Author: admin

In some ways it seems a bit harsh to think about entering Advent, the season of waiting, when all we seem to have been doing the last nearly two years is waiting. Waiting for the vaccine to be created, waiting for the isolation to end, waiting to see where the pandemic numbers are heading, up or down, waiting for the restrictions to lift. Yet perhaps that puts us in a good place to really understand what not only the season of Advent is about but also the deep desire of the people of Israel before the birth of Jesus.

Jesus came to witness to the truth, the truth of God’s nature, the truth of God’s plans and the truth of God’s love. Not even we who are the recipients of two thousand years of teaching and witness to God through Jesus Christ are really able to take these truths in to our very core.

For thousands of years the people of God and in fact the whole earth was in a time of waiting. Waiting for the promise of God to be fulfilled, the promise of one who would come to save us, from sin and evil and even ourselves. Over time the people of Israel began to believe that the one they were waiting for would be a mighty King with a strong army to save them from the slavery and oppression they lived under for hundreds of years. The one who would return Israel to its former glory and show the world the power of God and the love that God had for the people of Israel.

By the time a squalling baby is born in a small rural town to a poor couple the idea of a Messiah seems to have faded into the mist and become something of a fairy tale, so it is no wonder that the Israelites and in fact the world was so unprepared for the coming of Jesus. They were expecting a military and political leader, instead they received a healer and teacher, a reconciler, and a witness to the truth. A truth that was deeper and stronger than they could even imagine. The truth that God loved not just the people of Israel but all people, and not just all people but all animals and birds, fish and plants, the rocks and skies and rivers and that God’s plan was not about relieving the military oppression Israel struggled under, but the oppression of sin felt by the whole world, of being disconnected from God.

Jesus came to witness to the truth, the truth of God’s nature, the truth of God’s plans and the truth of God’s love. Not even we who are the recipients of two thousand years of teaching and witness to God through Jesus Christ are really able to take these truths in to our very core. To allow them to transform us, to heal us, to bring us to the wholeness Jesus came to bring us to. We can however learn from the Israelites and cling on to the teaching of Jesus about how to wait.

The people of Israel had lost sight of the bigger picture, if they even ever really had it, they had not reckoned with the love of God being so much bigger, so much fiercer, so much wilder then they believed. During their time of waiting their relationship with God had grown distant and their faith had dwindled. This is a natural reaction to waiting, but that does not mean it is the right reaction.

During Advent we look back to understand what the world was waiting for with the birth of Jesus and now we look ahead as we wait for Jesus to come again to complete the work he began while he was with us. So how are we going to wait? Will we allow ourselves to become complacent believing that God has forgotten us and is not aware of what we do? Are we going to become bored and turn to things that grab and hold our attention more easily, money, relationships, success? Are we going to begin to think that the stories of Jesus and the idea that he will come again is just that, a nice story, nothing more?

Jesus warns against all of these temptations, again and again we are told to ‘stay awake’, ‘keep watch’ to continue to follow the teachings of Jesus, to continue to learn and grow in our relationship with God, to continue in prayer and praise, worship and just actions are ways to guard against these temptations. During Advent we focus on these practises, we remind ourselves about why we what and what and who we wait for. We remember how we are to bring the light of Christ to the world, that the world is longing to see it and come close to its warmth.

These are also all good teachings as we continue to navigate our way through this pandemic, as we continue to wait. We need to hold more tightly then ever to the teachings of Jesus, to pray when anxious, to hand our worries and fears to God, to gather as a community to remember we do not face this alone, to be aware of the needs of others as it takes the focus off ourselves. To practise as God said through the prophet Micah, to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God. Practise kindness now more than ever, it is what Jesus practised every day of his life and it is what the world is in desperate need of now more than ever. Amen.

Collect

Most high God, majestic and almighty,
our beginning and our end:
rule in our hearts
and guide us to be faithful in our daily actions, worshiping the one who comes
as saviour and Sovereign,
and who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy spirit, one God. Amen.

Readings

2 Samuel 23: 1-7

Psalm 132: 1-13

Revelation 1: 4b-8

John 18: 33-37

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’

This week we celebrate Reign of Christ Sunday (also known as Christ the King Sunday, by others). It is the Sunday sitting between Ordinary Time and Advent; the Sunday between the End and the Beginning of the liturgical year.

During Ordinary Time, we see the colour green in the church; on the priest, the altar and banners. Green represents survival, growth and flourishing of the church. I like to think of it as a time when we are not rushing around trying to ‘be ready’ for an event. Maybe a bit of a more relaxing time. It is a very long season in the church, a season where we can relax a bit and focus on just being Christian.

“Jesus didn’t start an institution, he started a movement. The same movement as Abraham and Sarah. The same movement as Moses and the Israelites. The same movement Amos described when he said ‘Let justice roll down like a river, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream’.”

Reign of Christ Sunday, on the other hand, is represented by white for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. On Reign of Christ Sunday we celebrate that God’s reign in the entire universe has already been accomplished. On the other hand, has it really? Is Jesus’ reign truly over? I suppose yes, in his human form on earth it is complete but he is not done with us. When our Queen passes away, a King will take her place and reign in his own way, but in religion and with Jesus we don’t get another King to step into the role. His is still our King and Saviour. We are the hands and feet of God and need to look to him to guide our way through life each and every day. So, when does his reign over us get completed? When we have finished our time on earth and have been welcomed into heaven into the arms of Jesus.

This Sunday gives us time to reflect on a new beginning. A new beginning, waiting for the arrival of a baby, who is found in a manger and waiting for his coming again. But do we just sit and wait? We all know the answer to that is no. But what will you do to start a new beginning in your walk with God?

I found out through facebook and bit of reading, that November 25 begins the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. It is a United Nations campaign to challenge the world for the prevention and elimination of violence against women. This year is the 30th anniversary of this and its theme is ‘From Awareness to Accountability’

This falls right into place with what Jesus asks of us. We need to speak out for others, not just women but for all people. Sheila has been leading a book study for the past few weeks, using the book “The Social Justice Bible Challenge”. It has been quite an eye opener for me to realize how often Social Justice is represented or spoken about in the Bible.
In this book, Michael Curry, the Episcopal Church’s Bishop had this to say about Social Justice:

“Jesus didn’t start an institution, he started a movement. The same movement as Abraham and Sarah. The same movement as Moses and the Israelites. The same movement Amos described when he said ‘Let justice roll down like a river, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream’.

This is a movement commissioned and commanded by God to transform this world from the nightmare we’ve too often made it, and into the dream that God has intended all along.”

As we come up to Advent, the time of waiting, we don’t have to wait until his arrival at Christmas for that new beginning in our walking with Jesus. BECAUSE, by starting now, by the time of his joyous birth, we can already have made a difference in someone’s life and in the world that Jesus still reigns.

So what will your new beginning look like? In the words of Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek – The Next Generation…
Make it so!

Collect
Providing God,
You journeyed with Ruth
And comforted Hannah
When their lives were burdened by grief.
Grant us faith to believe you will provide a future where we see none,
That bitterness may turn to joy
And barrenness may bear life. Amen.
Readings

1 Samuel 1: 4-20

1 Samuel 2: 1-10

Hebrews 10: 11-25

Mark 13: 1-8

As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and An- drew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?’ Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

War and Peace

I have always been uncomfortable at Remembrance Day services, whether in churches or at cenotaphs at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month. It is meet and right to be uncomfortable, for it is not a comforting time or event to remember. My discomfort in youth stemmed from what seemed to me then a glorification of war, a celebration of the glory and honour of the sacrifice of fallen heroes. It was all a little unsettling, especially as history and literature so graphically show us the horror and injustice, the propaganda and atrocities, committed by all sides in conflict. Wilfred Owen summed up the feeling for many in the elegiac poem he wrote during WWI, “Dulce et Decorum Est”: if the reader could witness the gruesome pain and horror of a gas attack, Owen concludes, then “my friend, you would not tell with such high zest/ To children ardent for some desperate glory/The Old Lie: “Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori.” It is not sweet and gentle to die for one’s country; it is an insane, horrible, hellish, painful death.

On Remembrance Day we should talk of peace, not war, but it is so difficult, for our minds, our language, conditioned by centuries, more easily sing of arms and man than the way of peace.

Or so thought Ernest Hemingway’s narrator in the finest novel to emerge from the First World War, A Farewell to Arms: reflecting on his experiences and observations while serving on the Italian front as an ambulance driver—something Hemingway himself did—the young lieutenant, who has narrowly escaped death in a mortar attack—again as Hemingway himself experienced—observes that he “was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain . . . I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it . . . words such as glory, honour, courage, or hallow were [now] obscene.” A bitter cynicism reflected there, shared by many veterans who expressed themselves artistically after that war. After WWI and II, we live in a skeptical age; we do not easily trust politicians and statesmen to do the right thing. We are too aware of the influence of arms manufacturers and multi-national corporations, of the dependence of our economy on military spending, of the sale of arms by the developed world to the underdeveloped world. We know that the five major arms suppliers to the world are the five permanent member states of the UN Security council.

It has often been said that “war is waged by old men; fought by young ones.” I saw a billboard once that read, “Bring back Canadian peacekeepers; send the politicians.” Visiting a Canadian war cemetery in the Netherlands, I was moved to anger at the ages of the dead on the simple white tombstones, 17, 18, 20, 22. When I became a father, my discomfort with Remembrance Day increased a thousandfold; I cannot stand the thought of any of my children—all our children—going off to war. I will do anything in my power to prevent that from ever happening. That’s what Remembrance Day means to me now, and what I think it has come to mean to many: not a celebration of war but a declaration that world war must not happen again: there must be no more sacrifice of the younger generation by an older. We owe our children and our children’s children that promise and assurance.

On Remembrance Day we should talk of peace, not war, but it is so difficult, for our minds, our language, conditioned by centuries, more easily sing of arms and man than the way of peace. War is the failure of the human imagination. Surely the central message of the Prince of Peace calls us to radically change our attitudes, to pursue the way of justice and peace. The hymn often sung at cenotaphs this day, “I vow to thee, my country,” contrasts our earthly nation with an as yet undiscovered realm of peace. It seems after 2000 years we still haven’t found our Lord’s way. The churches, indeed the religions of the world, have a central role to play in the cause of peace. At the base of so many conflicts in our world lie hatred and prejudice of peoples of differing faiths and creeds. If spiritual leaders worldwide spoke loudly and plainly against hatred, against racism, against injustice; if religious leaders of the world would not give their blessing and encouragement to human conflict, surely their impact would be felt among the people. All the world’s great religions profess the cause of peace, yet we have Muslim armed against Jew, Christian against Muslim, Protestant against Catholic. Everyone seems to hate everybody else and the way of peace is lost in the shouting rhetoric. If spiritual leaders cannot love, there is little hope for their followers. Words such as sacred, glory, hallow, could have meaning again if they were infused with their true spiritual significance, if they were applied to the cause of life, not death. “I have set before you life and death,” says the Lord; “therefore, choose life, that you and your children may live.” Asked once how to achieve world peace, Mother Teresa answered, “Children, ask your parents to teach you how to pray. That is the beginning.”

On Remembrance Day, we honour those who fought for their country in wartime, and it is meet and right that we should lament their loss. But let us not forget those who returned from war maimed, physically, emotionally and spiritually. In the last ten years, the Canadian armed forces have lost more soldiers from suicide than were killed in Afghanistan. Let us not forget the wives and children of veterans, living and dead, whose lives have been shattered as well. Let us not forget those who struggle for peace for the good of all nations and commit ourselves anew to that quest. We, as Christians, as Canadians, as members of the human family, need to challenge every call to hatred we hear, every slur against other races, against refugees or people of other faiths. All people everywhere want the same thing—food and shelter and a brighter future for their children. That common goal should unite us all. The way of the Prince of Peace is through compassion and justice. It is not an easy road, but it is our Lord’s Great Commandment.

Collect

God of widows and strangers,
you protect the oppressed and forgotten
and feed the hungry with good things.
You stand among us in Christ, offering life to all.
give us open hearts and minds
to respond with love to the world, caring for those for whom you care. Amen.

Readings

Ruth 3: 1-5; 4: 13-17

Psalm 127

Hebrews 9: 24-28

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgement, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Mark 12: 38-44

Today’s reading from Hebrews offers one doctrine in explanation of why Jesus died on the cross.

In this reading we are given a theology of atonement—that God caused Jesus to die as payment for the sins of humanity-past, present and future.

I say ‘one explanation’ because there are a number of other explanations which are part of our tradition. There is a growing consensus that Jesus was killed because of his radical teaching which offended both Jewish religious leaders and Roman authorities.

His summary teaching ‘love God, love your neighbour’ put forth an alternate visions of God and humanity.

Set out below are some thoughts on atonement by Bishop John Spong.—This too presents an alternate vision but also calls humanity to task for atrocities committed in the name of and/or sanctioned by Christianity as various points in history.

“What human life needs is not a theology of human denigration. That is what atonement theology gives us. What we need is a theology of human fulfillment.”–John Shelby Spong

“Atonement theology is not the pathway to life. The ability to give ourselves away to others in love is. It is not the winners who achieve life’s meaning; it is the givers. That is the basis upon which a new Christianity can be built for a new world. Atonement theology was born in Gentile ignorance of Jewish worship traditions. It was fed over the centuries by literalizing biblical narratives in ways that Jewish worshippers, who knew about storytelling, would never have understood. I say it again: Biblical literalism is nothing less than a Gentile heresy. Its results are now revealed in the fact that Christianity has been transformed into a religion of victimization. For centuries we have practiced our faith by building up ourselves as winners, survivors, the holders of ultimate truth, while we have denigrated the humanity of others. That is the source of evil. That is why Christianity has given birth to anti-Semitism. That is why the crusades were initiated to kill “infidels.” That is why we gave our blessing to such things as the divine right of kings, slavery, segregation, and apartheid. That is why we defined women as sub-human, childlike, and dependent. That is why we became homophobic. That is why we became child abusers and ideological killers.

What human life needs is not a theology of human denigration. That is what atonement theology gives us. What we need is a theology of human fulfillment.”

–John Shelby Spong, Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy: A Journey into a New Christianity Through the Doorway of Matthew’s Gospel

John Spong does not ‘mince words’, does he?