Crossing Boundaries September 9, 2012 Humber United Church, Corner Brook, NL. Mark 7:24-30

Then Jesus left and went away to the territory near the city of Tyre. He went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not stay hidden. A woman, whose daughter had an evil spirit in her, heard about Jesus and came to him at once and fell at his feet. The woman was a Gentile, born in the region of Phoenicia in Syria. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. Jesus answered, “Let us first feed the children. It isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.” “But Sir,” she answered, “even the dogs under the table eat the children's leftovers!” So Jesus said to her, “Because of that answer, go back home, where you will find that the demon has gone out of your daughter!”  She went home and found her child lying on the bed; the demon had indeed gone out of her. *****************************************************************************The earliest of the written Gospels starts "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." In the first seven chapters Jesus travels through Galilee, achieving fame as rabbi, healer, miracle worker and teacher. The people around him are not quite sure of who he is. In spite of being close to him, the disciples don’t seem to understand who he is, or what his ministry is. Mark goes to great pains to demonstrate that they were rather thick. No one understands how the son of a carpenter from Nazareth can do and say the things he does, with such authority.

By Chapter 6 even the reader, who at least has the advantage of that first sentence of the book - is confused. Jesus performs miracles, but tells everyone to keep quiet. He exorcises demons, but again tells those around to keep quiet. He preaches a good sermon in his home town, but is ineffective at working miracles. He teaches with a wisdom disproportionate to his humble origins, he enters into debate with Pharisees as a rabbi, but prefers untouchable fishermen and ordinary people. His choice of friends is the subject of gossip and rumour.

The first feeding of a crowd leads into the next phase of Jesus ministry. He goes towards Jerusalem, but via a detour through the heart of Gentile country. Tension is building between Jesus and those who oppose him, and it is becoming clearer – at least to the reader -  that the religious leaders want to get rid of him.

It’s right at this point that Mark tells the story of Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician woman. Under the cloud of growing opposition to his ministry, in between two miraculous feedings, just after a debate with his opponents about cleanliness, and just before the story of the healing of the deaf and mute man.

It is also critical to remember that while Jesus valued the tradition and practices of his religion, he sees the leadership as corrupt and ingrown. He sets out to initiate reform, in the tradition of the prophets. He tries to help people remember what their faith and practices are to be. For Jesus the spoken word has much more power than the written word. Against the misdirection of the community, he begins to gather and empower new ministers and leaders from among the lay people. It isn’t going quite the way he would like, and there is a lot of resistance.

So he takes a break. He is tired and probably rather discouraged, and goes for a bit of a retreat by the seashore, trying to keep a low profile. The encounter takes place in Tyre, out of his comfort zone; he is way from home, amongst different people, essentially a tourist, in the most Gentile of all Gentile cities. And yet he is found by a woman asking for help for her daughter who is possessed by a demon.

And even here there is more going on than meets the eye. She is one of the wealthy upper crust of Tyre, part of a community of Greek speaking expatriates who were able to afford food the poor could not. Worse: when the crop failed they would buy the little there was, leaving the local Jewish people to starve in the streets. It is pure irony that she comes asking, and responds the way she does.

So Jesus is approached by a woman described as a Syro-Phoenician – that is, she is an Aramaic-speaking non-Jew who comes from the coastal region of Phoenicia. She asks Jesus to exorcise the evil spirit which has possessed her child. Jesus rebuffs her in the rudest way possible – he compares her, as a female Gentile, to “dogs”. In Gentile territory, expressing the particular Jewish sentiments about cleanliness was asking for trouble – and she gave it to him, gently but firmly. She has the verbal victory over Jesus….and it’s significant how she does it.

This is the only time in Mark’s Gospel that Jesus is addressed as Lord. In spite of being a "dog", in spite of everyone else not understanding who Jesus is, this woman gets to the heart of it in two seconds flat. It is this woman who cuts to the bone and to what will prove to be the heart of his calling. Jesus doesn’t want to help her. She doesn’t fit his ministry profile. He doesn’t want to see her, or help her,  or give her what he feels is not hers. In the Syro-Phoenician woman Jesus comes up against his boundaries, against someone he does not consider to be part of his ministry focus, does not see as someone he has come to serve. And what does she do? She reflects his own gospel back to him, in the spoken word: "Come on Jesus, with all that left over bread you can’t now say there are no crumbs under the table!"

What brings Jesus up short is that she would go anywhere, cross any boundary, for the well-being of her child – regardless of insults or lack of consideration. Her response rocks Jesus where he sits: "But sir, even the meanest mutts under the table get to eat the children's crumbs." In other words, "I know I`m not much and am certainly not special nor deserving, but surely there must be a little bit - which is more than enough, for people even like me and my daughter." There is a long moment of silence all around the room.  Jesus is faced with the fact that a Gentile woman has just pretty well hit him over the head, albeit with grace, the very point he had been trying to teach his own disciples about purity and cleanliness; that what comes out of the mouth defines us far more than what goes in – that social conventions are meaningless when there are people in need. She was in need of grace, she knew it, and she believed that grace would be given if she asked in humility.

What does it mean, if even Jesus needed his boundaries stretched, his views broadened to include people he assumed did not share in the abundance of all those baskets of left over grace? This shift in Jesus’ view of himself and ministry meant that we here and now, are part of the body. In this story, we are the Gentile dogs, wealthy, and having no part of the poor peasant Jews in Galilee. Without this woman’s courage challenging Jesus’ somewhat xenophobic preconceptions, we might still have been outsiders.

One more thing needs to be learned in Mark’s gospel before the full picture of Jesus has been painted. That serious growth only happens if we give of ourselves. True healing and redemption only occur where the seed dies to its self and grows into giving of itself without restraint or caution. We are called to extend ministry to the whole creation, even those who we have serious trouble accepting. We are called to stop panicking about what the future may or may not bring, and open our ears to hear the truth about ourselves and God’s will for us. We are called to be transformed into people who, like Jesus, are able to make a real difference in the world because they trust God and are willing to take a chance, recognizing that it won’t look like it does today. We are bound to the trust that what today may seem to be beyond hope, will burst the boundaries of its grave tomorrow.

And trust that we are made worthy by faith; nothing else does make us worthy - not church attendance, not family membership, not the size of donation, or our history in the community – none of those things make us more worthy or more deserving than any other. It is in those words “Help me....” Everyone who comes through the door of the church, searching, in humility, is made welcome and worthy by the Spirit of God. What they want is acceptance, and grace. What will they find here at Humber?


Sources:
1. “Crumbs from the Table” by Rev. Brian Donst, Fifty United Church, Winona, Ontario

2. Chilton, Bruce. “Rabbi Jesus” The Jewish Life and Teaching that Inspired Christianity”. Doubleday. New York, 2000. P. 181.
3. Feasting on the Word, Year B Volume 4

"To Whom Can We Go?" August 19, 2012 John 6:56-69 Humber United Church Corner Brook, Newfoundland

Good News Translation  - Paraphrase
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them. The living God sent me, and because of him I live also. In the same way whoever eats me will live because of me. This, then, is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread that your ancestors ate, but then later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever.

Jesus said this as he taught in the synagogue in Capernaum. Many of his followers heard this and said, “This teaching is too hard. Who can listen to it?”

Without being told, Jesus knew that they were grumbling about this, so he said to them, “Does this make you want to give up? Suppose, then, that you should see the Son of Man go back up to the place where he was before? What gives life is God's Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God's life-giving Spirit. Yet some of you do not believe.
(Jesus knew from the very beginning who were the ones that would not believe and which one would betray him.) He added, “This is the very reason I told you that no people can come to me unless God makes it possible for them to do so. Because of this, many of Jesus' followers turned back and would not go with him any more. So he asked the twelve disciples,
         “And you - would you also like to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. Now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God.”

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More than any other of the Gospels, John presents us with the “hard sayings” of Jesus to wrap our heads around. Today’s reading is one of the hardest. On first read it is offensive. It is not only somewhat offensive to us, it would have been really shocking to Jewish listeners. As a result, many preachers have tried to sanitise the text, and make it more genteel, by turning it into yet another text about eucharist or communion, and thereby making it more palatable. Most clergy have tried not to preach it - because it is a really hard text.

In the time of Jesus, it was pagans who ate flesh with the blood still in it; eating flesh or drinking blood would have been anathema to the Jewish hearers; they would have been shocked and probably outraged to hear Jesus even utter these words. A quick read of Corinthians will demonstrate that the church got itself into all kinds of knots over whether or not to eat meat which had been killed in a pagan temple. The suggestion of eating flesh with the blood still in it would have been repugnant to the Jews altogether. How could Jesus even suggest such a thing?

Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr places this text at a period of Jesus’ ministry usually designated as “the crisis”. Jesus had been popular for the first while. The multitude had followed him to listen, to catch the charm of his personality, and to be cured of their ills. “But gradually”, says Niebuhr, “as Jesus unfolded the full meaning of his way of life, the multitude found his ideals as difficult as they were engaging, and began to desert him, muttering, "These are hard sayings, who can hear them?" Only the twelve disciples stayed, in the end, along with some of the women and others, although John specifically names the twelve. Jesus asked the disciples, did they also wish to leave? Peter, always the spokesman for the rest, answered “Where shall we go?” Niebuhr interprets this to mean that Peter is saying, "Yes, what you ask of us is so difficult that we are tempted to give up too. We don’t know if we can follow your way and truth, but we can’t find a better alternative.”

Is Jesus offering immortality in this quote? We have tended to take the phrase “eternal life” to mean immortality. I don’t think that is at all what is inherent here. This is another example of Jesus trying to communicate a difficult concept using the most ordinary things of life, crucial to everyone - bread, wine, meat, water - to teach about a way of living which saves us from being ruled by fear and anxiety for the future. Jesus reminds them that it is the Spirit which gives life, and that his words are both spirit and life. Yet they choose to turn away because living it out is “too hard”.

The crowds had got used to the comfort of being around Jesus, and were prepared to take some small challenge to their discipleship. There was comfort in the affirmations of Jesus’ faith, and they were to some extent willing to accept them; but Niebuhr comments that “inextricably intertwined with that assurance is a moral challenge” which most people find too difficult to consider. He says that the Christian church, at its best, is a community of the few who have seen, however dimly, “that the assurance and the challenge belong together”. The teaching of Jesus presents both a way of looking at reality, and a way of living.

At the beginning of his presidency, as Barack Obama began to lay out the foundations of a health-care plan, arguments for and against were all over the news, and still are. People have threatened violence, extreme responses to the proposal - accusing Obama of being Hitler. There have been accusations of fascism and socialist medicine, as if somehow socialist is a bad thing. An American colleague of mine noted “how easily scaremongering can prod people to act against their own best interests.” I’ve found the comments of people fascinating - people who claim that their country is founded on Christian principles, yet who scream at the notion of paying for someone else’s health care as un-constitutional, too difficult, if people want good health care they are “free to pursue it”, but others should not have to shoulder it for them.

Rev. Amy C. Howe says this: “Our culture tells us we are in control of our lives, our destiny. If we work hard, we will be rewarded with material gain.” She goes on “My theologian sister says that we prefer religion to God. We, like the disciples, are offended by Jesus’ offer of spirit and life. We make religion about the rules because we can control the rules.” I wold say we make the living of our faith about the “rules”, because we think then we can control outcomes.

Well, the words Jesus uses “abide in me” present comfort, but they also present challenge. A handful of followers remains, and when Jesus asks if they also want to run away, Peter responds “Where else can we go? You have words of life. We have come to believe.” In that moment, Peter who is generally a little thick, realises that despite the hard path Jesus calls the followers to walk, he is ready to give up some control in order to accept the offer of the gift of life.


The gift of life for the church is the moment we realise that giving up control gives life. It may not be the life we envision out of our own experience. It may not be the way things have always been done in our church. It may be that the creative spirit moves into that space created by our willingness to let go, and does something completely unexpected. The decision of the followers not to walk away but to follow and give up control marks them as a community of faith. Nothing else matters - budgets, fundraisers, mission statements, worship attendance - none of these mark us as a community of faith. It is how we live in relation to each other, how we come together to follow Jesus, no matter how hard it is - that marks us as a community of faith - and in following Jesus we receive spirit and life. May it be so.


Sources:
1. Reinhold Niebuhr, “To Whom Can I go?” in The Christian Century, March 10, 1927.

2. Rev. Amy C. Howe, essay in “Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary” Year B Volume 3.

“A Cry from the Depths” A sermon based on Psalm 130. Humber United Church, Corner Brook, NL August 12, 2012

Psalm 130 A song of ascents. By David:

Adonai, I call to you from the depths; hear my cry, Adonai! Let your ears pay attention
to the sound of my pleading.

YAH, if you kept a record of sins, who, Adonai, could stand? But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you will be feared.

I wait longingly for Adonai; I put my hope in his word. Everything in me waits for Adonai more than guards on watch wait for morning, more than guards on watch wait for morning.

Isra’el, put your hope in Adonai! For grace is found with Adonai, and with Adonai is unlimited redemption. He will redeem Isra’el from all their wrongdoings.

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On Thursday morning this week, I went to have breakfast with my niece who was visiting Corner Brook. She has been going through a divorce, and part of her, in anxiety - thought that because I had performed her marriage ten years ago I would be angry that this happened. My response was “You are family - married into this family you are now one of us. I love you no matter what happens, and I am not keeping score.”

As I looked at David’s Psalm, I could not help but think of my niece, worried that her aunt would make judgment and put a black mark against her name, and hold it against her.

The biblical King David was known for his skills as both a warrior and a writer of psalms. In his 40 years as ruler, between approximately 1010 and 970 B.C.E., he united the people of Israel, led them to victory in battle, conquered land and paved the way for his son, Solomon, to build the Holy Temple.

David was the eighth and youngest son of Jesse from the tribe of Judah, and a direct descendent of Ruth the Moabite. He began his life as a shepherd in Bethlehem, and was anointed by the prophet Samuel without the knowledge of the king, Saul. David returned to his sheep, and did not meet Saul until he was summoned to play the *kinnor* or lyre for Saul. He made such an impression he was called into Saul’s service as a musician.

We know parts of the story  - David as an inexperienced boy armed with only a slingshot and a few stones, confronted the nine-foot, bronze armored Philistine giant, Goliath of Gath, and killed him. David as commander of Saul’s troops and a close friendship with Saul’s son, Jonathan.

Saul’s jealousy of David; Jonathan hiding David and convincing Saul not to kill him. The deaths of Saul and Jonathan on Mt. Gilboa in a fight with the Philistines. David becoming king of Judah at the age of 30; building a palace in what is now the City of David in Jerusalem. His final victory forcing the Philistines out of Israel. Bringing the Holy Ark to Jerusalem.
David had an almost perfect reign as king, but many problems in his personal life - culminating in his affair with Bathsheba, the death of her husband Uriah when David sent him to the front lines so he would be killed; the death of the child they conceived, and the birth of a second son, Solomon.

David had started life as a poet and musician, and it is believed that he wrote some of the Psalms, and edited the book. Today’s Psalm is one of those ascribed to David, and it is called a Psalm of Ascents.

This Psalm, perhaps more than any other, is marked by its mountains: depth; prayer; conviction; light; hope; waiting; watching; longing; confidence; assurance; universal happiness and joy. Just as the barometer marks the rising of the weather, so does this Psalm, sentence by sentence, record the progress of the soul. David gives a mini-version of his spiritual journey through life, as he looks back. (3)

Internally the Psalm is broken down in four pericopes (sets of verses) - and each becomes a “set” or an “ascent”. David begins his Psalm “Lord, I call to you from the depths - “, the cry of a human in spiritual pain, who looks at his life and the things he has done. He says clearly he is right down there in the depths of remorse and depression. “Hear my cry.”

The depths usually silence all they engulf, but they could not silence David; on the contrary, it was in the abyss itself that he cried out. Prayer lived and struggled even in the darkest place. It does not matter where we are to pray, and prayer is never more real and acceptable than when it rises out of the worst places. The depth of our distress moves the depths of our being. Though David suffered the painful realisation of his actions and wrongdoings, and so was in the depth, his faith pleaded in the teeth of conscious unworthiness; he knew that God’s promises did not depend upon human character.

Verses three and four are two strong statements of recognition. First he says, “God, if you kept a record of our sins, none of us could stand.” and then he says “But you don’t keep a record. Forgiveness is the very basis of who you are, so that everyone will stand in awe of you.” David says that if God kept a record of all our misdoings, none of us could stand. If JAH, the all seeing, should call every person to account for every lack of sense and right behaviour, where would any one of us be? If humanity were to be judged upon no system but that of works, who among us could answer,  and hope to stand clear.

Verse 4. The power of pardon is permanently resident with God: forgiveness is always there and instantly given. Gratitude for forgiveness and another chance produces far more awe and reverence than all the fear inspired by threat of punishment. It is grace which leads the way to a holy regard of God. This verse forms some of the basis for our Reformed theology. God’s prevenient grace, that grace given regardless of what we do or who we are, the grace given before we know we need it, the forgiveness given before we recognise that we need it. David says that God *is* forgiveness.

Verses five and six speak of David’s waiting for God. Even the waiting itself has benefit: it tries faith, and exercises patience. God’s people have waited in the depths of despair, and are able to wait in any condition. The waiting regardless of the condition is called “hope”.....the basis of all we believe..the soul waits even more than those who stand watch around a city, or women waiting to give birth, or sitting by a sickbed.

In 7 David says “Let Israel hope in God”. Yahweh is Israel's God; therefore, let Israel hope in him. God has great things in store for the people, they ought to have large expectations. God’s very nature is compassion; we have also the light of grace, and therefore we see more compassion. The attribute of compassion, and the faith of redemption, are two most sufficient reasons for hope. Is it not better to be in the depths with David, hoping in God's mercy, than up on the mountain tops, boasting in our own fancied righteousness?

To me this is a Psalm of recognition, of partnership. We live in partnership with each other and with God, or with the universe, or creation, or whatever we wish to call it. If we sever the partnership for our own gains, whether personal or political, our lives suffer. God calls us to reflect on ourselves and our lives - but the grace and compassion is always given.

David is perhaps a prime example from biblical texts of how power can corrupt so thoroughly. We watch David through his life story - as a simple shepherd playing a kinnor, to a leader of armies, to a king - and we watch as he is drawn in by one small transgression here, another there, and each time the transgressions get bigger, and the justifications get more elaborate.

We can see how these things happen in our own lives; but we can also see what we are called to do. *If* we claim to be followers of Jesus, *if* we claim that as our example, then we can only respond the way Jesus would, the way we hope God would respond to us: “You are family. I love you, despite what has happened. How could you think I would not still love you?” May it be so.



Sources:

1.  Psalm 130 from “Ketuvim”, the Writings. Section 3 in the Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures)

2. http://www.spurgeon.org/treasury/ps130.htm
Note: Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) was England's best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1854, just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 20, became pastor of London's famed New Park Street Church (formerly pastored by the famous Baptist theologian John Gill). The congregation quickly outgrew their building, moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. In these venues Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000—all in the days before electronic amplification. In 1861 the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed Metropolitan Tabernacle.

3. James Vaughan, in "Steps to Heaven," 1878.

Create a Clean Heart

Create in Me a Clean Heart    Exodus 16:1-14   Psalm 51

The whole Israelite community set out from Elim, and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying “If only we had died by God’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve all of us to death.”

God said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather just enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that will be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

So Moses and Aaron said to the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was God who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see God’s glory, because  your grumbling has been heard.” Moses also said, “You will know that it was God when you are given meat to eat in the evening, and all the bread you want in the morning, because your grumbling has been heard. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against God.”

Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before God, for your grumbling has been heard.’” While Aaron was speaking, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of God appearing in the cloud.

God said to Moses,  “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” they did not know what it was.

Moses said to them, “It is the bread God has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’”

The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. When they measured it by the omer, the ones who gathered a lot did not have too much, and those who gathered only a little did not have too little. Each one had only as much as he needed.
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In 2009 Norio and I camped at Berry Hill in Gros Morne. There we met Louise and Phil Decker, who were the caretakers of the park campgrounds. Every morning, Louise was up at 6, and went to every single campground and rest area to clean the washrooms. Phil went around and emptied all the garbage cans. Then they both sat down to sort the garbage, taking out things like batteries, separating out the recycling. Phil is a retired fisherman, and at that time was still at sea on a seasonal basis, so he could bring in enough for the two of them to eat over the winter. Louise, of her own volition, started teaching a course to children in the campgrounds, about the native plants and animals of Newfoundland, the lives of those who fish for a living, and then she taught the children how to make certain kinds of local food. In the early spring, she cleaned every camp site, making sure the fire pits were cleared, cut the weeds down, sanded and painted the picnic tables. The day we sat with them, Louise had just finished a class with 39 kids. They own a tiny house, really a hut, on the property at Broom Point. Parks Canada wanted to make the whole point a historical site, so they offered to buy Louise and Phil’s property, for $3000 - and told them they could move the house off if they wished.

Like many small fishing huts, this one had been in the family for several generations. It was not originally a year-round living accommodation, but was there just to live in during the fishing season. Fishing families would come to the point every year, when their fishing permits allowed, in order to work. They processed, dried, and canned the fish right on the premises. There is still a small cannery hut there. The salt fish, and the canned salmon, was picked up by larger boats which took it to market. In 2009, Phil and Louise made 50c a pound on their lobster catch.

Norio and I sat with them in our campsite that July, over a glass of wine, and talked about life in Newfoundland. Needless to say we were impressed with the passion and the optimism of these two people.

Louise is a tiny woman, but don’t be fooled. She is a formidable presence, and passionate about her life. Get her talking about how the Canadian government is killing off the fisheries - and the lives of many people - by selling out to large corporations. Louise is smart, savvy, and hard-working. So is Phil. They love life, and despite their criticisms of the way things are done, and what is done to them, they have a solid faith that what they DO have is given to them, by God, to use well. They don’t have much, but if you asked them I am guessing they would say they have enough.

...and I am pleased to say that Louise is now a park interpreter. She travelled, on her own money, to New Brunswick, to take courses about the plants, animals and rocks of Newfoundland - because nothing was available here. She had never been away from Newfoundland before, and was afraid of going to Halifax, but she did. I’ve heard that her classes at Broom Point are packed and highly popular.  Norio and I hope to catch up with them again this summer to see how life has changed for them.

I am telling this story because Louise and Phil epitomise for me what it means to be on a life journey. There have been times when these two were in a wilderness. Yet they survived, and grew, even if all they had was bread and water. - and for me it ties in with the words of the Psalm “Create a clean heart in me, O God, and put a right Spirit within me.”

Today we meet the Israelites, newly freed, and looking forward to going to the land they have been promised. In the first throes of real freedom, they were happy to be anywhere but Egypt, and they sang and danced their joy! Then, of course, as the days went on reality set in. The small stocks of food they had brought along were gone, and there was little if anything to eat in the wilderness. There was no wildlife, no large body of water, no edible plant life. The people became hungry and thirsty; the manna they were receiving didn’t last long, and water from a rock was hardly sufficient. Bread, and water: that was their diet in the wilderness. It began to feel like they were in prison again. Everything they had was taken away, and they had to rely on themselves instead of being fed by their captors, and they honestly had no clue about survival.

So, like most people when things don’t go the way they want,  they complained, and they blamed their leaders, Moses and Aaron. They wanted to go back to Egypt, where they were slaves but had good food. God set them free from one kind of oppression just to kill them off in the desert? If they were going to die anyway, better to do it back in Egypt where at least they could do it in relative comfort. They wanted more: more food, more water, more variety in their diet. More. And someone else was supposed to do it for them.

They sound like us, don’t they? Like those ancient Israelites, we want more. We want more variety, more choices. So we can now order our fish deep-fried, broiled, baked, grilled, or blackened. We want to be able to eat all kinds of foods whenever we want it. We want our churches to grow, more people to come, but we don’t want to change how we do anything, and when it doesn’t happen, it’s our leaders who are the problem. There is a “Back to Egypt Committee” in every congregation.

Norio and I have an ongoing discussion - I won’t call it argument - about food when he is in Cuba. What is enough? After five weeks there, he doesn’t want to eat rice and beans any more. He can’t find Japanese noodles. The Chinese food isn’t really Chinese. There is some variety in the food but not what he gets in Toronto, where we can have anything we want any time. My comment to him is that he is too spoiled, that the Cubans have to eat those things every day. Yet there is a sense of gratitude for what they do have, even in the middle of a restricted life.

And that is where Louise and Phil come in. When we met them, they didn’t have the luxury of Japanese or Chinese or Korean or Thai or Greek or Italian, or whatever. Their diet is mainly fish; given all the wild berries we picked around the island, and the people we met picking them, I know that they get a lot of their fruit that way. They don’t have a lot of money, they can be critical, and yet on the most basic levels, they are satisfied.

It’s no accident that bread and grains are at the top of the food pyramid; they provide great nourishment. Bread of the right kind can be packed and carried on long treks. We need bread, and we need water, to be well and healthy.

We are invited in these stories to trust in the God who feeds us what we need to live, and calls us to gratitude for life. We are called to echo David’s Psalm - make our hearts clean, put a right spirit within us. When we eat the bread of life, when we drink the living water God offers, we can thrive, and be satisfied - and we can be grateful.

That’s why Louise and Phil impressed me so much. From our point of view, they didn’t have much. Life is a struggle, every single day, to make enough to live on. And yet, if you ask them, they will tell you they have enough. Bread, water, and fish - the three things Jesus used to demonstrate what really matters in life.


Acknowledgements:
1. Louise and Phil Decker, Gros Morne National Park
2. Material from the sermon “Thriving on Bread and Water” by Randy Thompson.

Radical Generosity a sermon based on Deut.26:5-10 and 2 Cor. 8:5-15 July 1, 2012 Canada Day

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.

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

“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.
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“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