Monday, September 19, 2011

Pentecost 14 2011

Life in the Kingdom 

Introduction 
 A lot of what Jesus talked about was how life should be. He called it ‘The Kingdom’ and he was forever saying what the Kingdom was like, and talking about how to find it, and most importantly, saying it was already here.

The Kingdom of God is like… Well… we could probably fill in the blanks – what sort of world do you think God would want us to be living in, what would it look like? What would we do? How would we treat people?

Everyone in the world really wants a good answer to that question – we try really hard to create our own little piece of heaven on earth, whether it is at a cottage, or our own backyard, or with family… We spend our whole lives searching for happiness. And one of our main problems is that we simply do not know what happiness would look like.

With the Kids – Daily Bread 

So you might remember that last week, in our Old Testament reading, The Israelites crossed the red sea and followed Moses out of Egypt and into the wilderness. Well, when our reading picks up today, they’ve been traveling for quite some time. Have any of you ever been on a really long trip or a really tough hike? How do you feel after you’ve been traveling and traveling and traveling? Bored, Tired, thirsty, and hungry. Well guess what? They felt that way too. In fact they were so tired and hungry that they got mad at Moses and asked him if he’d just brought them all out there to die.

Some of them even wanted to go back to Egypt where they had been slaves, but God heard them, and God sent them some food. Does anyone remember what it was called? Manna. That’s right, the next morning, when the Israelites woke up, they found this fine flaky bread on the ground and they were told to pick up what they needed in order to have food for the whole day. Does anyone know what the manna was like? (Have examples of different breads on hand) Was it like filo dough? Or wonder bread? Or crackers?

Well actually, no one knows. Even the Israelites, who got to look right at it and touch it and taste it, had never seen anything like it. “Manna” actually means, “What is it?” But whatever it was turned out to be good, and filling and the people liked it. Now who do you think got the most manna? The people who got up first? The people who gathered more than others? Moses, because he was in charge?

Actually God told everyone to gather the same amount, and that amount turned out to be exactly what each person needed for each day. If you went and gathered more than that amount, the manna went bad, really bad. It became full of worms and started to stink really badly, so badly that everyone else knew you’d taken more than you should have. Why do you think God made the manna that way? Do you remember the Lord’s prayer?

What do we say in the middle about bread? “Give us this day our daily bread.”

God wants us to trust in him to provide enough for us each day. We don’t have to hoard what we have or be afraid to share because God will always make sure there is enough. God wants everyone to have food to eat and he’s made sure that we have enough here on the earth. The trick, is that we have to be willing to only take what we need so that everyone will have enough. So remember that the next time you have a little more than others, and be ready to share so that everyone can enjoy the good food that God has given us. 

Standing Firm in Rejoicing 

 I don’t know how many of you say grace at home before your meals. I try to remember but I do not always do it myself. I also see other people doing it in restaurants, even in McDonald’s and I think t myself, that I should be doing that too. It is a simple thing, but it changes a lot. What if we remembered to say thank you?

What if, unlike the Israelites in the desert, we did constantly give thanks for what we had around us? I think our attitude towards things would be quite different. The Psalm we read together is a hymn of thanksgiving, it was written to express the joy people felt when they found out that God would really provide for them.

It is not always easy to do – right? We all have things happening in our lives that cause us pain, or wonder, or disheartenment…. But…. But… when you look back over your life; on the other side of the painful events, you can usually agree that there was still much to be thankful for.

For all his faults, Paul really believed in what he did as a Christian, he was sick a lot of the time, arrested, persecuted… his life was pretty uncertain. And he wrote to the churches he had founded and offered advice.

Today, to the Church in Philippi, a Roman sea port, he says this: “Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit…”

Think of it this way – life doesn’t always look like what we wish it would… jobs end, relationships end, sickness sets in, friends move away… but Jesus kept saying, even in the face of massive suffering and hardship, that the Kingdom of God is already all around you – just open your eyes and look.

The Vineyard 

So here is Jesus again telling his followers “The Kingdom is like” and then weaving a parable – but let me ask you this, you have just heard this story… so what is the kingdom like? What is Jesus point? Could it be that the kingdom is like a place where everyone gets a chance to work? Is the kingdom a place where everyone gets the same pay? Is it as simple as that?

This story is totally connected to the story of the manna – you see that right. This is a story in which we are talking about whether something is fair or not, whether some people deserve more or not…

When God provided Manna for the Israelites, the story tells us, they could gather what they could eat. If they tried to take more, it would simply rot; if they decided not to trust and packed away some for tomorrow, again, worms and mildew.

So what about it, The Kingdom of God is like a place where everyone gets exactly what they need, and no one has too much.

Senator McCarthy is probably rolling in his grave, especially because to anyone who has ever read the Bible, it is pretty clear Jesus was a communist. Ok, not a communist, but a socialist. He certainly would have got into trouble preaching these things in Washington during the 50’s. But that is just it. God’s plan for everyone is abundant life. God wants happiness. And having too much of anything, just like having too little of anything, leads to unhappiness.

So what if, whenever possible, we tried to provide for everyone equally? What if we made more choices that were asking how life could be a little fairer for everyone involved? Would that be the Kingdom breaking through?

Happiness 

Do any of you remember the Bobby McFarin song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!” it was kind of simplistic – but it was one of those songs that got stuck in your head…

Here are some of the lyrics:
 In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
 Don't worry, be happy......

Ain't got no place to lay your head
Somebody came and took your bed
Don't worry, be happy

The land lord say your rent is late
He may have to litigate
 Don't worry, be happy

Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style
Ain't got not girl to make you smile
But don't worry be happy

I know, if only it was that simple… but to some extent it is. The Kingdom of God is like a place where we can let go of our worries and know everything will be all right. I think we can do that because look around, there are all kinds of people here who care about you, who pray for you, and would help you in a heartbeat.

Life is rough, but God’s grace surrounds us… thank God.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Creation Time Begins 

Introduction 

Do you know what book of the Bible has the most questions in it?

The book of Job.

The reason that it has the most questions is that it is the only book of the Bible that is solely about the human equation, about tragedy, about what it all means…

In case you don’t remember, there is this guy named Job and he is the most faithful and most richly rewarded person out there. And Satan, who is God’s “devil’s advocate”, decides to prove a point. He tells God that Job is only good because God has given him everything, family, riches, friends, purpose… and if God took it all away… Job would lose faith.

What comes next is hundreds of pages of questions: why is this happening? What did you do to deserve this? IS God fair? How can I get it back? What is wrong with me? 6000 years later… when things go wrong… we are still asking the same questions.

So it is fall, school is starting up, church is starting up, the warm weather is making its annual pilgrimage to the south… Time to start being serious again – time to figure some things out… time to, well, time to remember that even when things do go wrong in this crazy world, there is still a God , a reason, a point.

Parting the Sea 

I know that not many of us are into local United States politics… When I lived in Quebec, which I did before and after 9/11, New York state was one of our border states. We talked about stuff from there, and, well, my parents were living in the states so perhaps I felt more attuned… but I remember Rudi Guiliani before 9/11. Anyone else?

The people of New York sort of hated the guy. He was a Democrat who changed allegiances and ran as a Republican in order to win the election as Mayor of New York in 1994. Before that he was a US Attorney General prosecuting Mob Bosses. The best thing anyone could say about the guy was that he was tough on crime. But even then, he was accused of “arranging” high profile arrests to further his political goals – later having to let the criminals go because he really didn’t have the evidence to begin with.

Then a couple of Jetliners flew into the World Trade Centre.

The second thing I ever saw on the news was Guiliani, and then over and over he was always there – he mirrored the emotions most people felt, shock, sadness, anger, and resolution… He brought the people together and told them to believe in themselves in the middle of tragedy – he cried with them, celebrated with them – he led them. The day before 9/11 his approval rating was 36% … within a couple of weeks, it was 79%... He became Time Magazine’s person of the year, and Queen Elizabeth even went on to knight him because of his actions in the face of the tragedy. Oprah Winfrey called him, “America’s Mayor.”

You see, we are never sure what we are capable of until the moment comes – and we are called upon.

Moses, who was unsure of himself, who stuttered, who ran away from most fights, finds himself camped on the side of the red sea when dust appears on the Horizon – turns out it is chariots… lots of chariots… And he turns to his people instantly and says, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again…” I imagine he is as frightened as they are, God has not revealed any great plan, they are trapped, but Moses rallies the people anyway… he leads. And the waters part, and they cross over, and they believe that if you trust, maybe you don’t need to know all of the answers right away – maybe there is a power in the universe that looks out for our best interests…

 But more importantly, we see people like Moses, like Guiliani, willing to be authentic and willing to stand up in courage and encourage. What we see is that sometimes answering the questions is not nearly as important as living authentically and having courage.

Living and Dying 

Stuck in the middle of Paul’s argument for vegetarianism is this line: “for whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s”

 It is a really interesting argument he is making, but it takes some work to get it… so in a nutshell here it is – there is a lot to worry about in the world. And if we let it, it will eat us up… But we spend so much time worrying about who is right and wrong, we spend time judging others for the way they do things… and we spend FAR too much time thinking that how we do things is the right way.

There really is only one way, God’s way – and when you stop to think about it, NONE of us are doing it that way. So why the animosity? Why the anger? Why the heartache? Why all the questioning?

Really, it is because of ego – we cannot just let go and let God – we cannot just trust! This is all part of God’s wondrous world… and whether we eat vegetables or meat, whether we say God or Allah when we talk to the divine, whether we live or die, we do it “in” God.

Think of this as yet another answer to the whole “why” question… let it go… all things work together for the glory of God. The divine energy of the cosmos surrounds us all at every moment. There really is no why, or right way, there is just trying to do it as best as we can.

The Old Seventy Times Seven 

What is the first reaction you have when the world hurts you? When something goes wrong? For most of us it is anger. We almost cannot help it.

 Remember the first days after 9/11? The universal reaction of Americans was that they should bomb the Islamic world into the stone ages.

There was no introspection, no wondering why anyone would hate Americans, nothing but anger fuelled by fear.

To be fair, they started asking, or some people started asking the deeper questions later… questions like whether American arrogance had not led to ill feelings in international relations.

But when the bad things happen we want to lash out, we need to blame people, it is only natural. But the Bible, and our faith tradition, tells us to take a step back… Here is the question asked by our parable today – how should you act, knowing you are already forgiven by God?

There is a reason the church always asked people to consider their own sinful nature… it is not in vogue to say it anymore, because we are all supposed to be good and honest and loving people… but we are not. We are all sinful. Which is to say, we all do the wrong thing sometimes because of our ego, and we all make mistakes, and we all find it hard to forgive, and we all expect easy answers, and we all struggle to love people who make us so darn angry….

“Why is the world like this? Why did this happen?” always, if we were really honest, has some element of, because we are not better people.

But God loves us. We are forgiven for all those things. God accepts us. We are loved despite ourselves.

When you know that, isn’t it a little petty to keep your own list of wrongs? After all, if I can be forgiven for what I have done to hurt people, maybe I should be a little easier on the people I know.

Wrapping It All Up

So here is the thing. There are days when I worry that what I believe, what I do, is kinda foolish. There are days when I wonder if the human race is not just spiralling into oblivion. There are days when being different seems like so much work that I think I should just subscribe to then me first get rich attitude of everyone around me.

But they are fleeting moments. And along comes an opportunity like the fall to start over, to try in my own life to get it right this time, to listen to some of the things that God has been trying to say and let that make a difference.

A decade ago I was involved in all that went down around 9/11. I did the largest funeral I hope I ever have to do. I sat through some of the most painful moments of grief I have ever seen. And it almost broke me. I walked away from everything for a while.

Those moments where I am shaken to my core happen far too often – and I imagine they happen for all of us. But God is there. God loves you. And knowing that, perhaps we don’t really need to know any more.