Union Church

January 22, 2012. Jonah selected verses

Today’s readings capture the main points of the Jonah story.
This fantastical tale is set in the 8th Century B.C.E. It is a teaching tale set at the time when the mighty Assyrian Empire was threatening the borders of Israel.

Scholars tell us that the book of Jonah was actually written 300 years later, in the 5th Century B.C.E. It was written at the time of the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple after the Exile in Babylon. The story deals with the issue of re-establishing Judea in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.

We know it is always safer to set a tale in another time period other than your own when you are questioning the control system.

Remember Ezra and Nehemiah show up after a few years of re-occupying Jerusalem and say to the early wave of re-builders, “Come you out from among them and keep yourselves pure.”
In other words get rid of your Samaritan wives and children and marry only the daughters of Judah, who are coming in the second wave of resettlement.

Such harsh requirements caused some to ask,

“What kind of God is guiding the re-construction era?”

So in this teaching story, this cautionary tale, Jonah is presented as a prophet of old.
He knows God.
He can talk with God.
In fact, he has been a little worried about God lately.
God seems to be going a little soft on crime.
The ‘eye for an eye’ of Exodus isn’t so pronounced these days.

January 18, 2012
1 Samuel 3: 1-10

The word of the Lord was rare in Eli’s day;
visions were not widespread.

Eli himself had lost more than his eyesight.
His own, sons abused their priestly office and thought life was only about them. Eli just could not see it. But God could and had a stern message for Eli and Israel.
The Word of the Lord was rare in Eli’s day;
visions were not widespread.

So what exactly did one hear as the Word of the Lord?
What did one see in a vision from God?
How was one to know?

Samuel certainly didn’t know.
He was a kid, just an apprentice. He had been dedicated to God but had not yet experienced God.

The Word of the Lord was rare in Eli’s day;
visions were not widespread.

But the lamp of God’s presence had not gone out in the sanctuary at Shiloh. It had not gone out as a new generation slept there, and learned how to listen, how to attend to God’s call. So God calls to Samuel as he lies down to sleep: Something we all do 99.9% of the time each night of our lives.
I can remember only a few times actually staying up around the clock. One was a high school graduation party and the other was an all night Easter vigil with the youth.
How about you?

Now we don’t necessarily fall asleep easily every night.

Jan. 8, 2012. Epiphany.
Isaiah 60:1-6. Matthew 2:1-12

The Christmas story is told in the gospel of Luke.
It is the story of angels, shepherds and an overcrowded Inn.
It is a story of a stable and the humble birth of the Christ child.

The gospel of Matthew tells the story of Epiphany.
It is the story of a star, Wise men and prophecy fulfilled.
It is the story of gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh offered at the birth of Wisdom’s child.

Epiphany: God made manifest.
Epiphany: Revealing what God is up to in our lives.
Epiphany: The shining light of God’s Presence revealed to the nations as prophesied long ago.

Matthew presents Wisdom’s child born in King David’s town of Bethlehem.
The same Wisdom Isaiah sees shining on his people one day.
The same Wisdom Isaiah sees enlightening the nations and eliciting gifts of gold and frankincense.
So with the bright star’s help, let’s look at Divine Wisdom, as God’s Presence revealed first in Jesus and made intelligible for us today.

Over the past decade, many scientific disciplines and belief systems have come to realize that we each have an outer manifestation, or physical body and an inner spirituality, or presence. While this is expressed in different ways, we see this understanding in the story of Epiphany. It is the inner light of God’s presence that shines forth, through the infant Jesus.

December 4, 2011. Advent II

Isaiah 40: 1-5
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. ?Speak tenderly to Jerusalem....
A voice cries out:?"In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. ?
Every valley shall be lifted up,and every mountain and hill be made low;?the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
?Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together,?for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

Gospel: Mark 1: 1-8
The beginning of the good news* of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, ?"See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:?‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’" ?John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’"

November 20, 2011.

Reflection 1

Julia of Norwich, an English mystic of the 14th century said,
“Prayer unites the soul to God”

It’s funny, well, maybe I should say sad, that in our 21st century busy lives, prayer is often only used when people are in a state of crisis or desperation.
On a day to day basis we feel fine.
We have everything under control so to speak.
Prayer rarely even enters our radar screen.
But then, we hit a wall; be it mental, physical, situations with family or our job. In desperation we call and sometimes even shout out for help. Some folk aren’t certain to whom or to what they are shouting. Yet in the midst of these times of desperation God is often discovered.

Reflection 2

The gospel stories tell us that Jesus’ teaching ministry lasted about 3 years. Not very long.
But his intercessory ministry is still happening 2,000 years later.

Over the years, I have learned to look for the people who are the “pray-ers” of the community. These folk rarely hold great positions in the community but they are corner stones of their congregations.
Why?
These faithful men and women don’t allow the entanglements and crazy schedules to deter them from prayer.
Often they are our seniors.
These faithful folk have the ability to hold people up in prayer while they do regular tasks.
While they wash a dish or glass they are praying.
While they fold the clothing they are praying.
When they take out the garbage they are praying.

November 13, 2011
1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11,
In the midst of the crazy goings on in the Eurozone these past weeks, an even crazier situation has erupted from Penn State University this week.
The president of the university, the vice president, the head of the athletic department, and the iconic football coach Joe Paterno were all sacked on Wednesday.
Why?
Because they effectively ignored the activity of a serial pedophile in their midst. They were too busy protecting the brand, the Penn State Nitney Lions Football Team to recognize these crimes as crimes.

To make matters worse, much of the student body and alumni were also so caught up in the identity politics of school and hero worship that they rioted upon hearing of Paterno’s firing.

The crazy thing is that the information was all out there.
The State Attorney general held an extensive news conference on Monday about sexual assaults spanning some 15 years perpetrated on 10 year old boys by a former assistant coach.
It seems everyone got the gravity of the situation except the Penn Staters.

After the Wednesday riot, the governor went on TV Thursday, telling Penn State to calm down because everyone was watching.

Whether it is the Eurozone or Penn State, when we over identify with people, or possessions; teams or institutions; liberties or lifestyles, we become blind to what is real in life.
When we make secondary things primary we are living in the dark.
We stumble in the shadows of error and arrogance.
We can’t see what is right in front of us.

November 6, 2011.

Scripture:Joshua 24: 1, 14, 15 The Tribes Renew the Covenant

Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God.

‘Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve God in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.’

Remembrance Sunday is a highly charged service.

Each one of us comes here today with our own family histories, our own family stories.
Some of us served overseas.
Some of us had husbands or wives who were in the war.
Some of us had fathers, grandfathers or uncles overseas, waiting to be deployed, or connected in some way to the war effort.
Some of us had mothers or grandmothers who were Rosie the Riveters.

Each one of us comes here today shaped by and living out of our generational stories.
Some of us remember the war era and its sacrifices.
Some of us are from the peace not war era and its protests.
Some of us come from the present war makes no sense era.

Canada is technically at war in Afghanistan and we have the casualties to prove it and the stalemate to question it.

October 30, 2011.
Matthew 5
Today is October 30th, one day before all Hallows’ Eve and 2 days before All Saints Day. Today’s reading from Matthew is the one selected for All Saints Day. We all know it. And Matthew’s version is the most familiar.

Saints are people who have shaped and blessed our lives.
By definition, most of these people are senior to us and have already died.
Saints are not perfect people. They can even be difficult to live with.
However, saints are those who open their lives to God’s wisdom and learn life’s lessons of love compassion forgiveness, tolerance and self-control.
In their generosity, they seek to pass these learnings on to us and others.

In terms of the Beatitudes, they learn to recognize where true blessedness lies. They separate the religious approach of making the Beatitudes requirements from the spiritual approach of turning them into a new way of seeing the world and being with God.

In summary of the Beatitudes, they learn the lessons that:
You are blessed when it is no longer about you but more and more about God.

They understand that: You are blessed when you see and accept all things in God and God in all things.

They live out the wisdom that: You are blessed when you are finally willing to just be the change you want to see in the world.

November 14, 2010.
Luke 21: 5-19
So often when the church gets stuck in crisis we hunker-down, circle the wagons, and hold on tight to what we know. We shift into siege mode, or assume a siege mentality.
We choose “not to die.”
And we can fail to realize that choosing “not to die” isn’t the same as “choosing to live.”

The gospels were written in times of crisis.
Mark writes his Gospel as the Temple in Jerusalem falls to the Romans.
Luke writes his gospel decades later.
Luke knows something Mark didn’t.
Luke knows that when those stone walls came tumbling down Jesus didn’t come back.
Jesus didn’t rescue the faithful.
Jesus didn’t usher in an apocalyptic end times clean up.

Luke knows the succession of trouble and crisis that plagued the early Christian Churches.
Luke’s second volume ‘The Act of the Apostles’ recounts many such incidents.
Luke highlights the preaching witness of Steven, Peter and Paul, all executed for their faith.

So it is not the first half of the story, the part about the stones thrown down that is important to Luke.
It is the second half that he adds to Mark’s original story.

Luke is telling a later generation of Christians in direct detail, alluding to the Book of Acts, “it’s not about the crisis, it’s about the witness.”

Luke says, “There will always be times of trouble, being kicked out of the Synagogues, being turned in by friend and family alike to the authorities.
There will always be times of siege.

November 7, 2010
Luke 20: 27-38

It happens to us from time to time.
We hear the phrase unexpectedly come out of our mouth,
“Well I just assumed….”
And often, it is connected with a misunderstanding and some unintended emotion.
Many of our assumptions are gender related or culturally conditioned.

We make assumptions because we want to reach an evaluation, a judgment or a conclusion.
We make assumptions to fill in the gaps when we lack the adequate insider information to be accurate.
Usually, we are accurate enough to get by with our assumptions.
But there are those times when we miss the mark.

Truth be told, our society runs on assumptions.
Making assumptions are the norm for human behaviour and interaction.
We need assumptions yet we suffer from them for they usually miss the bigger picture.

This is what is happening in our scripture reading today:
We have assumptions about resurrection, and assumptions about the final judgment.
Some Sadducees, the party connected to the temple that does not believe in the resurrection, come to Jesus with a trick question.
It is a question concerning Leverite marriage.
If a man marries and then dies leaving no heir, his brother is to marry his widow and raise up sons in his name.
Now in our story today, this situation is stretched to the ridiculous with seven brothers each marrying the same woman and dying without leaving an heir.

So, whose wife will she be in resurrection?
Look at the assumptions, the cultural and gender assumptions.
Who owns her in resurrection?