Posts Tagged ‘change’

…I once was lost…

January 14, 2012

Sometimes we lose are way –

that is the understanding at the outset of Samuel’s story. Eli has lost his way

The people of God cannot be far behind, for Eli is their Spiritual guide.

Eli’s eyes are dim, his apprentice did not yet know the Lord –

in fact, the word of the Lord was rare in those days.

God’s people had lost their way.

So what does it take to get back on track?

An act of God would do nicely, thank you – a little smoke and fire –

a well placed plague or two (just like the good old days)

and everyone will jump right back on board…

And of course, God chooses something completely different.

This call to Samuel is a study in new direction –

calling one with no experience – calling one with no bad habits – calling the young to judge the old –

all these are things we would reject as impractical, or hurtful,

or disrespectful of the legacy of our ancestors…

but these are the things of God, and all is not always as we think it should be.

But Eli knows how it must be.

Eli has lost his touch, and his connection to the almighty.

He is not bitter, or even surprised when God’s word proposes a new (and difficult) direction –

one that does not include Eli or his sons.

The word given to Samuel soon comes to pass.

Eli’s sons go with the ark into battle – the sons are killed and the ark is captured.

The news of this causes Eli to fall in fright and he too is killed (1 Samuel 4: 5-18)

The arrogance of the sons of Eli results in their death and in Israel’s shame.

There clearly needs to be a new direction,

and the continuing story of Eli and his family suggests

that there is no room for arrogance in this new God-thing…

Samuel is one of many new starts that God makes with Israel

as they struggle to find their place in the promised land.

There are some false starts – some total flops – but always there is God seeking new life and new ideas from the wreckage of our arrogance and pride. Eli sums up the reality for us:

“It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him…”

Samuel’s solution was not perfect – the pride of an entire people is difficult to overcome.

More change is necessary, kings will come and go –

the strength of Israel will fade and grow and fade again

before Jesus comes and offers a similarly disturbing word from God.

Jesus offers a truly remarkable vision of the way of God among God’s people –

not just a prophet – not merely gifted with divine insight

(you saw me under the fig tree??? You must be the son of God, the King of Israel!) -

Jesus promises greater things than this mysterious identification of Nathaniel.

You will see heaven opened, and angels coming and going.

In short, Jesus promises that the boundaries between the holy and the earthly will be blurred –

the boundary lines of the kingdom of God,

once drawn very rigidly, will become permeable.

Nothing will be as we imagined – it is the Lord, after all –

so are we willing to say with Eli “Let God do as seems good to God?”

we are not ready for that – let’s face it.

We are not able to grasp the importance of the time we live in –

our eyes are dimmed and the word of God is not so common,

yet we are not ready to hear from new voices, nor to see with clear eyes.

Everything has changed but the church –

and the church is going to be left behind.

–we have been living in an incredible misunderstanding,

imagining that unchangeable somehow meant stationary.

The thing is, God doesn’t often remain still.

God may occasionally slow down – but most often, God races ahead –

planting visions and offering glimpses of glory –

all designed to fuel the curiosity of people longing for liberation.

Jesus promise of heaven on earth – the angels ascending and descending – J

and Jesus claims of the immanence of the reign of God – the justice of God – the peace of God –

are meant to urge us forward into a new reality –

that we have chosen to settle into a holding pattern is unfortunate –

and we will pay the price for it.

Not in such spectacular fashion as Eli and his family, perhaps –

but we will lose sight of the promise, and that is spiritual death.

All is not lost however – all is never lost –

it is the Lord, after all; doing what seems good -

and in Christ, we discover that what seems good to God is to extend grace –

to once more inspire in us the curiosity that welcomes change –

to bless us with vision that sees opportunities for faith – that hope is still mine in my vocation

it is still our hope as a community of faith – as followers of Christ.

Our challenge is to accept the gift that God has placed before us –

to open ourselves to that life-changing notion

that God would work with us, in us and through us to bring God’s kingdom to light.

Christ is calling – God is moving – the kingdom is just around the corner.

Are you ready?

 

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Advent 4 A – Out of the ordinary

December 18, 2010

This may be our favourite birth story.

Favourite because we can’t tell stories about our own children

without making them uncomfortable (at least, I can’t…yet)

but also since it is the most significant birth story in our experience,

because of the character (and purpose) of the child who is at the centre of it.

 

as with any ‘good’ story, however,

there are a variety of opinions concerning the details of the thing.

And today, we consider Matthew’s version.

 

“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.”

but not before the bloodlines are established –

Matthew would be sympathetic to that most basic of questions in this part of the country -

“who’s your father?”

Matthew anticipates that question from us about Jesus

by taking us back through the history of the Jewish people

he hits all the highlights –

every famous father (and several ‘infamous’ fathers) in all of Scripture -

but we are left with a bit of a problem…

 

In the end, this Joseph fellow –

no matter his pedigree, in spite of his apparently rugged righteousness -

is too ordinary for this moment.

 

And it is Joseph alone who is faced with the raw truth of the moment;

his betrothed is with child – he knows that it is not his.

Usually when people talk about the “scandal of the gospel”

they are referring to the grace offered through Christ “while we were yet sinners”

but here is a scandal of a different kind.

 

We might not understand the fill impact of divine grace

but we know plenty about ruined reputations,

and the uncomfortable questions of questionable parenthood.

What’s a husband to do?

 

He was her husband – no question about that.

And it seems that he truly loved her – this talk about his righteousness

is a macho disguise for real affection.

Joseph did not want Mary exposed to the full penalty of the law

or the ridicule of her family and the larger community.

So he believed that his only option, in light of his concern for Mary, was a quiet divorce -

something below the surface of common conversation -

something that would disguise the truth and save them all.

 

Joseph’s decision is familiar – ordinary – and one that we might choose.

Keep the truth at arms length – keeping reputations safe, and imaginations in check -

that’s the safe way; it is comfortable behaviour, that asks little of us and changes nothing,

but there is a problem …

If God has laid claim to us, then there are some things that must change;

imaginations will run wild –

because we have all heard fantastical stories about how God works -

the “ordinary” will be cast aside,

and we are not really ready for what that means.

 

If God is with us, as the prophet promised,

then our approach to life – our acceptance of the “same-old same old” -

is no longer acceptable – we will have much asked of us –

we will desire changes where none seem possible

and so, we have a decision to make.

 

We can deny that we have been grafted into God’s family tree

quietly disown God who seeks us in love.

We can secretly slip away from the truth that threatens to undo us

the truth of love without boundaries

the truth of birth (genesis in the Greek) – literally a beginning -

that is offered by God who seeks us in scandalous ways,

or we can wake from our dream of self-sufficient safety

and set out on an unknown road.

What’s a person to do?

 

 

 

Ordinary people like Joseph – like you and I – want nothing more than to avoid the scandal

to continue with our plans – not too ambitious,

not too far outside the well established patterns of our lives.

We treasure our reputations as quiet, hard-working, respectable people – as Joseph did –

and are properly suspicious of anything else.

But when the promise of God comes suddenly and very personally;

when visions in the night speak of putting our fear aside

and taking our place in the ageless and continuing story of God’s redemption,

how can we walk away?

 

Matthew’s gospel doesn’t really do justice to the enormous decision

that comes to Joseph when he wakes.

“He did as the angel of the Lord commanded him…”

it seems an anti-climax, but it was the first and greatest step

towards the truth that would save us all.

 

This birth story is our favourite, and endures as a story of great promise.

It is proof of God breaking into our carefully tended lives.

It is proof that our options are no longer limited by fear for our reputations.

God’s decision to take a place among us in Jesus

has forever marked us as brothers and sisters of the one who knows no fear.

In one, shining moment of grace – by the gift of this Holy child -

we discover we can never again be ordinary.

 

 

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The end of the world as we know it – Nov 14, 2010

December 3, 2010

I am nearly at a loss for words.

The good news that meets us in Scripture this morning

comes with a certain sinister nature that I don’t want to consider.

Our present circumstances – death and disaster, disease and dismay –

are too closely resembled in this mornings reading from Luke.

Context, however, can be a powerfully helpful thing.

 

When pressed for information about the meaning of his words about the holy temple

(soon to be destroyed…but how could he have known?)

Jesus launches a tirade against false prophets –

and offers his disciples a glimpse of what might come their way…

it is not pleasant.

 

Do not be terrified, he says (not a good start).

Horrible things are bound to happen – the end will not follow immediately.

Before it gets better, it will get worse –

do not be terrified, because before any of this happens,

you will have to answer for your behaviour

(of course they will, but how could he have known?)

 

Jesus is summing up his teaching to them with a warning –

not of the end of time – not an apocalypse –

but an earthly reckoning for those who are heavenly oriented.

 

 

 

Should you follow, Jesus seems to be saying –

should you grasp my teaching and learn to live God’s kingdom into reality,

you will have some explaining to do.

Because God’s Kingdom does not fit neatly into the reality of this life.

 

You will stand out – you will be questioned –

you will find yourselves speechless, abandoned and ridiculed.

Why? Because you will find yourselves with hope, among a people whose hope is gone.

 

We might be tempted to read these words

as proof that “the end is near…”

don’t you believe it!

To fall into that trap is to become a people without hope,

and that is not who we are.

 

We are people of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have a hope that is born in an empty tomb,

and there is no greater hope than that.

Ours is hope that puts to death our fear of death

without denying the reality of death –

we can live, not in the smug certainty

that we will be saved because of our belief,

but in the peaceful assurance that we are being accompanied

from disaster to disaster –

by the living reigning Christ,

without whom we could not take another step.

 

Because we are a gospel people –

because we have this cultural memory of the story of Jesus

from beginning to glorious end –

we are not dismayed by what seems to be a dire prediction of destruction.

The destruction will happen – is happening – has happened.

And what we know, without a shadow of doubt,

is that through destruction God’s greater purpose has been revealed.

 

At the cross – in the open, empty tomb -

we find our liberation.

Free from fear – full of hope –

we are saved from any expectation of disaster.

 

In our darkness, Christ has offered a shining light of hope –

and that is good news indeed

 

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Pentecost 19 C 2010 – World Comunion Sunday

October 3, 2010

Increase our faith, the disciples cry – and Jesus is not impressed.

It’s not your faith that’s the problem, Jesus tells them,  it’s you.

How’s that for direct – how’s that for getting right to the heart of the matter –

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild; I don’t think so.

Hard as it is to hear, Jesus is telling his friends – his only friends –

that they have forgotten their place.

They were suffering an identity crisis – forgetting who they were,

misunderstanding God’s call to life in service…(to a new arrangement of power?)

and Jesus draws this to their attention with an arresting description from their reality.

Slaves and masters – there’s a relationship they were familiar with.

The rules are clear – the order of things apparent – and Jesus uses their knowledge of the way things were to help them imagine how things might be.

God’s rule supposes a certain order to things

an order that sees us grateful, not greedy for more..

because ‘more’ is not necessary when God provides -

“even the smallest kernel of faith allows for the impossible…”

The disciples have not fully accepted Jesus teaching on the kingdom.

They seem to have completely misunderstood God’s gifts of grace.

How often, I wonder, are we guilty of the same kind of misunderstanding?

We are prone to asking for more than we have – and ours is a society that teaches that success means never taking “no” for an answer.

Even within the church, we are never satisfied with the current arrangement,

having become convinced that bigger is better –

we sound just as petty as the disciples:

We need more – more people (of faith), more trappings (of faith),

more of anything that will mark us as enduring and successful.

And Jesus words condemn these attitudes in us.

Jesus may have exaggerated to make his point – but make it he will:

When you have done what you were told to do – expect no thanks –

expect no reward, know that you have acted as you ought.

Whether or not we need to extend the metaphor,

and think of ourselves as “worthless slaves” in the manor of many an old-time hymn,

is a discussion for another day.

But trusting in the providence of God

means trusting that your needs will always be met –

choosing to serve the living God

is a choice that puts us in a place of gratitude, not greed –

accepting the gift of faith that comes by God’s Spirit

we obtain a power, not to control but to submit.

That is where Jesus leads me with his metaphor -

hopeful that the church might overcome her inferiority complex

and accept that bigger is not always better – that enough is as good as a feast –

Today we remember that great mystery of service and receive again that token of grace

in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

In this Sacrament, the church remembers that in his living and dying,

Jesus was doing just what he ought to have done.

Today we share the feast with those of many denominations

marking a day to remember that the true purpose of the church

is to witness to the goodness and grace that God offers in Jesus Christ.

Perhaps today is the day that we recognize

that submission to the will of God who loves us

is the best response to our circumstances, whatever they may be.

Let us ready ourselves for the feast, sure that our place in God’s plan

may well be that of slaves who are content (and willing)

to do “only what we ought to have done…”

Amen – Alleluia – Amen.

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Pentecost 4 C 2010 – 1 Kings 19: 1-14

June 19, 2010

I am just returned from my first General Assembly experience –

where I was once again reminded of the wide diversity of thought and practice

in this Presbyterian Church of ours.

Our similarities seem few and far between when we’re all in the same room;

we employ different terminology –

we have different desires for the church – different styles of worship –

different ways of reading and interpreting and studying and praying.

Everyone thinks they have the answer –

but assembly taught me that the answer is not where you think it might be –

the answer comes in the quiet after the debate

in the calm after the storm.

There were no storms at this assembly –

at least none that threatened the stability

of what our moderator has christened “the good ship Generosity”

but there were vivid differences –

many of which helped me read this morning’s Scriptures with fresh appreciation.

Elijah is scared.

He has honoured God in the way he thought was best –

he has come up champion in a competition of prophets –

he has put the false prophets to death by the sword.

And the sponsor of those prophets – Jezebel -has put a price on Elijah’s head.

Elijah is confused.

He has done the work of God – done it faithfully and well – and still he suffers.

Hiding in the dessert –

determined to lay down and die on his own terms,

rather than be humiliated by Jezebel –

he encounters an angel of the Lord,

who prepares him for a journey-

prepares him to meet God.

Elijah had high hopes –

big expectations – they are all pushed aside.

God is not in the big noise – the brilliant fire – the rushing wind.

Silence signals God’s arrival, and God’s question is damning; “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Elijah’s hope is, in this encounter, reborn.

He develops a renewed appreciation for the God whom he serves -

he finds new courage, and a new mission

His former fears, forgotten.

The church needs these kinds of reminders.

The ideas that come to us from our brothers and sisters in the PCC are occasionally startling.

We might well feel as though we are in a competition among prophets -

a competition that it does not pay to win.

For the winners must constantly prove (and improve) themselves

the contestants in the battle for truth, justice, and the renewal of a fallen world

are supposed to be after the same thing.

This is Kingdom work… but whose kingdom is it.

Some of us are content to hide in the dessert -waiting for the dust to settle.

Some of us are never going to leave the dessert, so comfortable has it become.

Others propose that they have found the secret, and hold the keys to the Kingdom, but they will share them only on their terms.

There is a confusing jumble of information and worship styles and programs for the future vision of this and that – and we can be forgiven if it seems best to remain ignorant of all this, bide our time, and do whatever we need to do to survive.

But we are called to do more.

We are called to worship – to share our joy in the knowledge of our Saviour

We are called to live as though God was in our midst – Risen and Redeeming

but we don’t know what to look for.

Some in the church would have us believe – as Elijah once believed –

that God is found in the noise and fanfare;

fiery preaching and sentimental music –

but I have visited the dessert that is “contemporary worship”,

and the Lord was not in the praise band.

Some would have us think that our future is in the earthshaking conviction that we

(the few, the faithful, the redeemed) are the only people who possess the truth –

that our only hope is in a return to what is nebulously described as “family values” -

but I have been assaulted by their certainty,

and discovered that, for me, at least,

the Lord was not in the fight against the ordination of women,

or the campaign to stop the gay pride parade.

It’s not that praise and preaching and principles aren’t important –

but we will discover, as Elijah did, that they are never as important as we want them to be.

And when the noise dies down – when the fires are quenched –

when there is nothing left except the dessert and the questions and the person seeking God –

it is there that God is always to be found.

Amen

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Pentecost C 2010 – Taking the easy way…

May 22, 2010

There is within our DNA, an irresistible temptation to take the easy way.

It marks our path through history –

it accuses us in the midst of our journey –

it beckons us into an uncertain future.

It says “do what you know; ask only the essential questions; work to your strengths.”

No doubt those early wanderers described in Genesis 11 were lured by such voices.

There is promise here – promise of something new and wonderful.

This story is offered after the flood in what scholars call biblical pre-history in Genesis.

Humanity has been given a fresh start – and yet,

our tendency is to do what we’ve always done.

Settle – build – make a name for ourselves.

It’s easy. It’s what we know.

And in no time there is a tower built of sun-baked brick;

scraping the sky – dominating the landscape.

And then God wanders by. Not your average job-site supervisor.

Even then, it seems, the Lord had a plan for this people

but it did not involve simplicity, sameness, or a lasting human legacy:

And so Genesis tells us how the people were scattered, and confused,

and we can presume – for the Scriptural narrative is full of examples -

that the search for simplicity begins again,

in dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of separate locations.

These lessons from the history of faith remind us

that the easy way is not always the best way.

The path of least resistance in us, often meets the most resistance in God.

How much different would our history have been, if those wandering ancestors of ours,

instead of settling down to a project that suited their particular skills,

had stopped to ask the question; “what would God have us do here?”

A vast, open plain. A new and glorious chance to serve – to worship –

to experience the things of God.

And we chose to gather and build and exert ourselves on the situation.

Not easy, perhaps, but easier than seeking out God’s plan –

easier than pausing and wondering aloud

what good God might have in store for us.

Surely we have learned our lesson by the time of Christ.

After His resurrection and his ascension to glory

Jesus friends and followers gather to wait

and wonder what else God might have in store for them.

Jesus promised them a helper, but that help comes in a most unsettling form:

Wind and fire and an overwhelming urge to give praise to God.

In the midst of it all, language barriers are blasted away –

and from the outside it looks like pure chaos…

The easy thing to do is assume that you are witnessing a fools gathering.

Such outrageous public displays of faith

are not the sort of thing that people accept as good behaviour -

it’s too hard to explain – too difficult to control.

There are segments of the Christian church (Canadian Presbyterians among them)

that harbour a secret fear of such an outpouring of the Spirit that is described in Acts chapter 2

because it may cause us to do and say things

that are quite beyond our control and outside of our understanding.

It is that fear of the unknown – that illusion of lost control -

that prompts us to take up our trade and build bricks

when there are finer and fiercer tasks to be done.

And it is our fears that Jesus addresses when, with those fearful disciples,

we wonder what we will do without him.

We need a ‘resurrection reminder’ – something to inspire us –

to lift us from our fear and dread -

and on this day we remember that God’s wisdom has provided us with just that.

The Spirit is a poorly understood concept

outside the hand-waving, ecstasies of ‘some other’ denominations

but the Spirit that has come to us

is more than just a source of curiosity and occasional ridicule.

God’s Spirit powers our ideas, and inhabits our imaginations,

allowing us to continue in faith where our path is confused

and when public opinion seems to run against us.

The Spirit provides courage in difficult decisions and wisdom for delicate conversations.

Without the Spirit’s help, there would be no worship, no music, no point in our sacraments.

This helper – our promised Advocate – is part of what motivates us to follow the way of Jesus – to seek communion with God.

There is nothing easy about this.

In choosing the path of faith we have, in truth, abandoned what we know –

what is safe and within our control – and set out on an unfamiliar road.

But Jesus has walked that road before us –

and with the Spirit’s help, we will discover new gifts, gain new strength,

and welcome the challenges we encounter

as God calls us forward. Amen

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More Grace – less change. Lent 5C, 2010

March 20, 2010

A new thing comes – can’t you see it?

It is something that will put everything you have known, to shame

leave history, as you understand it, in the dust.

This is the sort of statement that, if we were honest,

leaves us all quaking in our collective boots.

We’re wary of new things – new ideas need to be proven and tested

new people too – and this prophet-talk of changing horizons surely means trouble.

Change comes to all things – but it comes to the people of God last of all,

and the herald of change is to be feared and questioned.

So it has always been with the people of God.

Those who howl about change (the prophets) are shunned –

Those who live out change – Jesus and his disciples – are pestered, ridiculed

and occasionally arrested and killed.

Such is our terror over anything different.

So what is this ‘new thing’ that causes such consternation?

What is it that God’s prophets – God’s servants – God’s Son

seem so determined to bring to our attention?

Upon inspection, there’s nothing new about it…

Isaiah does not announce that God has abandoned the history shared with the people of Israel.

We are reminded of the goodness that brought the people out of slavery

and into the promised land.

The new thing is not something new about God –

it is a new awareness on the part of God’s people that the prophet is calling for.

We are invited to cast our minds back – way back -

to the stories of God that sustained us in distress

and remember how extravagant God is – was – and ever shall be…

Paul – a reluctant prophet – would also remind us that change is in the air.

His life has assumed a different direction – though his history was blameless –

his intentions pure – his ‘religion’ nearly perfect…

yet this change – this new thing in Paul’s life is familiar ground for God.

Through Christ, Paul recognizes the saving and sovereign grace of God in a brand new way,

though such grace is as old as time itself.

And then there’s Jesus.

His very presence offends the traditionalists. He seems to know more than he should.

He speaks with an authority that his opponents can’t explain.

He claims an intimacy with God that is unheard of – almost indecent.

His every move – his every word – points toward change; encourages renewal -

and naturally, we resist such talk.

John’s gospel understands our reluctance.

John urges us to consider the results of Jesus ministry even in the early stages of the story.

As Jesus gathers with his friends (the friend he raised from death…)

as the pressure from authorities continues to mount,

as the feast of Passover draws near

a woman – Mary – offers a sacrifice so extravagant – so shocking – it defies belief.

Perfume so expensive that it could have sustained their ministry for a whole year – maybe longer!

An act so intimate -  it was almost guaranteed to offend.

But the only people who take offence

are those who might have profited from her withholding the gift.

Offence disguises greed and selfishness (for Judas kept the common purse, and stole from it)

and Jesus dismisses the indignation (then and now) and calls our attention to the gift.

Grace is his focus – gratitude, the only response.

Is this a new thing?

If God’s goodness has, until now, been a foreign concept,

then let us embrace this new way of seeing (and understanding) God.

Our call to live a new life in Christ is a call that should frighten us,

not for what we must give up but for what we will rediscover

of God’s purpose; God’s goodness through Christ’s life, death and resurrection.

If grace and gratitude are new to us –

then thank God again for giving us the experience of Grace through the gospel of Christ.

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