokers and wielders.
Left
to our own devices the only good news for us humans is that everyone
will die eventually; for this evil cannot be endured for ever.
God does not leave us on our own
Today’s
readings, though, remind us again in so many ways that God does not
leave us to our own devices, not at all. God’s
thoughts and ways are so
high above our thoughts and ways. While we
charge and convict one another of great evils,
God abundantly
pardons. God calls
us as we thirst and hunger,
to come, to drink and eat our fill of good food, delightful food, to
buy wine and milk without money or price.
Paul
assures us there is no test beyond our endurance. The Holy Spirit
equips us to meet every challenge, so that we may respond with grace.
Jesus talks about the manure thrown on us through or lives. Is that
not a nice translation. We know the more accurate, evocative
translation. Jesus reminds us that the manure of life is nourishment
for our souls.
God asks of us
What
does God ask of us in return for life, life with God at our side?God
asks that we honour the goodness of Creator and Creation.
God
asks that we seek the Lord while he may be found, while he is close
while we still have ‘one more year’.
God
asks that inclining our ears to God, we turn from wickedness and
unrighteous thoughts, that we trust God’s faithfulness.
God
asks that we understand the manure of life as nourishment for our
souls. Having had plenty of manure dumped on us and dug in around us,
having been soaked in the drowning waters of baptism, and after days
and months of being drenched in the bright light of Christ God asks
that we produce fruit that reflects God’s ways of astounding
faithfulness, sacrifice, mercy, love and free renewal for everyone
regardless of supposed merit.
God
asks that we learn from examples of our fore-bearers.
God
asks that we give witness of God’s Grace to nations we do not know.
This
is our Lenten fast of sacrifice, that we fast and sacrifice in order
that injustice will be stopped, that the yoke of oppression be
broken, that our bread will give life to those that are hungry, and
our homes become the home for those who are homeless, that our
country become the country for those who have no safe country.
It
may not seem that we accomplish much. Sometimes that is truer than we
can tolerate.
For
example after Christchurch New Zealand passed a law making illegal
many of the rapid fire,
multi shot guns. Farmers
and others turned in their weapons. One
farmer said it well: it was a convenience,
but that convenience was
not worth allowing mass
shootings to be so
easily arranged.
As
faithful people, as Children of God, most often our efforts net only
small starts at rectifying injustices. We breathe, we take steps, we
struggle forward. It’s never really enough, but we keep working one
small step forward at a time.
Because
God is faithful, Therefore we remain faithful.
Breathe Gracefully, while We can
We
all breathe air, take up space, in order to produce fruit for God, to
do God’s will, to be Christ’s presence of humble compassion and
care, Christ’s hands of poignant purpose and clear justice, and
Christ’s voice of brilliant light and hope.
We,
each and every one of us, mature because of the manure of life. There
is plenty manure for each and every one of us. There is more
injustice than is comprehensible, so much cruelty that is beyond
imagination, and a plethora of ignorance and apathy that is
unfathomably astounding. We all live through the tests of life and
grow strong, or we die trying.
If
you think you have no testing, no manure as nourishment for your
soul, then you are asleep at the wheel; you are wasting air.
It
is through the tests of life that we come to know God’s power to
overcome evil with goodness, vengeance with forgiveness, hate with
love, and chaos with grace leading to hope.
If
we drink coffee … well we know how that goes. The question is: how
do we choose to live while we still have breath?
God
offers us grace, so that we may gracefully offer life abundant to
everyone.
