Deuteronomy 26:5-10
A wandering Aramean was my father; he went down to Egypt and lived there, he and just a handful of his brothers at first, but soon they became a great nation, mighty and many. The Egyptians abused and battered us, in a cruel and savage slavery. We cried out to God, who listened to our voice, saw our destitution, our trouble, our cruel plight. God took us out of Egypt with his strong hand and long arm, terrible and great, with signs and miracle-wonders. God brought us to this place, gave us this land flowing with milk and honey. So here I am. I've brought the first fruits of what was grown on this ground, O God.
2 Corinthians 8:5-13
This was totally spontaneous, entirely their own idea, and caught us completely off guard. What explains it was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God and to us. The other giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working in their lives. That's what prompted us to ask Titus to bring the relief offering to your attention, so that what was so well begun could be finished up. You do so well in so many things - you trust God, you're articulate, you're insightful, you're passionate, you love us - now, do your best in this, too.
I'm not trying to order you around against your will. But by bringing in the Macedonians' enthusiasm as a stimulus to your love, I am hoping to bring the best out of you. You are familiar with the generosity of our Master, Jesus Christ. Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us - in one stroke he became poor and we became rich.
So here's what I think: The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart's been in the right place all along. You've got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it. Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can't. The heart regulates the hands. This isn't so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you're shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even. As it is written,
Nothing left over to the one with the most,
Nothing lacking to the one with the least.
*****************************************************************************
This past week, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, by a vote of 5 to 4, that the health care package proposed by the Obama Administration is constitutional. The process continues. It isn’t completely a done deal, but it’s just about there. Some interesting notes are the violent racist reaction to “Obamacare”, the accusations that he isn’t really American, that socialism is undermining the country - and in a really very sad commentary, Rush Limbaugh announcing that he will move to Costa Rica - except that they also have socialised medicine. In fact, most of the major modern powers have socialised medicine. It is Interesting to look back at some of the prior steps leading to such a process.
First, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, a series of economic programs implemented between 1933 and 1936. The programs were a liberal response to the Great Depression, and focused on the "3 Rs": Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. These were either presidential orders or laws passed by Congress.
Second, Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded to the presidency following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, and was elected President in his own right, winning by a large margin in the 1964 election. As President, Johnson was responsible for designing the "Great Society" legislation that included laws that upheld civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental protection, aid to education, and his "War on Poverty."
Here in Canada: Tommy Douglas, elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1935 as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) party; who left federal politics to become the Saskatchewan CCF's leader and then the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961. His government was the first social democratic government in North America, and introduced the first single payer, universal health care program on the North American continent. After setting up Saskatchewan's medicare program, he stepped down as premier and ran to lead the newly formed federal New Democratic Party, the National CCF's successor party. Douglas was elected as its first federal leader in 1961.
...and we had Dr. Orville Hjertaas, a leading figure in the development of the health services in Saskatchewan, and one of the fathers of medicare. As a member of the Health Services Planning Commission, he helped organize the first two experimental health regions in the Swift Current and Weyburn areas in 1945-46. He played an instrumental role in the implementation of Medicare in Saskatchewan in 1961–62. As one of only two physicians willing to accept appointments to the Medical Care Insurance Commission, he served as its vice-chair. In response to the doctors’ strike, which he refused to join, Hjertaas helped establish the first of the province’s Community Clinics; under his directorship, the Prince Albert Community Clinic pioneered group practice arrangements as well as an approach to Health Care delivery which emphasized prevention.
Both our countries have always promoted ourselves as places of refuge and assistance. We both were founded, one way or another, on biblical principles of sharing and compassion. Much of Canada’s social policy was influenced by the churches - particularly the newly-formed United Church of Canada. Much of American social policy can be traced to the same roots.
Yet, along the way, many have forgotten that we were immigrants to this place. Our families came from elsewhere. Our ancestors came here full of hope in a new life. We did not get the things we have through our own hands, but through the hands of many people who saw promise in a new country. My grandparents on one side, made the difficult journey across the ocean, with seven children. They left difficult circumstances in northern England. When they arrived here, they were welcomed and helped to settle, by others who had also come here. My grandparents on the other side emigrated from Ireland and were able to find employment and assistance.
But there has also been a selfishness in our history. Canadians of Japanese descent, some second and third generation, were discriminated against simply because of their racial roots. Japanese, Germans and Ukrainians were at various times interned in camps because of their ethnic origins. In many cases the churches opposed the internment, but in many cases the churches also supported them.
When our earliest ancestors came here from Europe, they made the assumption that the land was here for the taking. Christian ethics and honesty didn’t apply in dealing with our aboriginal brothers and sisters; we cheated them of their heritage, and their lives. We have, through the years, assumed that what is here is ours and we have the power to give or take...and we begin to discriminate against newcomers on the basis of ‘we were here first’, except that we weren’t.
In recent years, in debates around immigration, refugees, health care and social benefits - in both countries - we hear griping about those who come here and live on welfare, when in fact most don’t. We behave as if all those who are poor are out to cheat us somehow. We bemoan the number of refugees who don’t work, forgetting that often they cannot until their refugee claims are approved. We gripe about the drain on our health care system, as if somehow we have more of a “right” to it because we were here longer. More and more refugees are being sent back, some to certain death in their home countries, for no better reason than prejudice. Fear and selfishness are replacing our generosity and open-ness; rudeness and bullying are replacing our compassion and care.
In fact, that is not a biblical nor a Christian attitude or response. The passage from Deuteronomy notes a person whose father was a refugee, an immigrant to another land; from a place of slavery to a place where it was possible to live and grow. They were commanded by God to offer the first fruits each year; but inherent in their faith was that no stranger would be turned away either, but treated as a welcome guest.
Paul writes to the churches in Corinth about radical generosity. Some Corinthian congregations had money, others were struggling. Titus comes up with the radical idea of taking the surplus offering and assisting the churches which had less. Some of these churches were new plants, many of them not Jewish congregations, some of them immigrant congregations. Here is Titus saying “the rule of the Gospel is generosity, so that all can share in all good things.” Listen again to the words:
“The heart regulates the hands. This isn't so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you're shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even. As it is written,
Nothing left over to the one with the most, nothing lacking to the one with the least.”
Although I didn’t read Mark’s Gospel this week, it also contains a message and a challenge. It’s the story of Jesus going to see Jairus’ daughter, and healing a woman along the road. There’s been the sentiment circulating on the internet that health care is also biblical - Jesus healed people whether they were rich or poor, and didn’t draw lines of distinction. What he had was available for everyone.
All our biblical stories are meant as both comfort and challenge, but we have all too often managed to ignore the challenge part. Oh, we are generous in many ways, but we are not open about our generosity. On this Canada Day weekend, I want to remind us of something: we are a people blessed by God. We are a people who value all of God’s people - whether they are like us or not - no matter how much education they have - or how little - no matter if everyone calls them by their official titles - no matter if they have a big house or no place to call their own - no matter if their ancestors came here in the 1700's - or are one of our first nations - or if they came just last week on a container ship and claimed refugee status!
We are challenged by Jesus, a person who was able to turn a few loaves and fish into enough to feed thousands, with baskets left over. We are challenged by Jesus, who stopped to give medical care to a nameless woman, even while he was rushing to help the daughter of an important man. He showed in the clearest way that abundant life and healing was possible for both! We are challenged by the one who said that he came that all may have abundant life.
--
Sources:
1. “When Need Gets In the Way!” A sermon by Rev. Beth Johnston, Kings United Pastoral Charge, Prince Edward Island
2. Information about Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Tommy Douglas and Orville Hjertaas taken from Wikipedia links. In the case of Dr. Hjertaas, personal recollection as well.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Waking a Sleeping Jesus Mark 4:35-41 June 24, 2012
The legend lives on from the Chippewa down,
of the big lake they called "Gitche Gumee."
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of November turn gloomy.
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,
that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
when the "Gales of November" came early.
Does any one know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
if they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'er.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
they may have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
of the wives and the sons and the daughters.
Some of the words of Gordon Lightfoot’s famous song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. In November 1975 the ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a gale on Lake Superior, with all 29 crew on board. There were no clues to why the ship sank, and no distress calls recorded. It was the worst loss in Great Lakes shipping history. (1)
Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, at a depth of just 200 feet. It is easily stirred up by west winds to produce violent waves and even the largest boats are put at risk.
“Ships caught on the Great Lakes during such fierce storms can be tossed like toys in the fury of wind and wave. As early as 1835, a November storm "swept the lakes clear of sail." In 1847, a major storm claimed 77 ships on the Great Lakes. Ten years later, 65 vessels went down as a storm crossed the Lakes. A gale on Lake Superior in 1905 wrecked 111 ships and sent 14 steel carriers ashore. In 1958 and 1975, powerful storms also caused shipwrecks and damage over the Great Lakes.” (2)
Back in 2006, Norio and I went on a cruise, - yes, you already know we love cruising.....and while I don’t want to do the cruise imagery to death, it’s really useful for sermons. So we’ll see how many sermons I can wring out of a cruise before you all get fed up.
On this cruise, we were informed that because of a large weather system, we would sail about three hundred nautical miles out of our way, through the Bermuda Triangle (at which many of us looked at each other and went “Woooooo!!!!”). However, we were told, we would get the edges of the storm. That night I heard thunder, and went out on the balcony. Wow, was it amazing! The seas were high, the spray flying around, - I was enthralled with it! It was actually quite exciting. Norio peeled open an eye and requested that the balcony door be shut.
The rest of the cruise was sunny and warm, with small seas. Everyone was up on deck in the wonderful weather. It occurred to me as I looked around at the vast Atlantic, with just our one ship out there, no land or other ships in sight, what it really means to be “at sea”, and to put your trust and faith into someone else’s hands.
(Video) (photo)
I did a little reading on storms on the Sea of Galilee, which is really a lake. The storms are a result of different temperatures between the seacoast and the mountains. The Sea of Galilee lies 680 feet below sea level, bounded by hills, especially on the east side where they reach 2000 feet high. These heights are a source of cool, dry air. In contrast, directly around the sea, the climate is semi-tropical with warm, moist air. The difference in height between surrounding land and the sea causes large temperature and pressure changes. This results in strong winds dropping to the sea, funnelling through the hills. The Sea of Galilee is small, and these winds may descend directly to the center of the lake with violent results. When the contrasting air masses meet, a storm can arise without warning. Small boats on the water are in immediate danger. The Sea of Galilee is relatively shallow, just 200 feet at its greatest depth. A shallow lake is “whipped up” by wind more rapidly than deep water, where energy is more readily absorbed. (3)
So there they are, out on the Sea of Galilee, in a boat, at night. Now, this isn’t strange at all. There are other incidents where we are told they are fishing at night. In Japan, and probably elsewhere, the squid boats go out at night and long after dark there are little lights bobbing up and down on the water. Mark’s narrative also tells us there are other boats with them. Jesus has asked them to go right across the lake to the other side. As they sail, he is snoozing gently in the hold when the storm comes up. He seems to be completely oblivious to the raging wind and waves, and the fear around him. When they finally waken him, he is pretty cranky with them. He asks if they have no faith.
Well, what would be your reaction? Wouldn’t you be flashing around bailing like crazy, trying to get the sails in, if they were up? If a wave is taller than a boat is long, the boat is going to go down. Maybe they were not of such "little faith" as all that. Maybe they were frantically using all their skills and couldn't believe that Jesus didn't wake up, and maybe they thought if he was sleeping through it, he was going to let the storm overtake them and swamp the boat. Maybe they thought he should get off his holy backside, and do a little rowing, or something. Maybe they were no more afraid than they ever were at such moments - maybe it was an “all hands on deck” kind of situation, and they expected Jesus to pitch in, not nap while they were doing everything. As for the other boats, presumably they were also dealing with the storm -- so if they had sunk, there would not be much help for a rescue there.
Gordon Lightfoot’s song says “Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?” I wonder. In the storm they experienced, the minutes became hours. Jesus had asked them to go all the way to the other side, something they normally didn’t do. There they were in the middle of something bigger than all their previous experience, and Jesus appeared to be asleep.
Is this a story of trusting Jesus in the usual storms of our personal lives, or is Mark here talking about storms particular to those who follow Jesus on a journey to an unknown place -- struggling against injustice, confronting evil, crossing boundaries and borders to seek healing, reaching out to the rejected of society, embarking on new ways of being in a confusing world where nothing is the way it was?
Rev. Jane Baker says “My congregation is in the midst of changes within itself, within the community, and our annual conference. Our responses to these changes we face as a result of the Spirit's leading is how we respond to the chaos and storms change always brings about. Not only that, it is a story about how we trust the Spirit's leading.”
I think this passage has long been used mostly for personal reasons, not that there is anything wrong with this, but the interpretation doesn't get to the idea of the church itself and what may occur as the church struggles to follow Jesus. I do see it about the church and its faith and trust, with Jesus in the boat with us.
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes.....?” In the real seafaring world, even when the ship goes down with all hands, God’s love is there - weeping into the storm. In the parable storms, which are meant to teach us about living in an emergent church - which are meant to teach us about sailing through unknown experiences - the love of God is still there. We as a church have to trust that God is there with us, and that with God’s presence we too have the power to still the waves and the winds.
On that particular cruise, the first daily announcement from the captain went something like this: “You are on a ship in the middle of the ocean with three thousand other people. You cannot get off for the next seven days. We are all in this boat together, so to speak, so let us be courteous and considerate of one another.” A cruise ship with over three thousand people from sixty different countries is a good analogy for the world we live in. We’re all in this boat, despite our cultural and religious differences - the bottom line is that we are all people, and if we believe what we state in our creed, we believe in a God who has created and is creating, who works in us and others by the Spirit. The wind of the Spirit blows on the water, and God continues to create. Regardless of difference, we have an awful lot in common - our lives and our humanity.
And it’s no accident that church architecture is supposed to represent the inside of a ship - and the central part of the church is called the ‘nave’ - from the same root as the word navy and naval. We in the church are in the same boat together.
So I guess I’m trying to work with several images. First, the human race is a people at sea, sailing on a ship called earth. Second, the church is a kind of ship, carrying those who have faith in a God of love and compassion. Third, in both cases we are going to encounter storms along the way, as well as good sunny weather. How we respond is what makes a difference.
I thought about how much faith and trust I put into the hands of a Captain I’d never met before, and a crew of unknown people. I thought about the immense responsibility of commanding a crew of 850, with a passenger list of 2500 - and virtually every one of those people put their faith in one man - the Captain. I trusted that he and the other officers knew their business - in fact, I never questioned it. Someone else did! At the ship talk, realising that we had the Captain, First Officer and Engineer giving us a show, someone hollered out “Hey, who’s driving the ship?”
Someone else at the Ship Talk asked about how to know where other ships are, and if there are warning systems. Of course there’s a radar system, but all ships have to have running lights bright enough to be seen. Otherwise there would be more disasters of ships running into each other.
In my image of the ship, Jesus is the leading light. But no ship can run with only one light. Jesus can be in the ship with us, but if Jesus is the only light, then the ship will go down anyway. Every ship needs running lights, too - both to port and starboard. Every ship needs light to see every other ship, and be seen by every other ship. With a leading light alone, progress is slow. With running lights only, progress is also hampered. In a storm, the lights - both leading and running - are even more critical.
Sometimes it seems that the church and Christians are no longer even in the boat, let alone sailing through a storm. The world in all its diversity has come to our doorstep, yet we’re still pretending it’s not there. We still want to remake the world to our liking, instead of dealing with it as it is. At the same time, when things go wrong we either assume Jesus will look after it all, or blame Jesus for not anticipating the storm and saving us the stress. “We’re foundering!” cry the followers. And Jesus sits up from his desperately needed nap, looks at everyone and says “You need to have some faith. Get with it already!”
The great American preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick, was a Baptist minister who went on to the inter-denominational Riverside Cathedral in New York. Here is a quote of his, "Fear and Faith"
Fear imprisons, faith liberates;
Fear paralyzes, faith empowers;
Fear disheartens, faith encourages;
Fear sickens, faith heals;
Fear makes useless, faith makes serviceable;
And, most of all, fear puts hopelessness at the heart of all,
While faith rejoices in its God." (4)
May it be so.
1. “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, Gordon Lightfoot, 1975.
2. http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc_1998/98nov01.htm
3. Dr. Donald B. DeYoung of Creation Research Society. Copyright © 1992, 2003, Donald B. DeYoung, in “Weather & the Bible”, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992).
4. http
of the big lake they called "Gitche Gumee."
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of November turn gloomy.
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,
that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
when the "Gales of November" came early.
Does any one know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
if they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'er.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
they may have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
of the wives and the sons and the daughters.
Some of the words of Gordon Lightfoot’s famous song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. In November 1975 the ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a gale on Lake Superior, with all 29 crew on board. There were no clues to why the ship sank, and no distress calls recorded. It was the worst loss in Great Lakes shipping history. (1)
Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, at a depth of just 200 feet. It is easily stirred up by west winds to produce violent waves and even the largest boats are put at risk.
“Ships caught on the Great Lakes during such fierce storms can be tossed like toys in the fury of wind and wave. As early as 1835, a November storm "swept the lakes clear of sail." In 1847, a major storm claimed 77 ships on the Great Lakes. Ten years later, 65 vessels went down as a storm crossed the Lakes. A gale on Lake Superior in 1905 wrecked 111 ships and sent 14 steel carriers ashore. In 1958 and 1975, powerful storms also caused shipwrecks and damage over the Great Lakes.” (2)
Back in 2006, Norio and I went on a cruise, - yes, you already know we love cruising.....and while I don’t want to do the cruise imagery to death, it’s really useful for sermons. So we’ll see how many sermons I can wring out of a cruise before you all get fed up.
On this cruise, we were informed that because of a large weather system, we would sail about three hundred nautical miles out of our way, through the Bermuda Triangle (at which many of us looked at each other and went “Woooooo!!!!”). However, we were told, we would get the edges of the storm. That night I heard thunder, and went out on the balcony. Wow, was it amazing! The seas were high, the spray flying around, - I was enthralled with it! It was actually quite exciting. Norio peeled open an eye and requested that the balcony door be shut.
The rest of the cruise was sunny and warm, with small seas. Everyone was up on deck in the wonderful weather. It occurred to me as I looked around at the vast Atlantic, with just our one ship out there, no land or other ships in sight, what it really means to be “at sea”, and to put your trust and faith into someone else’s hands.
(Video) (photo)
I did a little reading on storms on the Sea of Galilee, which is really a lake. The storms are a result of different temperatures between the seacoast and the mountains. The Sea of Galilee lies 680 feet below sea level, bounded by hills, especially on the east side where they reach 2000 feet high. These heights are a source of cool, dry air. In contrast, directly around the sea, the climate is semi-tropical with warm, moist air. The difference in height between surrounding land and the sea causes large temperature and pressure changes. This results in strong winds dropping to the sea, funnelling through the hills. The Sea of Galilee is small, and these winds may descend directly to the center of the lake with violent results. When the contrasting air masses meet, a storm can arise without warning. Small boats on the water are in immediate danger. The Sea of Galilee is relatively shallow, just 200 feet at its greatest depth. A shallow lake is “whipped up” by wind more rapidly than deep water, where energy is more readily absorbed. (3)
So there they are, out on the Sea of Galilee, in a boat, at night. Now, this isn’t strange at all. There are other incidents where we are told they are fishing at night. In Japan, and probably elsewhere, the squid boats go out at night and long after dark there are little lights bobbing up and down on the water. Mark’s narrative also tells us there are other boats with them. Jesus has asked them to go right across the lake to the other side. As they sail, he is snoozing gently in the hold when the storm comes up. He seems to be completely oblivious to the raging wind and waves, and the fear around him. When they finally waken him, he is pretty cranky with them. He asks if they have no faith.
Well, what would be your reaction? Wouldn’t you be flashing around bailing like crazy, trying to get the sails in, if they were up? If a wave is taller than a boat is long, the boat is going to go down. Maybe they were not of such "little faith" as all that. Maybe they were frantically using all their skills and couldn't believe that Jesus didn't wake up, and maybe they thought if he was sleeping through it, he was going to let the storm overtake them and swamp the boat. Maybe they thought he should get off his holy backside, and do a little rowing, or something. Maybe they were no more afraid than they ever were at such moments - maybe it was an “all hands on deck” kind of situation, and they expected Jesus to pitch in, not nap while they were doing everything. As for the other boats, presumably they were also dealing with the storm -- so if they had sunk, there would not be much help for a rescue there.
Gordon Lightfoot’s song says “Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?” I wonder. In the storm they experienced, the minutes became hours. Jesus had asked them to go all the way to the other side, something they normally didn’t do. There they were in the middle of something bigger than all their previous experience, and Jesus appeared to be asleep.
Is this a story of trusting Jesus in the usual storms of our personal lives, or is Mark here talking about storms particular to those who follow Jesus on a journey to an unknown place -- struggling against injustice, confronting evil, crossing boundaries and borders to seek healing, reaching out to the rejected of society, embarking on new ways of being in a confusing world where nothing is the way it was?
Rev. Jane Baker says “My congregation is in the midst of changes within itself, within the community, and our annual conference. Our responses to these changes we face as a result of the Spirit's leading is how we respond to the chaos and storms change always brings about. Not only that, it is a story about how we trust the Spirit's leading.”
I think this passage has long been used mostly for personal reasons, not that there is anything wrong with this, but the interpretation doesn't get to the idea of the church itself and what may occur as the church struggles to follow Jesus. I do see it about the church and its faith and trust, with Jesus in the boat with us.
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes.....?” In the real seafaring world, even when the ship goes down with all hands, God’s love is there - weeping into the storm. In the parable storms, which are meant to teach us about living in an emergent church - which are meant to teach us about sailing through unknown experiences - the love of God is still there. We as a church have to trust that God is there with us, and that with God’s presence we too have the power to still the waves and the winds.
On that particular cruise, the first daily announcement from the captain went something like this: “You are on a ship in the middle of the ocean with three thousand other people. You cannot get off for the next seven days. We are all in this boat together, so to speak, so let us be courteous and considerate of one another.” A cruise ship with over three thousand people from sixty different countries is a good analogy for the world we live in. We’re all in this boat, despite our cultural and religious differences - the bottom line is that we are all people, and if we believe what we state in our creed, we believe in a God who has created and is creating, who works in us and others by the Spirit. The wind of the Spirit blows on the water, and God continues to create. Regardless of difference, we have an awful lot in common - our lives and our humanity.
And it’s no accident that church architecture is supposed to represent the inside of a ship - and the central part of the church is called the ‘nave’ - from the same root as the word navy and naval. We in the church are in the same boat together.
So I guess I’m trying to work with several images. First, the human race is a people at sea, sailing on a ship called earth. Second, the church is a kind of ship, carrying those who have faith in a God of love and compassion. Third, in both cases we are going to encounter storms along the way, as well as good sunny weather. How we respond is what makes a difference.
I thought about how much faith and trust I put into the hands of a Captain I’d never met before, and a crew of unknown people. I thought about the immense responsibility of commanding a crew of 850, with a passenger list of 2500 - and virtually every one of those people put their faith in one man - the Captain. I trusted that he and the other officers knew their business - in fact, I never questioned it. Someone else did! At the ship talk, realising that we had the Captain, First Officer and Engineer giving us a show, someone hollered out “Hey, who’s driving the ship?”
Someone else at the Ship Talk asked about how to know where other ships are, and if there are warning systems. Of course there’s a radar system, but all ships have to have running lights bright enough to be seen. Otherwise there would be more disasters of ships running into each other.
In my image of the ship, Jesus is the leading light. But no ship can run with only one light. Jesus can be in the ship with us, but if Jesus is the only light, then the ship will go down anyway. Every ship needs running lights, too - both to port and starboard. Every ship needs light to see every other ship, and be seen by every other ship. With a leading light alone, progress is slow. With running lights only, progress is also hampered. In a storm, the lights - both leading and running - are even more critical.
Sometimes it seems that the church and Christians are no longer even in the boat, let alone sailing through a storm. The world in all its diversity has come to our doorstep, yet we’re still pretending it’s not there. We still want to remake the world to our liking, instead of dealing with it as it is. At the same time, when things go wrong we either assume Jesus will look after it all, or blame Jesus for not anticipating the storm and saving us the stress. “We’re foundering!” cry the followers. And Jesus sits up from his desperately needed nap, looks at everyone and says “You need to have some faith. Get with it already!”
The great American preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick, was a Baptist minister who went on to the inter-denominational Riverside Cathedral in New York. Here is a quote of his, "Fear and Faith"
Fear imprisons, faith liberates;
Fear paralyzes, faith empowers;
Fear disheartens, faith encourages;
Fear sickens, faith heals;
Fear makes useless, faith makes serviceable;
And, most of all, fear puts hopelessness at the heart of all,
While faith rejoices in its God." (4)
May it be so.
1. “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, Gordon Lightfoot, 1975.
2. http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc_1998/98nov01.htm
3. Dr. Donald B. DeYoung of Creation Research Society. Copyright © 1992, 2003, Donald B. DeYoung, in “Weather & the Bible”, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992).
4. http
Saturday, June 16, 2012
“Spiritual but Not Religious”, a sermon based on Mark 4:26-34. June 17, 2012 Humber United Church
Then Jesus said, "God's realm is like seed planted in a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows, whether he is awake or asleep, and he has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain. When the grain is fully formed, he reaps—harvest time!
How can we picture God's Realm? What kind of story can we tell? It's like a tiny seed. When it lands on the ground it is quite small as seeds go, yet once it is planted it grows into a huge bush with thick branches. Birds nest in it."
With many stories like these, he taught them, fitting the stories to their experience and maturity. Jesus was never without a story when he spoke. When he was alone with his disciples, he went over everything, explaining and illustrating what his stories had been about.
******************************************************************
“What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today..we are moving toward a completely religionless time; people as they are now simply cannot be religious anymore. Even those who honestly describe themselves as ‘religious’ do not in the least act up to it, and so they presumably mean something quite different by ‘religious’. What does that mean for Christianity”? If religion is only a garment of Christianity - and even this garment has looked very different at different times - then what is a religionless Christianity?”
These words were written by German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his “Letters and Papers from Prison.” Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and founding member of the Confessing Church. He became known for his resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, strongly opposing Hitler's euthanasia programs and genocide against the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 and executed in April 1945, 23 days before the Nazis' surrender.
In his role as a theologian and pastor, his view of Christianity's role in the secular world has become very influential. It is significant that even in the 1940's, he was writing about the death of religion. Not the death of faith, but faith without all the church and religious trappings. He predated by twenty years the book “God is Dead”, by Thomas Altizer.
In the past two or three decades, religious pundits of all backgrounds have been bemoaning the decline of so-called mainline churches, and insisting that the more evangelical churches are growing by leaps and bounds. That was true for a brief while following the election of Jimmy Carter, but not any more. Every one is either completely stalled or sliding.
In 2009 Newsweek magazine featured a story about the decline of religion in the United States - and I’d venture to say that could be extrapolated to Canada as well. Author Jon Meacham says “This is not to say that the Christian God is dead, but rather that God is less of a force in American politics and culture than at any other time in recent memory. To the surprise of liberals who fear the advent of an evangelical theocracy, and to the dismay of religious conservatives who long to see their faith more fully expressed in public life, Christians are now making up a declining percentage of the population.”
For the last twenty years, historian, theologian and teacher Dr. Diana Butler Bass has followed not only trends in the church, but also the history of what she describes as a complete sea change, regardless of religious faith. People in all religious groups, not just Christian, are becoming more and more disillusioned with what they see as a focus on buildings, people and money - and not the living out of a faith which transcends boundaries.
Dr. Butler Bass talks about ordinary people and stories she hears about their falling away from church. And, she says, it’s not just those who really never came anyway, but people who used to be faithful who have just given up and gone in search of something which feeds them spiritually.
Here’s one story, from a pastor: “People just don’t come to church any more. It doesn’t really matter what we do, how solid our community is. Even those who consider themselves “good” members only come once a month or so now.”
Here’s a story of a funeral - a story which is played out more than we might think:
“At the funeral our pastor said the baby had died because we had not prayed enough. It was our fault, he said, and that our lack of faith killed our son. Well, I walked out of church that day, and I have never returned.”
Dr. Butler Bass says people are tired of “church-as-usual, church-as-club, church-as-entertainment, or church-as-work. Many of my friends, faithful churchgoers for decades, are dropping out because religion is dull, the purview of folks who never want to change, or always want to fight about somebody else’s sex life; they see the traditional denominations as full of Mrs. Grundy’s priggishness.”
Another pastor said “Christianity has become a culture unto itself, and has merely skimmed over what Jesus has said and is saying.”
Here are the words of a person only identified as “Ellen”: “I enjoy reading religious books, blogs and listening to sermon podcasts too. But I feel most churches are way too fixed on self-preservation and preaching the gospel rather than living it. So, for now, my offering goes to Doctors Without Borders and other charities. My work is my ministry as I meet the broken-hearted and lost every day. I quietly encourage the faith of the dispirited, pray for others, and try to walk humbly with my God.”
Several years ago, I had a conversation with Rev. Dr. Peter Wyatt, who was Principal of Emmanuel College, and Theology and Faith staff in the General Council office. He lamented the death of church. I asked him why? Did he not believe in resurrection? His response was “The church will never be the same as it is now, and we need to lament its passing.”. ...and I said “Of course it will never be the way it is now. The church has never, ever, in all its history, been the way it was before. That’s the exciting part! Death is followed by resurrection, in a body that looks nothing like the one before. I believe we are standing on the cusp of a great change, one which can be exciting if we have faith.”
Well, if we let ourselves, we can find this really depressing. Or, we can find it really exciting. I am on the “exciting” end of the scale. I don’t see this as the end of “faith”, but more the end of some things which hold back the possibilities for faith.
I decided to take a look at the Japanese characters which mean faith: there are three things in the word “faith” in Japanese and Chinese: human beings, language, and heart. “Faith” and “religion” are not necessarily the same thing. Faith can exist without religion. Faith is a response of the human heart to the touch of the Spirit, of God. Diana Butler Bass points out, and supports with decades of data, that while more and more people are dropping away from the church, more and more people are also saying they have had a deeply spiritual experience of God.
Jesus was never without a story, and his stories always had a point. The stories today are not even about farming. The farmer in this story doesn't plow, nor have any concern about weather or weeds. This farmer simply sits back and watches.
These two stories are about the seed that becomes something very different than when it was planted. The Realm of God is like a seed planted by God, scattered on the ground wherever, and no one except God knows how it is going to turn out.
Rev. Randy Quinn says that the Realm of God “happens on at least four different levels. It's not a place as much as it is an attitude, an event that happens, an environment. It's what waits for us beyond the grave, it's within our hearts, it's a possibility for the world. And it must be acted out and modelled.”
In John 12:24, Jesus says that the Realm of God is like a seed that must die and be buried for it to have new life. The kicker here is that it not only happens without our help, but it happens despite our best efforts to make it grow the way we want it to.
So while we waste time bemoaning the death of the church or religion, we might be missing the fact that the Spirit is busy scattering seeds, which bloom into faith outside the church, and not necessarily a faith which uses our favourite hymns, or our words, or our structures; not a faith which is focused on buildings and numbers and finances. I think it is becoming a larger kind of faith, a spirituality which says people and their spirituality come first, living out the teaching comes first, trusting in the Spirit comes first. Those people who find no use for church actually find a great use for faith - people, language and heart.
So what does that mean for us? I am not going to say stop what we are doing, but I *am* going to say living out a faith based on unconditional love. The word faith has implicit in it, trust. God’s love for us is unconditional, isn’t it? God asks us to trust, to have faith. The seeds are scattered, only God knows how and where they grow and what they are going to be. Our role is the three words of faith: people, language and heart. May it be so.
Sources:
1. Diana Butler Bass, Christianity after Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening. (HarperOne, New York. 2012.)
2. “Sowing, Growing, Reaping” a sermon based on Mark 4:26-34 by Rev. Randy Quinn
3. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison. (London: Fontana Books, 1959). P. 91.
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
5. Jon Meacham. “The End of Christian America,” April 2009, www.newsweek.com/2009/04/03/the-end-of-christian-america.html“Spiritual but Not Religious”, a sermon based on Mark 4:26-34. June 17, 2012 Humber United Church
How can we picture God's Realm? What kind of story can we tell? It's like a tiny seed. When it lands on the ground it is quite small as seeds go, yet once it is planted it grows into a huge bush with thick branches. Birds nest in it."
With many stories like these, he taught them, fitting the stories to their experience and maturity. Jesus was never without a story when he spoke. When he was alone with his disciples, he went over everything, explaining and illustrating what his stories had been about.
******************************************************************
“What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today..we are moving toward a completely religionless time; people as they are now simply cannot be religious anymore. Even those who honestly describe themselves as ‘religious’ do not in the least act up to it, and so they presumably mean something quite different by ‘religious’. What does that mean for Christianity”? If religion is only a garment of Christianity - and even this garment has looked very different at different times - then what is a religionless Christianity?”
These words were written by German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his “Letters and Papers from Prison.” Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and founding member of the Confessing Church. He became known for his resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, strongly opposing Hitler's euthanasia programs and genocide against the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 and executed in April 1945, 23 days before the Nazis' surrender.
In his role as a theologian and pastor, his view of Christianity's role in the secular world has become very influential. It is significant that even in the 1940's, he was writing about the death of religion. Not the death of faith, but faith without all the church and religious trappings. He predated by twenty years the book “God is Dead”, by Thomas Altizer.
In the past two or three decades, religious pundits of all backgrounds have been bemoaning the decline of so-called mainline churches, and insisting that the more evangelical churches are growing by leaps and bounds. That was true for a brief while following the election of Jimmy Carter, but not any more. Every one is either completely stalled or sliding.
In 2009 Newsweek magazine featured a story about the decline of religion in the United States - and I’d venture to say that could be extrapolated to Canada as well. Author Jon Meacham says “This is not to say that the Christian God is dead, but rather that God is less of a force in American politics and culture than at any other time in recent memory. To the surprise of liberals who fear the advent of an evangelical theocracy, and to the dismay of religious conservatives who long to see their faith more fully expressed in public life, Christians are now making up a declining percentage of the population.”
For the last twenty years, historian, theologian and teacher Dr. Diana Butler Bass has followed not only trends in the church, but also the history of what she describes as a complete sea change, regardless of religious faith. People in all religious groups, not just Christian, are becoming more and more disillusioned with what they see as a focus on buildings, people and money - and not the living out of a faith which transcends boundaries.
Dr. Butler Bass talks about ordinary people and stories she hears about their falling away from church. And, she says, it’s not just those who really never came anyway, but people who used to be faithful who have just given up and gone in search of something which feeds them spiritually.
Here’s one story, from a pastor: “People just don’t come to church any more. It doesn’t really matter what we do, how solid our community is. Even those who consider themselves “good” members only come once a month or so now.”
Here’s a story of a funeral - a story which is played out more than we might think:
“At the funeral our pastor said the baby had died because we had not prayed enough. It was our fault, he said, and that our lack of faith killed our son. Well, I walked out of church that day, and I have never returned.”
Dr. Butler Bass says people are tired of “church-as-usual, church-as-club, church-as-entertainment, or church-as-work. Many of my friends, faithful churchgoers for decades, are dropping out because religion is dull, the purview of folks who never want to change, or always want to fight about somebody else’s sex life; they see the traditional denominations as full of Mrs. Grundy’s priggishness.”
Another pastor said “Christianity has become a culture unto itself, and has merely skimmed over what Jesus has said and is saying.”
Here are the words of a person only identified as “Ellen”: “I enjoy reading religious books, blogs and listening to sermon podcasts too. But I feel most churches are way too fixed on self-preservation and preaching the gospel rather than living it. So, for now, my offering goes to Doctors Without Borders and other charities. My work is my ministry as I meet the broken-hearted and lost every day. I quietly encourage the faith of the dispirited, pray for others, and try to walk humbly with my God.”
Several years ago, I had a conversation with Rev. Dr. Peter Wyatt, who was Principal of Emmanuel College, and Theology and Faith staff in the General Council office. He lamented the death of church. I asked him why? Did he not believe in resurrection? His response was “The church will never be the same as it is now, and we need to lament its passing.”. ...and I said “Of course it will never be the way it is now. The church has never, ever, in all its history, been the way it was before. That’s the exciting part! Death is followed by resurrection, in a body that looks nothing like the one before. I believe we are standing on the cusp of a great change, one which can be exciting if we have faith.”
Well, if we let ourselves, we can find this really depressing. Or, we can find it really exciting. I am on the “exciting” end of the scale. I don’t see this as the end of “faith”, but more the end of some things which hold back the possibilities for faith.
I decided to take a look at the Japanese characters which mean faith: there are three things in the word “faith” in Japanese and Chinese: human beings, language, and heart. “Faith” and “religion” are not necessarily the same thing. Faith can exist without religion. Faith is a response of the human heart to the touch of the Spirit, of God. Diana Butler Bass points out, and supports with decades of data, that while more and more people are dropping away from the church, more and more people are also saying they have had a deeply spiritual experience of God.
Jesus was never without a story, and his stories always had a point. The stories today are not even about farming. The farmer in this story doesn't plow, nor have any concern about weather or weeds. This farmer simply sits back and watches.
These two stories are about the seed that becomes something very different than when it was planted. The Realm of God is like a seed planted by God, scattered on the ground wherever, and no one except God knows how it is going to turn out.
Rev. Randy Quinn says that the Realm of God “happens on at least four different levels. It's not a place as much as it is an attitude, an event that happens, an environment. It's what waits for us beyond the grave, it's within our hearts, it's a possibility for the world. And it must be acted out and modelled.”
In John 12:24, Jesus says that the Realm of God is like a seed that must die and be buried for it to have new life. The kicker here is that it not only happens without our help, but it happens despite our best efforts to make it grow the way we want it to.
So while we waste time bemoaning the death of the church or religion, we might be missing the fact that the Spirit is busy scattering seeds, which bloom into faith outside the church, and not necessarily a faith which uses our favourite hymns, or our words, or our structures; not a faith which is focused on buildings and numbers and finances. I think it is becoming a larger kind of faith, a spirituality which says people and their spirituality come first, living out the teaching comes first, trusting in the Spirit comes first. Those people who find no use for church actually find a great use for faith - people, language and heart.
So what does that mean for us? I am not going to say stop what we are doing, but I *am* going to say living out a faith based on unconditional love. The word faith has implicit in it, trust. God’s love for us is unconditional, isn’t it? God asks us to trust, to have faith. The seeds are scattered, only God knows how and where they grow and what they are going to be. Our role is the three words of faith: people, language and heart. May it be so.
Sources:
1. Diana Butler Bass, Christianity after Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening. (HarperOne, New York. 2012.)
2. “Sowing, Growing, Reaping” a sermon based on Mark 4:26-34 by Rev. Randy Quinn
3. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison. (London: Fontana Books, 1959). P. 91.
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
5. Jon Meacham. “The End of Christian America,” April 2009, www.newsweek.com/2009/04/03/the-end-of-christian-america.html“Spiritual but Not Religious”, a sermon based on Mark 4:26-34. June 17, 2012 Humber United Church
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)