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Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; our 4 Gospels that were chosen to be put in our Bible. Each written in a different time period, each a different author and each for a different reason to different audiences. The Gospel of John (the one that was written last) was written for the church, by a man who was an elder in the church of Ephesus where he was looked up to because of his wisdom and experience.

I have heard many people mention that it is time to put the residential school issue behind us. It happened, apologies have been made, but now let’s move on. But, that is not what we need to do. It needs to be in our history books and taught in school.

When I look at this reading from the beginning of John’s Gospel I see in that first sentence: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Word has been used 3 times in the same sentence. Must be important. And of course it is. This ‘Word’, with a capital ‘W’ is Jesus (it begins with a capital so it is important). So Jesus has also been around since the beginning. As a cradle Anglican, I have been part of the church for many years and have had lots of teachers, priests and others to help me understand GOD. There was a time that I believed that Jesus didn’t really exist until that day in the stable. That God realized he needed to do something to get the world to listen, to change, to be better, but once I truly looked at the following two sentences I understood that Jesus was a part of God all along.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And further down in this reading: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us…”

These two sentences are so helpful to get us to understand or at least try to get it through our heads that the “human Jesus” who walked among us was God.

I read an article from R. Gehring who referred to this section of John’s Gospel as a Christmas text. There is no manger, no virgin birth, no star, no shepherds. Instead John concentrates on the “theological significance of the event”, and “Just who was this Jesus?” Those two sentences above tell us just that. Two parts of the Trinity wrapped up neatly in two sentences.

But, are these words (small ‘w’ so not meaning Jesus here) all there is? Of course not. It isn’t quite that easy but the more I look at those two sentences the more I understand.

Speaking of understanding, before God became our human Jesus, he sent someone to break the ice so to speak. To be the messenger for God, to let those to whom he came in contact with that there was to be a messiah coming soon. John the Baptist who was not anyone special. By special I mean he was just an ordinary person who was sent out by God. God didn’t make him a King so that people would maybe listen more, but instead God sent someone he knew would get the job done.

Moving on to today, and our lives, God sends many people to be in our lives to also get the job done. To help us or guide us to where we need to be. Priests, teachers, friends. The priests and teachers have been called by God to do those particular jobs and we look up to them for guidance and to learn what we need to know, not just about God, but also about living in the world. But what happens when those people we look up to are not sent by God, those who take the power and use it for their own gain. Those who are not listening.

This Sunday we celebrate Orange Shirt Day. (the actual day is September 30th), to remember how a little girl, so proud of her new orange shirt that she wore on her first day of school was taken from her and what that did to her. Because of that day, the colour orange reminded her that her feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how she felt like she was worth nothing. She stated in an article, “all of us little children were crying and no one cared”.

I have heard many people mention that it is time to put the residential school issue behind us. It happened, apologies have been made, but now let’s move on. But, that is not what we need to do. It needs to be in our history books and taught in school.

Like all of our history, it has made us who we are, good or bad and we cannot just erase it and move on. It needs to be there to remind us that not everyone is sent by God to help us out and we need to stand up for what is right, doing everything in our power to stop injustices from happening, to treat everyone like we would want to be treated.

We are all “Children Of God” and “Every Child Matters”

More Joy in Heaven

Year C, Luke 15—three parables of loss

The context for the gospel text two weeks ago, Luke 14, was a meal “at the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees,” and the entire chapter was connected by the imagery of a meal, a banquet, in fact. Jesus used that social occasion to remind the wealthy and powerful of their obligations to care for the poor. In Sunday’s reading from Luke chapter 15, Jesus is defending himself against further criticism from the Pharisees for eating and drinking with “tax-collectors and sinners.” The rules of the synagogue were very strict about meal practices and about interacting with those considered unclean; the rules were quite exclusive. Our Christian tradition holds that everyone is a sinner, so the charge of the Pharisees here against “sinners” smacks of hypocrisy to our ears, but they didn’t share that sense of universal sinfulness. The Pharisees were defining who was sinful and therefore who was not acceptable. One’s actions and occupation could put a person outside the community. The specific reference to “tax-collectors” emphasizes that collaboration with Rome was a chief criterion of exclusion. Even the Pharisees, it seems, hated taxes.

By eating with “tax-collectors and sinners,” Jesus is enacting the kingdom of God, demonstrating by his association with “those people,” that God’s realm includes outcasts and marginalized people. Jesus’ life is itself a parable for us all to follow.

However, Jesus came breaking down barriers between people, especially among religious people: redefining “outcasts” by inviting them to eat with him, he was acting out the kingdom of God; by inviting those on the outside to the feast, he was dramatizing that they too are beloved of God, but he was also asking the righteous members of the synagogue, the Pharisees, to find it in their hearts to welcome the outcasts in. By eating with “tax-collectors and sinners,” Jesus is enacting the kingdom of God, demonstrating by his association with “those people,” that God’s realm includes outcasts and marginalized people. Jesus’ life is itself a parable for us all to follow.

In response to the charge of the Pharisees against him in today’s reading, Jesus tells three parables of loss—the lost sheep, the lost coin and (not included in the reading today but without doubt one of his best-known stories) the parable of the lost son. Luke sets all three parables in the context of defending Jesus against the Pharisees’ charge, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” (Borg, Jesus, 246) Now the parable of the lost sheep, like the parable of the lost son, has traditionally been interpreted as demonstrating the nature and character of God, so loving that like a good shepherd, like a loving father, God will seek after the lost, that is, you and me, everyone and anyone, and will welcome them home. This interpretation comes down to us of course from our tradition, ever since St. John wrote in his gospel that Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd,” evoking the image of God as the good shepherd in the 23rd psalm. As Marcus Borg says, the parable “invites a different way of seeing by inviting reflection about the character of God and the kind of life that follows from seeing God’s character in a particular way.” (172) Jesus was trying through this parable to tell the Pharisees that outcasts and sinners were welcome at the table of the Lord. They believed that you were defiled by people with whom you ate: “For Jesus, purity, not impurity, was contagious.” (Borg 217).)

So seeing God as the seeker of the lost is quite natural for us. But stories, parables, symbols, are not confined to just one meaning; that’s their beauty. They allow for various interpretations. It’s interesting that the tradition has downplayed the parable of the lost coin. It hasn’t been emphasized as an illustration of the character of God or Jesus as seeker; Jesus isn’t made to announce: “I am the Good Housewife.” The reason for that is fairly obvious, but I am reminded of the protagonist of Margaret Laurence’s novel, The Fire-Dwellers, Stacey, a middle-aged housewife with four young children and an uncommunicative husband. Stacey is trying to cope with the stresses and strains of her life and she often has little imaginary chats with God. During one of them she says, “Listen here, God, . . . You try bringing up four kids . . . next time you send somebody down here, get it born as a her with seven young or a him with a large family and a rotten boss, eh? Then we’ll see how the inspirational bit goes.” (Laurence, FireDwellers, 168) Jesus as the Good Housewife: the theological implications alone are staggering.

We can derive another meaning from these three parables by focusing on the joy which accompanies the discovery of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. (For those in touch with their inner child, click on the link to this animated version of the parable of the lost sheep. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyWZeOlaRo4 I like the leap of joy at the end of the film.) The parables describe not only the character of God, seeking the lost, but also us, seekers of the kingdom, welcoming the lost with joy. The parables emphasize our joy at finding the lost, as opposed to the joyless, selfish attitude of the Pharisees who shut out the lost. The followers of Jesus, the followers of his way, are also to be seekers, that is, “finders, finding the kingdom unexpectedly,” surprised by joy. (Crossan 38) The seekers in the parables reflect not just God, but also us, “the ones who are open to and seeking the Kingdom’s advent” (Crossan 72). The repeated phrase in today’s reading: “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents,” emphasizes the spiritual joy of the very human seeker. One “born from above,” who glimpses what Jesus means by the kingdom of God, who judges not by the values of this world but by the standards of a loving God, is able to hear the angels singing for joy.

The elder son in the parable of the prodigal son obviously represents the Pharisees who were challenging Jesus, with their strict religious laws defining purity, who’s in, who’s out, who is was proper to associate with, to eat and drink with, but that instinctive righteous indignation lies in all of us. As with so much of Jesus’ teaching, the parables challenge our personal attitudes. But these three parables do more than merely illustrate examples for us to follow; they enact the kingdom of god, working their way into our hearts and minds, bringing about re-birth, renewed vision. The parables themselves incarnate Jesus’ insistence, repeated often in the gospel of Luke, that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). When the teachings of Jesus or the Bible inspire us to imagine a different world, a different way of thinking and being, then the vision becomes a reality; we glimpse what Jesus wants us to see and our reaction is one of great joy. All three parables in Luke 15 emphasize the joy, of the shepherd, the housewife, the father, at finding their lost one: “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, my coin, my son, that was lost.” The point is clear: “life lived in loving relationship with God and others, so that God’s will is joyfully done on earth as it is in heaven, and so that God’s presence spreads throughout the world in Spirit- inhabited human lives.” (McLaren 220) The Kingdom of God is Justice and Joy.

How much do you do that God asks you to do and how far do you take it? And do you listen?

The Gospel reading for this week has been heard before, so if you listened, you would have heard it. Like other parts of the Bible, I am not sure I agree with all of it but then I have to remind myself of when it was written, who it was addressed to and other factors behind it.

If I were to ask the question, how many of you pray to God and expect/hope for results, I am sure all of you would put up your hand or I guess nobody would pray at all. When I pray to God, quite often it is a chat.

The first part of the reading about where you should sit at a wedding would not be too difficult to follow, obviously as a guest you should not go sitting up with the bride and groom or at the family table but I am not so sure sitting in the lowest place is the right place either. That is, if you are doing so, like the reading says, “so that when your host comes, he may say to you, Friend, move up higher then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you”. I think this makes you stand out and appear to be a bit theatrical or a bit ‘show-offish’. A ‘look at me’ scenario. Seems to me it would make more sense to sit somewhere in the middle and not expect to be moved higher or lower.

The second part of this reading is the more difficult to try to do. Most of you who read this know that my ministry is with the homeless or less fortunate folks in St. Catharines. I use this experience a lot in my reflections but my role as a Deacon is that I bring the concerns/issues that happen outside the church to you who are inside the church. I am face to face with the people who come to get breakfast and I am happy to do so. Others are happier being in the kitchen making the breakfast or making coffee. As I type this I am reminded of that first part of the Gospel and taking the lowest seat/place in the room. Yes, the kitchen is further away from the people but there is no more or less important place at the breakfast program. We all have our jobs to do, places to be and none of them more important than the next. Without each other we couldn’t feed the over 100 clients who show up. We are in the church doing this work that we have all been called to do, because we listened to what God asked of us, but could you invite those same people into your home when lunch time rolled around? I am not sure any of us would say yes. Safety might come into your mind, cleanliness of your new guest would be a possible concern. (they certainly don’t all smell like lemon verbena). Is this really expected of us by God. I don’t think so. I think it is an extreme ask, that helps us to understand that we need to give as much to those in need as we do for our friends and family. We may be repaid by our friends and family by way of being invited to their place, but believe me, the joy at the end of every shift at the breakfast program gives me more repayment than a dinner out with a friend paying me back for something. (Don’t get me wrong, if you want to take me out or invite me over, I would not say no). So whatever you can do for those less fortunate than you; tossing a coin to guy on the corner, donating a backpack and school supplies, is what God is asking. And many of you have listened.

This brings me to the Psalm and the lines that immediately jumped out at me were, “But my people did not listen to my voice. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. O that my people would listen to me”.

If I were to ask the question, how many of you pray to God and expect/hope for results, I am sure all of you would put up your hand or I guess nobody would pray at all. When I pray to God, quite often it is a chat. I have to confess that my prayer/chat routine had gotten lost, put on the back burner I guess, because of things I had been struggling with in my life. But how wrong is that? I was beginning to wonder why I felt the way I did and couldn’t figure out the reason it was taking so long for me to ‘get over it’. One day, when I was feeling sorry for myself, I realized that it had been a while since I ‘chatted’ with God. It could be that I had finally sat quietly long enough to hear him calling. I had not been listening for a while. After chatting with God for a bit that afternoon, I felt relief. Like Sheila said in her sermon last week, we need to pass things over to God and let him carry them for a bit. As I reflect on ‘passing things over to God’ I am reminded of the old Tag-Team Wrestling matches, where one of the wrestlers is in the ring and the other is on the outside, waiting to be tagged in. I see myself in the ring, the ring is a representation of life and God is my tag team wrestler. When I am tired, beaten up and need a rest, I can reach out to God and switch places. After I have rested enough I can once again take my place in that ring, knowing that I can tag in God at any time.

Collect

Merciful God,
as we pour out the wealth you have entrusted to us,
the parched places are watered;
as we cease our evil talk,
the rising light of peace dawns in the darkness.
So lead us into faithful living
that your promises may unfold in us
as a woman’s back, long bent, unfolds at Christ’s command,
to the praise of your holy name. Amen.

Readings

Jeremiah 1:4-40

Psalm 71:1-6

Hebrews 12:18-29

Luke 13:10-17

Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.’ But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?’ When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Why do we celebrate the Sabbath or for Christians Sunday? Why is it a day set apart? We do it because it is one of the commandments that God gave us, “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.” Exodus 20:8. God commanded us to set apart a day for rest, knowing that we need rest, physical rest from work but also emotional rest from the stresses of our jobs, mental rest from the busyness of our lives and spiritual rest from the constant pull of sin leading us away from the light of love of God.

When I was growing up, we were not allowed to do homework on Sundays. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized what a gift that was. To be able to not think about school or schoolwork and all the worry and anxiety that surrounded that gave us a real chance to ‘rest’ on Sundays.

This is what Jesus is showing the Pharisees in the healing of this woman who had been walking stooped over for many years and dealing with the pain, embarrassment, frustration, and limitation that this infirmity brought into her life. She was in need of rest, rest beyond just physical relief but rest for her mind and more importantly her soul. Sickness, physical disabilities and limitations do not just affect our bodies, they affect us mentally emotionally and spiritually. Jesus wanted to give this woman true rest from all of that and what better day to do that then on the Sabbath. The pharisees were focussing on the worship and traditional aspects of Sabbath, turning our minds and attentions to God to refocus our lives and that is an important element of how we keep Sabbath but being able to offer true rest for ourselves and those around us is also absolutely necessary.

When I was growing up, we were not allowed to do homework on Sundays. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized what a gift that was. To be able to not think about school or schoolwork and all the worry and anxiety that surrounded that gave us a real chance to ‘rest’ on Sundays. Sunday was a day to go to church, spend time with family and sometimes friends, to have a picnic, play games together, go for a walk, enjoy an afternoon at the beach. It was a day truly ‘set aside’, away from the stressors and busyness of the rest of the week. It allowed us to recharge our minds, bodies and our souls, It was one of the greatest gifts my parents gave us.

How do you ‘keep Sabbath’? How do you find rest on Sundays (or if your job requires you to work on Sundays another day of the week) for not just your body, but your mind and most importantly your soul? We live in a world that is constantly bombarding us with news, information, advertisements. That promotes busyness and demands that we do more and more in the limited hours of our days. God, who created us, knows that absolute need our bodies, minds and spirits need for rest. God did not set up Sabbaths for God’s own needs but ours, it is a gift. Recognize that it is, accept it and use it and remember, it’s a commandment!! Amen.

The Divine Vintner

Isaiah 5:1-7 presents us with the metaphor of the vineyard, an image used five times by Jesus in his teaching. The last verse from Isaiah explains the analogy: “the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people…are his pleasant planting.” The vineyard is Israel, the vines are the people, and God is the caring, careful vintner. It presents above all in the first verses the reassurance of God’s sustaining love, the loving care he gives to his earth and his people: “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watch tower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it.”

It is important for us to consider beyond the human concern of the Biblical analogy of the vineyard, and realize that the world, this fragile earth, our island home, is the vineyard, and it sorely needs tending today. We have abandoned it, rather than cared for or protected it.

The verses in the middle of this passage, however, go on to describe God’s sorrow at his people’s waywardness and describe him as abandoning the vineyard. Around Pelham there are old abandoned vineyards, and they are a sad sorrowful sight, neglected, overrun with long grasses and weeds, the stunted vines no longer bearing leaves or fruit. Now I do not imagine a God who abandons at all; indeed, such a thought would contradict the opening verses. It is not God who abandons but people who abandon God’s ways. God expects justice, as verse 7 states, sharing of the garden and its produce, but instead he sees “bloodshed” over the land, battles for territory and ownership. Consider the situation in the Middle East today, the fighting over borders between Israel and Palestine, and we can hear the cry of God still.

Psalm 80 develops the metaphor of the vineyard and in v17 makes it clear that it is the people who are unfaithful, who turn from God & his ways: “we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.” As well, two verses from Isaiah 3 were originally set between verses 3 & 4 of the psalm, and there, God accuses the people of having eaten up the vineyard: “It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?’ declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.” A just equitable distribution of the harvest is the hallmark of God’s vineyard.

It is important for us to consider beyond the human concern of the Biblical analogy of the vineyard, and realize that the world, this fragile earth, our island home, is the vineyard, and it sorely needs tending today. We have abandoned it, rather than cared for or protected it. In light of such injustice and greedy exploitation, the gardener weeps. We recall when Jesus wept at the sight of wayward Jerusalem. God laments the destruction of the garden, the injustice of his people, but in his sustaining faithful love waits to restore his garden. Isaiah 27 presents a “song of the fruitful vineyard” and includes the promise of the vine restored “to blossom & bud and fill the face of the world with fruit.” As soon as his people reject their false gods and return to paths of justice and righteousness, as soon as they call on God in faithfulness, he is there to restore health to the land and its inhabitants; indeed, he is already at work even before we ask. But God can’t do it alone; the Lord needs our hands and hearts, our strength and souls, to participate in the renewal of God’s vineyard, in the establishment of God’s kingdom of justice and righteousness.

We so often forget God’s original blessing, the very act of creation, constantly renewing life, the great I AM, God’s supreme action and gift of love, life- giving love. We think of the world as fallen, when it is we who have fallen away from God’s original blessing. The growth of plants around us, the greening of this fragile earth, our island home, is a vivid reminder of God’s love freely given. Our attraction to gardens and gardening is a sign of our spiritual longing for spiritual connectedness with the world around us. On the eve of his passion, Jesus went with his disciples “to a place where there was a garden,” presumably the Garden of Gethsemane, the place of Judas’ later betrayal. Jesus’ passion had to begin there, in the good place, in the garden, for his actions atone for the betrayal in the first garden, and Jesus returns us to paradise. The affinity we feel with nature stems from our longing for “deep down things” (Gerard Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur”), for that first garden, for the glory of living in God’s love, as Jesus did. We need not create our own Edens; we need to acknowledge the Eden all around us. God’s vineyard hasn’t gone away; it’s still here, we’re still in it. Our rather unoriginal sin is to deny it, to ignore it—in our greed, to exploit it. God the ever-faithful, calls us to renewed faithfulness, to renew the garden, to tend the vineyard.