Message for November 22, 2020

Christ the King Sunday

Matthew 25:31-46

Morris L. West was an Australian author who wrote several best sellers including “The Shoes of the Fisherman” and “The Devil’s Advocate”.  Oddly enough though, it is one of his lesser known books that is one of my all-time favourites; “Summer of the Red Wolf”.  This novel is set on the Isle of Lewis off the west coast of Scotland and it is a story about love, hate, death and redemption.  One of the book’s characters is a woman named Hannah who was reputed to have the Second Sight; the ability to catch glimpses of the future.  In one episode she told the main character that she thought that he would end up with the woman of his dreams.  This of course was exactly what he wanted to hear which prompted her to say “Aye, we all love the preacher with heaven in his hand and not a word about the other place”.

How very true; we too so to speak love the preacher with heaven in his hand and not a word about the other place.  At one time we Christians were almost obsessed with the final judgement but not any longer; in fact by and large we like to ignore it altogether.  Then however we come face to face with the prospect of being judged in today’s scripture passage.

Today’s passage is one of the most disturbing ones of the entire Bible.  In it Jesus said that the day is coming when he will return to this earth as a glorious king, take his throne and then sit in judgement.  At that time the nations will be divided into two groups:  the sheep and the goats.  The sheep are the saved and they are saved because they cared for Christ in his time of need.  “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.  I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.  I was a stranger and you invited me in.  I needed clothes and you clothed me.  I was sick and you looked after me.  I was in prison and you came to visit me.”  Some people however say that they never saw Christ in need, and what will his reply be?  “Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”.  And so off they will go to paradise.  The goats on the other hand will be banished to the eternal fire simply because they did not care for Christ in his time of need.  When they object saying that they never saw Jesus in need, he will reply:  “Whatever you did not do for the least of these brothers of mine, you did not do for me”.

Thus goes today’s scripture passage and our interpretation of it is almost predictable.  Indeed virtually every sermon that I have ever preached or heard based on it goes along these lines; in the end we will be judged and when we are it will not be based on how overtly religious or pious we were.  Nor will we will be judged on whether or not we held the correct religious beliefs either.  Rather we will be judged on the basis of how much we did or did not love.  Did we at least try to love our neighbours as ourselves?  Did we care, at least a little bit, about those less fortunate than ourselves?  In the unforgettable words of Mother Theresa:

“At the end of life we will not be judged by

how many diplomas we have received,

how much money we have made,

how many great things we have done.

We will be judged by

I was hungry and you gave me food to eat

I was naked and you clothed me

I was homeless and you took me in.

Hungry, not only for bread

but hungry for love.

Naked, not only for clothing

but naked of human dignity and respect.

Homeless, not only for want of a room of bricks

but homeless because of rejection.

This is Christ in distressing disguise.”

Do we always see Christ in his distressing disguise?  If we are honest, then the answer is no, we don’t.  In the words of one poem:

“Jesus, why didn’t you tell me that you were hungry?

Why didn’t you tell me that you were thirsty?

Why didn’t you tell me those were your toes

sticking through cracked shoes?

I didn’t know you needed help.

I want to open the door and invite you in.

Please tell me who you are the next time you knock.”

As I said a moment ago, virtually every interpretation of this passage goes along these lines; be a sheep!  If need be, mend your ways and start caring more about others and their needs and not just at Christmas time either!  And of course when we are not as loving, caring and sharing as what we could be all is not lost for surely Christ will forgive us. Just imagine for a moment though that this interpretation is wrong.

I recently read a sermon by the well-known American preacher William Willimon and in it he challenges our usual understanding of today’s text.  He points out for example that according to Matthew when Christ returns and takes his throne, all of ‘the nations’ will be assembled before him.  Now we usually just pass over this phrase without giving it a second thought but as Willimon points out, ‘the nations’ has a very specific meaning in Matthew’s gospel.  In his gospel ‘the nations’ refers to all those people who are not disciples of Jesus.  If Willimon is right, and I do believe that he is on to something, than this parable isn’t really about us at all.  Rather it is about what will happen to all those people who, for whatever reason, do not follow Jesus.  They will be judged but not on the basis of their faith or lack thereof.  Rather they will be judged on how they behaved, and this brings us to Willimon’s second important point.

When ‘the nations’ object that they never saw Christ in need, Jesus will tell them that whatever they did not do for the least of his brothers they did not do for him.  Now what we have to realize says Willimon, is that in Matthew’s gospel the term ‘brother’ also has a very specific meaning; it refers to the disciples or followers of Jesus.  In other words, in the end ‘the nations’ or non-Christians will be judged on how they have treated us, the disciples of Jesus.  If Willimon is right, and I do believe that he is, then what Jesus said about the Great Judgement is not, directly at least, about us at all.  Rather Jesus was talking to those who are outside of the church.  But if this is the case, does this mean that today’s passage has no real meaning or relevance for us?

Of course not.  It may go without saying but if Jesus expects so much from those who, for whatever reason do not follow him, then we can be sure that he expects at least the very same of us.  We, the disciples of Jesus, are called to follow both his teaching and example; to love, understand and be as compassionate as he was.  But of course this is impossible, after all we are only human!  And this is when we should remember such as the wonderful words of Paul.

“Who would dare accuse us whom God has chosen?  The judge himself has declared us free from sin.  Who is in a position to condemn?  Only Christ, and Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us!  Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

The good news of the gospel is that Christ died for us, rose for us and is even now praying for us.  Yes, we may be sinners but we are forgiven sinners and in response to the overwhelming love of God made known to us in Christ, we should at least try and live the lives that God would have us do.  We should strive to do this all of the time, and not just in the coming weeks leading up to Christmas either.

Message for November 15, 2020

1 Samuel 1:9-18

It was about 3,000 years ago back in the days of the Judges and at that time it was considered quite normal for a man to have more than one wife.  A man named Elkanah had two wives; Peninah and Hannah.  The one wife, Peninah, had a number of children but Hannah had none.  Hannah wanted a child of her own more than anything else but it never happened.  Even so she did not give up.

One day she went to worship God in the sanctuary at Shiloh and, as she usually did, she prayed passionately about her desire to have a child; indeed she was so caught up in her prayer that the presiding priest thought that she was drunk.  He told her off but when she explained her situation, his attitude changed altogether.  Indeed inspired by God, the priest told her that she was going to bear a son and sure enough it happened.  While that is where today’s scripture passage ends that is not the end of the story.

When her son was old enough Hannah took him back to the sanctuary and dedicated him to God’s service.  Now what this meant in practical terms was that the boy would now live at the sanctuary permanently.  But why did Hannah do such a thing?  What was her motivation?  The realization that her child was a gift from God and that while God gives good gifts, all good gifts should be used in his service.  To Hannah that meant giving up her boy; she believed that by returning the child to God she was making the world a better place.  And the world would become a better place because of her choice since that child would grow up to become one of the greatest prophets of all time, Samuel.

In one of his books a German author named Christian Schwarz notes that we Christians usually think of heaven and hell as being places that pertain to the future.  Heaven so to speak is “up there” and is the place where we go if we have faith in God and strive to live good lives.  Hell on the other hand is “down there” and is the place where we go if we don’t believe and live bad lives.  Fair enough says Schwarz but he notes that when we read the gospels, Jesus also talked about the Kingdom of God or heaven as we usually call it, as being here and now.  But how Schwarz asks, can this possibly be?

He concludes that the Kingdom of God or heaven is here and now wherever and whenever people use their God-given gifts, talents and abilities to serve him and others.  When we seriously try to live as Christ’s disciples we give the world a foretaste of what the life yet to come is like.  Conversely Schwarz says, hell can also be here and now too.  It occurs whenever and wherever people live primarily for themselves without a care or concern for others.  In short, heaven and hell aren’t just future destinations, they are also present realities.

After a closure that has lasted eight months to the very day, today is Boston’s re-opening service.  I must admit that I would have never believed it that March morning if anyone had told me that we wouldn’t be gathering for worship again in Boston till mid-November.  Likewise I wouldn’t have believed it if anyone had told me what things would be like we when we finally did so; no singing, pews marked off and the wearing of masks for example.  So much has changed both here in church and in the world around us.  The last eight months have been a long haul and unfortunately it is going to continue for a while longer.  To be sure, even if a covid vaccine does pan out we will probably be well into next spring before a mass quantity can be made, distributed and enough people inoculated so that the restrictions can be lifted.  For many of us this is not only disheartening but discouraging and fatigue is now setting in.

When the pandemic began last spring there was a strong sense of caring and sharing along with a widespread feeling that we were all in this together.  Sacrifices were demanded and made.  Now however many people are tired of the restrictions and are still worried about health, livelihoods and countless other things.  It sometimes seems as if we are going nowhere fast and this may make it harder for us to continue to care as much about others.  It is however even more important that we do so now than ever before.  It is because even as it seems that life is becoming more of a ‘hell’ for so many, it is through the choices great and small that we make each and every day, that we can help alleviate some of the pain and help make God’s kingdom here on earth a reality.  It is by our caring that we offer hope and light to what is for so many people today, a dark and hurting world.  This was something that one of the great preachers of days gone by learned.

He passed away five years ago but Fred Craddock is still considered to be one of the greatest preachers that the United States has ever produced.  Years ago he and his wife were spending the last day of their summer holidays in their favourite café in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.  They just wanted to be left alone but then an older fellow walked in and much to their annoyance wandered over to their table and started talking.  When the man found out that Craddock was a preacher, he announced that he had a story that he just had to tell.

“Yeah”, the man said, “I was born back in these mountains.  My momma wasn’t married.  We lived in a shack outside of town.  The other women in town used to spend their time guessing who my daddy was.  And I didn’t know who my daddy was.  That was a real problem back then.”

“The other kids weren’t allowed to play with a boy like me so I would hide at recess, and I ate my lunch alone.  They said I wasn’t any good and I’d never amount to anything.”

Remembering those painful days of childhood, the old man was now weeping but he collected himself and kept going.

“Well” the old man said, “there was a church in Laurel Springs.  I knew church wasn’t a place for boys like me.  Sometimes I’d sneak in and sit towards the back so I could sneak out before the service ended.  But this one day I just got lost in what the preacher was saying.  Before I knew it, church was over.  Folks were looking at me.  I was making for the back door as quick as I could when all at once I felt this big hand on my shoulder.”

“This big voice boomed.  It was the preacher man himself!  He talked so loud everybody heard as he said, ‘Boy, who’s your daddy?  I know who your daddy is.  Now let’s see … why you’re a child of …,’ he paused and everyone listened, ‘Why you’re a child of God, and I see a strikin’ resemblance!’  Then he swatted me on the bottom and said, ‘Now you run along and go claim your inheritance.’

The old man looked familiar to Craddock and so he asked him his name.  He replied, “Ben Hooper.”  Fred thought to himself that he recognized the name and then clued in.  “Oh yes!  I remember my daddy telling me about you, you’re the illegitimate boy who was elected the Governor of Tennessee two times.”

Old Governor Hooper looked up at Fred and with tears in his eyes said, “I was born that day.”

Everyone else had looked at Ben Hooper and only saw an illegitimate child; a person to be scorned and shunned.  That preacher though saw what was really there; a child of God who could accomplish something with his life if he was given half a chance.  What was ‘hell’ for that child became ‘heaven’ that Sunday morning.  Indeed heaven itself was revealed in that church that morning all because one person, a disciple of Christ, chose to love and care.

With privilege comes responsibility.  Our privilege is to be the people of God and the disciples of Christ.  Our responsibility, especially in a time such as this, is to love and care for it is by doing so that we help create the kingdom of God here on earth and in doing so give a foretaste of what is yet to come.

Message for Remembrance Sunday – November 8, 2020

Luke 20:27-40

Even though it was written thousands of years ago, Homer’s “The Odyssey” is still considered to be one of the great classics of world literature.  The story begins with Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, and his decision to leave his family and join his fellow Greeks in rescuing the beautiful Helen of Troy.  A ten year siege of Troy followed and the Greeks were finally victorious when they managed to enter the city using the famed Trojan Horse.  The war was over but instead of returning home to his family, Odysseus  travelled all over the Mediterranean world having one marvellous adventure after another, battling fearsome monsters, ferocious sea creatures and the like.  He did this in order to gain fame, believing that if he became famous enough, his name would never be forgotten and so in a sense he would gain immortality.

Finally his adventures led him to the very end of the known world; to Hades, the dreaded place of the dead.  The ancient Greeks believed that when a person died they went to Hades which was a gloomy place where people weren’t quite dead but not quite alive either; it was a sort of twilight zone.  While there Odysseus met all of the great heroes of the past.  With horror he realized that they were just that, figures of the past and long forgotten; they most certainly were not living on through their great deeds.  And if immortality was not to be found in what you did here on earth, then where was it to be found?

Upon leaving Hades Odysseus promptly headed back home to Ithaca and his family.  He had come to the conclusion that immortality was not to be found as a soul living on in Hades.  Nor was immortality to be found in having a great reputation either.  Rather he concluded that immortality was to be found in living on through ones descendants.

Now this may sound rather odd to us but this is what many people in the ancient world, including God’s people in the days of the Old Testament, firmly believed.  Yes, a person died but they still gained a sliver of immortality through their children, grandchildren and the following generations.  In fact it is this belief that partially explains why the people in the days of the Old Testament thought that having children was so important; they were so-to-speak a ticket to immortality.  Indeed this is why a religious law stated that a man had to marry his dead brother’s wife and have children with her; this was done in order to ensure that his brother would live on.

When people started giving this some thought though, they quickly saw the weakness of the theory.  How much for example did they really know about their ancestors?  Generally not much.  Could they really say that their ancestors were living on through them?  Or how much would their own descendants really know about them?  Once again the answer was probably not much.  Slowly but surely the horrible truth dawned throughout the ancient world; that immortality cannot be achieved through those who will come after us.

The result of all this for many people was a numbing sense of despair.  They concluded that their lives had no real purpose, value or meaning.  What did it matter if a person was good or bad?  So what if a person made sacrifices for others and always tried to do the right thing?  In the end it made no difference.  Others, far from giving in to despair, made personal pleasure their only goal in life.  Since this life is all there is, live it to the fullest!  Do whatever you want be it good or bad since there are no consequences unless you get caught!  Not surprisingly perhaps, this attitude even found a place amongst God’s people.

The Sadducees were the sophisticated and well-off group of people who ruled the Temple.  While they certainly believed in God, they also firmly believed that this life was all there is and that there was no life yet to come.  For this reason they were firm believers in what we could call the pleasure principal; eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die.  They reasoned that how we live our lives here on earth has no consequences. Then however along came Jesus who dared proclaim that there is in fact a life yet to come.  Now what was hailed as wonderful news by most people came as quite a shock to the Sadducees; why if Jesus was right then they would have to change their ways!  Some of the Sadducees then decided that they would take Jesus down a peg or two.

Suppose, they said, a woman was married to a man who died.  She then married his brother but he too died.  After that she married the next brother and on it went till she had married and outlived all seven brothers.  Now the Sadducees wanted to know, if there really is a life yet to come then which of the brothers would she be married to?  Would it be to husband number one or one of the others perhaps?  Or maybe she would be married to all seven at the same time!  The Sadducees were obviously trying to hold both Jesus and his belief about an eternal life up to ridicule but Jesus would have no part of it.  He told them that they really didn’t know what they were talking about.  Yes, there most certainly is a life yet to come and in it we do keep our identities but even so, the life everlasting is not just a continuation of this existence.  Rather the life yet to come is a whole new mode of existence.  And it is this, our eternal existence that gives all of our lives here on earth value, purpose and meaning.

It was shortly before I left my first charge and there was a bit of a tempest in one of my congregations.  There was a member there who had retired to the village and was a World War Two vet; indeed he had served with distinction.  One day he came to me and said that he wanted his name added to the church’s memorial plaque that commemorated all those associated with the congregation who had served in the armed forces during the Second World War.  Well, to say that there was a debate when his wish became known would be an understatement.  On one side were those who saw nothing wrong with the request; if this would make him happy then why not?  Other people though, if you will pardon the pun, were up in arms about it; that plaque was a part of the congregation’s history and it wasn’t meant to be open-ended, adding more names to it decades later.  As the debate went on, one of the elders asked me why this fellow wanted this to be done anyways.

To me the answer was obvious.  His name was not recorded on a plaque or memorial anywhere and he was afraid that he and the sacrifices that he had made would be forgotten.  He wanted, as if it were, a sliver of immortality and an assurance that he and his life really did mean something.  Turning to us, do our own lives really have any value, purpose and meaning?  Do the sacrifices we make for the sake of our families and others in the world around us really mean anything?

The message and promise of today’s lesson is that they do.  Our lives really do have value, purpose and meaning.  The longing of the man to have his name inscribed on a plaque is understandable but quite unnecessary.  It is simply because neither he nor his sacrifices will ever be forgotten.  Neither will those of all the others whom we honour during these days of remembrance.  What they did will live on forever simply because both they and we will live on forever.  As I read every year during the Act of Remembrance on Remembrance Sunday:

“Let us remember the continuing grace of God, whose love holds all souls in life and to whom none are dead, but all are alive forevermore.”

To God none are dead but all are alive forevermore; this is the gospel truth.  Their deeds and ours too will live on forever.  Sometimes people say that eternal life minimizes the importance of our existence here on earth; after all what are 70, 80, 90 or even 100 years compared to all eternity?  In reality though, it is the exact opposite.  It is eternity that makes our lives and those of everyone else here on earth so precious; it is eternity that gives them value, purpose and meaning.

Message for November 1, 2020

Revelation 7:9-17

I was amused by the editorial cartoon that appeared in last Sunday’s edition of the Toronto Star.  It depicted a man walking by a rather old-fashioned looking cemetery.  There was a monster, a skeleton, a ghost and a witch in the graveyard and all four of them were doing their best to scare him.  The man however was reading a newspaper and totally ignored them.  “Meh”, he said.  The message of the cartoon was obvious.  What are monsters, skeletons, ghosts and witches compared to the news of the day, especially with the current pandemic?  What is actually happening in the world around us is far more frightening than any creatures of our imagination could ever be.

Last evening was of course Halloween and the weeks leading up to it were marked by debate and controversy over whether or not  the children should be allowed to go trick or treating.  On one side were those, including medical experts, politicians and others, who vehemently said that the answer was ‘no’ as it was too dangerous.  On the other side of the debate were those including once again medical experts, politicians and others who just as vehemently said that the risks of celebrating Halloween were in fact fairly low, especially when compared to other activities that many of the children are doing including going to school.  And besides they said, the kids have already seen so many of the activities and events that they normally enjoy cancelled.  Indeed looking ahead, so many of the events and activities that they enjoy at Christmas have already been cancelled as well.  Was it really necessary then to cancel Halloween too?  The debate raged and in the end it was pretty much left to the parents to do as they best saw fit.

I must confess that I have always rather enjoyed Halloween.  As a child I loved dressing up and going around the neighbourhood collecting candy.  As a parent I enjoyed carving the pumpkin and taking our kids out around the neighbourhood.  Now I get a kick out of looking at the kids dressed in their various costumes who come to the door to collect their candy.  Halloween however is no longer just for the children; in recent years more and more adults have been celebrating Halloween too, dressing up and having their own parties and get-togethers.  Indeed Halloween is now big business and is generally regarded as an occasion for everyone to have some good innocent fun.  It wasn’t always this way though.

The roots of Halloween go back thousands of years and it originated as a festival celebrated by the ancient Celts.  They called it ‘Samhain’ and believed that sunset on the last day of October marked the end of summer.  With the end of summer the time of darkness was upon them and they knew, they just knew, that on that night the spirits, monsters and the like were let loose to roam the earth.  In an effort to scare them off they lit huge bonfires and for the same reason carved scary-looking faces on hollowed out turnips.  Truly the original Halloween, unlike our own, was a spooky and even terror-filled occasion when the people huddled around their fires waiting for the dawn.

In an effort to combat this, the church introduced what was called ‘All Saints Day’.  It was held on the day after Halloween and on that day, November the 1st, everyone was supposed to remember the great Christian saints of days gone by.  It was hoped that by doing this the people would forget about the fear of the night before.  Then, some time later, the church brought in yet another special day.  November the 2nd was called ‘All Souls Day’ and on that day everyone was encouraged to remember all of the people whom they knew who had died and were now with God in heaven. And since they were with God there were no ghosts to be feared!  Why then get all worked up at Halloween?  But while the intent was good, it failed.  The old superstitions continued to thrive and in fact Halloween even cast its shadow over both ‘All Saints’ and ‘All Souls’ days.   They became gloomy occasions when some people, far from just remembering that their loved ones were with God, actually started to worship them.  Some people even began taking gifts to the graves so that their dead relatives wouldn’t bother them in the coming year!  But then came the Reformation.

The response of the Reformers was simple and to the point; they decided to do away with it all.  They abolished both ‘All Saints’ and ‘All Souls’ days but they failed to get rid of Halloween.  After thousands of years, it couldn’t be abolished so easily and so Halloween, continually evolving, has survived to this day.  But while we Protestants abolished ‘All Saints’ and ‘All Souls’ days hundreds of years ago, an increasing number of people in recent years have been asking whether the Reformers threw out the good while trying to get rid of the bad.  Is it possible that there is a legitimate and perhaps even a necessary place for these two days in our church calendar?

For a growing number of Protestant theologians the answer is ‘yes’.  For this reason many churches now celebrate today, the first Sunday in November, as ‘All Saints Sunday’.  Today, like next Sunday, is a day of remembrance but while next Sunday we will remember our war dead, today we remember our own who have passed away.  Today is an occasion when, without being sad or depressed about it, we are encouraged to remember our loved ones who are no longer with us and to thank God for their lives and all that they have meant, still mean and always will mean to us.  Today however we are not just encouraged to remember and thank God for our loved ones now with Him; today we are also encouraged to remember our own ultimate future as well, that there is indeed a life yet to come.  That in fact is the principal message of this morning’s scripture passage.

John’s Book of Revelation is easily the hardest book of the Bible to understand and it’s not hard to see why.  Some of what John wrote was a commentary on what was happening in the world around him at that time.  The Christians were being persecuted by the government and so John wrote to offer his fellow Christians both strength and courage.  For safety reasons though John didn’t identify Rome by name, calling it Babylon instead.  His book in fact is full of such code words that while largely unintelligible to us, made perfect sense to his original readers.  Besides writing about his present times though, John also prophesied about the future as well and once again he used different code words.  The result of all this has been mass confusion.  When was John writing about what is now history?  When was John making predictions about the future?  What do the code words mean?  It seems as if no two Biblical scholars can agree.  The one thing that the scholars do agree on however is that John most firmly believed that there is in fact a life yet to come, and that he was attempting to describe it.  I like the way the well-known preacher, William Willimon sums up the theme of John’s Book of Revelation which includes today’s passage.

“Revelation’s emphasis is upon the ‘myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands’.  A huge crowd is gathered before the throne, a massive, constantly processing choir made up not only of myriads of people, but even ‘of every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea.’

Surely we are meant to see in this vision at the end of the Bible a completion of God’s work that begins in Genesis 1.  ‘Every creature’ is caught up in the re-creation.  Our post-Genesis situation has been fixed.  One day, there before the throne, we shall take our places among the myriads of myriads, with the hump back whales and bull-finches, the wolves and the lemurs, with those whom we have loved (and, presumably, with those whom we have despised), all singing with one voice, ‘Blessing and honour and glory and might to the Lamb!’  ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb!’”

Salvation; this in a nutshell is what today, this day after Halloween, is all about.  Today we remember and affirm not only our destiny but that of the entire creation itself. God’s salvation, achieved through Christ, is for everyone and everything.  Ultimately all shall be well for salvation belongs to God.  Salvation; both ours and that of the creation and all therein is our destiny.  It is simply because in the end God is going to get what God has wanted from the very beginning.

Message for October 25, 2020

Psalm 46

          Sunday March the 15th:  it almost seems like a lifetime ago now.  During the previous weeks there had been growing concern over the spread of the new virus that had first emerged in China earlier in the year.  The concern grew as we witnessed what was happening in Europe and especially in Italy and Spain but even so, most of us did not appreciate either the seriousness of what was happening or its implications.

The concern grew substantially in the week leading up to the 15th and yet, with the exception of using hand sanitizers, life went on as usual; indeed our premier even encouraged people who planned on going south for the March Break to go ahead and have a good time.  There was a pot-luck dinner and euchre night scheduled for the Friday evening at Boston and, after some debate, it went ahead as planned but then?  On the Saturday afternoon the alarm bells so-to-speak started ringing.  I got a flurry of emails that afternoon that all shared a common theme; are you having a worship service the next morning?  If so, what precautions should be taken?

It was a bright, beautiful late winter morning and the service was held at Boston though with a lower attendance than usual.  Upon my arrival at Omagh it was very quickly decided that we would not go ahead with the worship service that morning and I remember chatting with some people outside, admiring the deer in the field across the road from the church.  Looking back I think that we realized that there might not be any worship services for the next little while but in all honesty, none of us were prepared for what was coming.  Indeed I would have been flabbergasted if someone had told me that morning that we would not come together again for worship until the end of October or, in the case of Boston, mid-November.  Likewise I would have been absolutely shocked if anyone had told me what things would be like when we finally gathered again; pews roped off to restrict the seating, no singing or verbal responses and of course the wearing of masks.  So many things are now so different both in the church and the world beyond; in the words of a popular song from years ago, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.

While it wasn’t planned, in a way this Sunday is a good one for a church’s re-opening; it is because today, the last Sunday in October, has long been observed by us Presbyterians as Reformation Sunday.  The theme of today’s service is traditionally that of remembering and honouring those who have gone before us in the faith; their faith and commitment.  With this in mind, we have for years begun that service with that great hymn of the Reformation, Martin Luther’s “A mighty fortress is our God”.

In my Thanksgiving message two weeks ago I made reference to one of the greatest hymns of thanksgiving of all time, “Now thank we all our God”.  In my message that morning I noted that that hymn was written during the Thirty Years War, a three decades long struggle between the Protestants and Roman Catholics in Europe for supremacy.  That time however was not just scarred by physical violence, it was also marred by famine and disease; in fact it is estimated that between 4.5 and 8 million people lost their lives.  Despite all of the suffering though Martin Rinckart, who wrote the words of “Now thank we all our God”, believed that there was still so much to be grateful for.  Like this hymn, “A mighty fortress is our God” was also written during the same time period but while Rinckart emphasized gratitude, Martin Luther emphasized something else altogether.  Inspired by the words of the 46th Psalm he urged everyone to have faith and put their trust in God no matter how grim things seem to be.  Think of the opening words of that hymn:

“A mighty fortress is our God,

A bulwark never failing;

Our Helper He amid the flood

Of mortal ills prevailing:”

Yes, life can be and in fact sometimes is both hard and dangerous but even so, we are not alone.  God, our bulwark never failing, is with us and this of course is one of the great promises of the Christian faith.  We can think of the words of the beloved 23rd Psalm for example and, as I wrote in one of my messages months ago, it can be comforting to simply recite it to ourselves when we are feeling overwhelmed.  There are also the famous words of Paul taken from his letter to the Romans.

“I have become absolutely convinced that neither life nor death, neither a messenger of heaven nor a monarch of earth, neither what happens today nor what may happen tomorrow, neither a power from on high nor a power from below, nor anything else in God’s whole creation has any power to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Almighty God, the one who created us, redeems us and loves us is also the one who is always with us.  This is something that we need to remember, especially perhaps at this time when we are caught up in the dreaded second wave of the current pandemic.  But of course it is not just enough to remember this; something else is required on our part and that is faith.  It is not enough just to know that God is with us, we need to believe this.  And it is this faith that sets us free to live our lives without either dread or fear.  Yes, we still worry and fret about what may or may not happen, we are only human after all but even so, we should not let our fear overwhelm us or paralyse us.  In Luther’s words:

“Let goods and kindred go,

This mortal life also;

The body they may kill:

God’s truth abideth still,

His kingdom is forever.”

Of course it is a lot easier to sing these words than actually believe them and live them.  This is certainly more challenging for many people today than what it was before the present pandemic started but even so, this is what we are called to do; to put our faith, hope and trust in God no matter what.  A pastor down in Florida named Larry Brincefield once told this story which may well speak to us today.

It was an adult Bible study group and the participants were asked which scripture passage gave them the most encouragement when they felt tired, discouraged and overwhelmed.

One young man quoted the well-known 23 Psalm.  Another quoted from today’s Psalm:  ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble’.  Some of the students quoted other passages but then an 80 year old man said that his was ‘and it came to pass’.  In fact he said, that phrase occurs a total of 396 times in the Bible.  The class greeted his words with amusement and he was asked to explain.

At age 30, he said, I lost my job and had six hungry mouths to feed.  At 40 my oldest boy was killed overseas in the war.  At 50 my house was burned to the ground and nothing was saved.  At 60 my wife of 40 years got cancer.  At 65 she died.  I still miss her today.  The agony I went through in each of these situations was unbelievable.  I wondered; where was God?  But each time I looked in the Bible and saw one of those 396 verses that said ‘And it came to pass’, I felt that God was telling me that my pain and circumstances were going to pass and that God would get me through it.

This is a wonderful example of faith; this man’s absolute conviction that God was with him and would get him through.  The loving sustaining presence of God:  the old man in the story knew it, Martin Luther knew it and the psalmist who composed today’s psalm knew it.  A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing or, to quote from the scripture passage that inspired this hymn:

“God is our refuge and strength,

A very present help in times of trouble.

Therefore we will not fear.

The Lord of Hosts is with us,

The God of Jacob is our refuge.”

Message for Thanksgiving Sunday – October 11, 2020

Psalm 147

Now thank we all our God,

With heart, and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done,

In Whom His world rejoices;

Who from our mother’s arms

Hath blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love,

And still is ours today.

Many of you no doubt recognize this as the first verse of “Now thank we all our God” which is one of the greatest hymns of thanksgiving even though it is not usually sung as a Thanksgiving Sunday hymn.  This hymn happens to be one of my favourites and I have been thinking about it a lot lately, if only because of the story behind it and the times that we are now living through.

This hymn was written by a Lutheran pastor named Martin Rinckart who lived in Germany four hundred years ago.  The world in which Rinckart lived and ministered was a very dangerous one since Europe was caught up in “The Thirty Years War”.  As its name suggests, this war lasted for an almost mind-boggling thirty years.  The war was a power struggle between the Protestants and Roman Catholics and at one point or another involved virtually every country in Western Europe.  The death and destruction was widespread and to make things even worse, there were also years of famine and numerous plagues as well; indeed it is estimated that altogether the fighting, disease and starvation killed somewhere between 4.5 and 8 million people.

This was the world that Rinckart lived and ministered in.  The city where he lived, Eilenburg, was not immune; in fact at one point he had up to fifty burials in a single day and yet, despite it all, Rinckart never lost his faith in God or his belief that life is good.  Indeed so deep was this conviction that, inspired by the words of the 147th Psalm, he wrote the words of this wonderful hymn of thanksgiving.  As grim as life may have been, he still firmly believed that there was still so much to be thankful for.

It would be stretching the point far too far to say that we are living through our own “Thirty Years War” but nevertheless we are living through a very challenging time.  When I look back I am almost amazed at how fast things changed.  Early in the year we had news reports about a new virus that had emerged in China, but at the time that didn’t seem to have anything to do with us.  We then saw what was happening in Europe and especially in Italy and Spain but once again we weren’t too concerned since it seemed to be so far away and didn’t have anything to do with us.  Then almost overnight everything changed.  Even then though many if not most of us didn’t really ‘get it’; remember the shock when it was announced that the March Break would be lengthened from one week to three?  I suspect that most of us would have been dumbfounded if we had been told how we would still be living all these months later.  The pandemic has had such a huge impact on our daily lives impacting such as how we shop, socialize with one another and work.  Looking back so many of the activities and events that we would have normally enjoyed were cancelled; we can think of such as the Canada Day celebration, the Steam Era and the Fair for example.  When we look ahead there is no real end in sight either; so many of the activities that help make Christmas ‘Christmas’ for example will not be held this year.

The pandemic is certainly having an impact on the church as well.  When we re-open we will not be able to enjoy so many of the activities that we took for granted in the past such as fellowship times after worship and pot-luck dinners.  The pandemic will even have an impact when we gather once again to worship with the seating being restricted.  While the worship service will be basically the same format as what we are used to, such as anthems and hymn singing are now forbidden.  This is the world that we now live in and then we come to this weekend.

This of course is the long Thanksgiving weekend and once again the pandemic is having a negative impact on what we normally do.  Can we gather to celebrate as families?  Should we?  This is the long weekend when our hearts are supposed to be filled with gratitude, but are they?

As Rinckart reminds us, even at the worst of times there are still reasons to give thanks.  Yes, we are encountering some shortages but in a world where so many people are hungry and even starving, we have a super abundance of food and other material goods.  Indeed I don’t think that many people living in a Third World country or even those-in-need in our own community would have much sympathy for us if we complain that such as the paper towel shelves are empty!  In a world where even the most basic of health care is almost unheard of for so many, we have our health system.  To be sure it is most certainly under strain with the backlog of Covid test results, surgeries and other tests being postponed but it is still functioning, in no small part because of those who are on the “front lines” risking their health and even their lives caring for others.  In a world where so many lack shelter and clothing, we have both.  There is also the physical world around us too with its goodness and beauty, especially perhaps during this time of year with the harvest and as the leaves change colour.  Yes, there is the climate change crisis but even so we do live in a world full of beauty and goodness.  To this we can add such as our families and friends; all the people who mean so much to us and bring so much joy, pleasure and meaning to our lives.

If we give it some thought, this list of things to be thankful for could go on and on.  To be sure we are living in a challenging time and perhaps we really don’t feel all that much gratitude right now but even so … there is still so much for which we can be thankful for.  Like Rinckart before us, we can and should say “Now thank we all our God” and that of course, making the effort to thank our God and to acknowledge our ultimate dependence upon him is what this weekend is all about.  That is the point of this little story.

A new soul arrived in heaven and St. Peter gave him a tour.  They walked side-by-side into one large building which was filled with angels.  St. Peter stopped in front of the first section and said, ‘This is the Receiving Section.’  The soul looked and noticed how busy it was with so many angels sorting out requests from people from all over the world.  Then they continued the tour arriving at the second section.  St. Peter told the soul, ‘This is the Packaging and Delivery Section.  Here the blessings that the people asked for are processed and delivered.’  The soul noted again how busy it was.  Finally at the farthest corner of the building they stopped at a very small station.  To the new arrival’s surprise only one angel was seated there and he was doing nothing.  ‘This is the Acknowledgment Section,’ said Peter.  ‘How is it that?  Is there no work here?’ the soul asked.  ‘It is so sad,’ St. Peter sighed.  ‘After people receive the blessings they asked for, very few can be bothered to send back their acknowledgements.’

Even in times such as these there is still so much to be grateful for.  Even in times such as these we should still acknowledge our dependence upon God.  Even in times such as these, we need to and in fact should celebrate Thanksgiving as we best see fit and give thanks for our blessings.

Life was not easy for Martin Rinckart and yet, despite this or even perhaps because of this, he wrote the words of one of the greatest hymns of thanksgiving of all time.  Inspired by the words of the 147th Psalm, his great hymn reminds us that even at the worst of times there is still so much to be grateful for.  I hope that you read this scripture passage before reading this message but whether you did or not, I would encourage you to do so now since it captures what this day is all about, beginning and ending as it does with “Praise the Lord!” or, as it can also be translated from the original Hebrew, “Hallelujah!”

Thanksgiving Prayer 2020

Gracious God, this Thanksgiving is unlike any other we have ever experienced before.  With all of the restrictions impacting our daily lives, so much now seems to be so different and so wrong.  Even now, caught up in the ‘second wave’, life seems to be so uncertain and even dangerous.

We must confess that as we celebrate Thanksgiving this year we may not feel the same sense of gratefulness and gratitude that we usually do but even so, help us we pray to remember the many blessings we do have and experience.

We give you thanks for the wondrous mystery that is life itself, our own and that of all the people who mean so much to us.

We give you thanks for all that sustains and nourishes our bodies; the food we eat, our homes and clothing, remembering and thanking you too for everyone whose knowledge, skill and labour make it all possible.

We give you thanks for everything that nourishes our minds and brings us pleasure such as the shows we watch, the books we read and the music we listen to.  We remember and thank you too for those whose skill, ability and talent make these things possible.

We give you thanks for the medical care we have, remembering all those who selflessly give of themselves for the welfare of others.

We give you thanks for the goodness and beauty of the creation around us in this season of change and harvest.

We give you thanks for this nation of which we are a part, her dreams and aspirations to be a better place for all.

We give you thanks for our church family and the larger church of which we are a part.  May we all truly be your Son’s disciples, doing our best, secure in your love and forgiveness to be the people living the lives that you have called us to.

Last but certainly not least, we give you thanks for the holy wondrous mystery that is you; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  You are the one who has brought it all into being and made everything possible.  In these uncertain challenging times, we give you thanks as well for your promised presence with us; that no matter where we go you are present, with us and for us. For all of these things and so much more we give you thanks.

In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen

Message for October 4, 2020

Exodus 20:1-17

They are amongst the greatest stories of the entire Bible and what I am referring to are the stories that make up the Exodus, the journey of God’s people from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.  The story begins with the Hebrews living as slaves in Egypt and despite the brutal oppression, numerically at least they thrived.  In an effort to deal with this the Pharaoh decreed that all the male Hebrew children were to be put to death.  One woman, desperate to save her newborn son, placed him in a papyrus basket and set it amidst the reeds on the riverbank.  As it so happened the Pharaoh’s daughter came along and saw the child.  She took pity on him and raised him as her own naming him Moses.  It seemed that he, born a Hebrew slave and destined to be killed, now had it made being raised in the lap of luxury at the royal court.

Despite his privileged upbringing Moses never lost sight of who and what he really was; how else to explain what happened next?  One day when he saw an Egyptian overseer brutally beating a Hebrew slave, he intervened and killed the Egyptian.  Moses then had to flee for his life and fled into the desert.  While there he had his famed encounter with God himself; he saw a bush that was on fire yet not consumed.  Being curious he went closer to have a better look.  Much to his shock God then spoke to him telling him to return to Egypt to set the Hebrews free and lead them to the Promised Land.  Moses however didn’t want to do this and came up with every excuse and reason why he couldn’t but in the end?  Off he went.

Not surprisingly, the Pharaoh did not respond favourably to Moses’ request to let the people go.  Moses tried to impress the Pharaoh with his super-natural abilities such as turning his rod into a snake but that didn’t get him anywhere.  After that God sent a series of plagues leading up to the last and worst one of all, the death of all the first-born Egyptian males throughout the land.  Overwhelmed by this disaster, the Pharaoh agreed to set the Hebrews free.  The journey to freedom began but of course that isn’t the end of the story.

After giving it some thought the Pharaoh changed his mind and sent the army to bring the former slaves back.  Moses and the Hebrews were then seemingly trapped with the Reed Sea in front of them and the Egyptians behind them.  Then however came one of the most dramatic miracles of the Bible, the parting of the water.  God’s chosen people crossed over to safety while the pursuing Egyptians perished.  The journey to freedom continued.

As time went by their food supplies ran low and quite predictably the people complained.  Once again God provided for them; there were quails to eat in the evening and manna in the morning.  When the people got thirsty God again looked after them; a spring of water sprang up out of a dry rock.  The journey to freedom continued on to Mount Sinai where they were given the Ten Commandments.

Many people find the event described in today’s scripture passage a bit jarring.  The people had been set free and were on their way to the Promised Land but then they were given this list of do’s and don’ts.  “Thou shall” do this and “thou shalt not” do that; where is the freedom in this?  It seemed as if the people had just traded in one set of harsh taskmasters for another.  Indeed this may explain why the Ten Commandments, seemingly curtailing our freedom as they do, are no longer as popular or even accepted as they used to be.

The idea of freedom is one of the most powerful and cherished values in our society today; indeed many people react very strongly and negatively when they feel that their freedom is being curtailed.  This partially explains what is happening in the world around us at the present time.  With the current pandemic there are all sorts of rules impacting what we can and cannot do.  We must wear masks when indoors in a public space, the size of gatherings is restricted and on it goes.  These rules are certainly having an impact on churches too, restricting as they do how many can gather for worship and even what can and cannot happen during a worship service.  Inevitably there has been push back; we can think of such as the demonstration in Toronto last weekend where hundreds of people marched to protest the restrictions waving signs with slogans such as “Your fear does not trump my freedom”.  For many people today freedom at its most basic means being able to do what we want, when we want and as we want with as few limitations as possible.  With this attitude then, it is no wonder that the Ten Commandments are not particularly popular.

Contrary to what many people may think though, the Ten Commandments, far from restricting our freedom are actually meant to set us free; they set us free to have the right relationship with both God and other people.  When they are followed for example, we don’t have to worry about such as others lying about us, stealing from us or even trying to kill us!  Yes, the Ten Commandments are meant to set us free and yet…  Do they?

The truth is that none of us can keep all of the Commandments all of the time, and then when we add Jesus’ command that we are to keep them in both deed and in spirit?  Far from setting us free, the Law seems to imprison us and we are, in a manner of speaking, ‘broken’.  Our failure to live the lives that God has called us to leaves us with a broken relationship with both God and others.  We are even broken within ourselves by the gulf between our ideals of what we should be like and the reality of what we are like.  Truly we are broken but the wonderful promise of the gospel is that we are not broken beyond repair.  That is the message and promise of this short story.

Once upon a time a man visited a city that he had never been to before and decided to explore it.  The main street wasn’t that different from the main street of other cities and so he started to explore the back streets.  As he walked along he noticed a sign overhanging a shop that read “Nothing Broken Beyond Repair”.  The shop specialized in repairing broken items and there was a steady stream of people going in; children carrying toys, men carrying tools and women carrying various household items.  The people were young and old, well and not so well off and of every ethnic group imaginable.  As different as they all were though, they shared one thing in common; entering the shop they looked sad because something special to them had been broken.  Upon coming out though, they all looked so happy because whatever had been broken had been made whole again.  That sign, “Nothing Broken Beyond Repair” offered them hope and shone like a beacon in the darkness.

Now of course it isn’t but that sign could be hung outside the door of every church.  The truth is that we, by our failure to keep all of God’s Law all of the time in both spirit and deed, are broken.  This is our reality.  There is however an even greater reality and that is that none of us are broken beyond repair.  To put it another way we, by our failure to keep the Ten Commandments in spirit and in deed, are sinners.  But we aren’t just sinners; if we want to be we can be and in fact are forgiven sinners!  This is the good news and promise of the gospel.  As St. Peter said, “He himself bore our sins on his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By his wounds you have been healed.”

By his wounds we are healed, restored, forgiven and put back together again.  Can we keep all of the Ten Commandments all of the time?  If we take them seriously then quite honestly the answer is no.  This is one reality but the other and even greater reality is that God’s love for us, as made known to us by his son, means that none of us are broken beyond repair.  Contrary to what people sometimes like to think, true freedom does not lie in doing whatever we want.  Rather true freedom is to be found in at least trying to keep the Ten Commandments, knowing that when we fail as we inevitably do, we are set free from the burden of a guilty conscience.  This is true freedom in the deepest fullest sense of the word.

Message for September 27, 2020

Romans 14:1-12

          As a part of my training for ministry I spent the summer of 1981 doing a chaplaincy course at Toronto Western Hospital.  The course had two supervisors one being a United Church minister and the other a Roman Catholic priest.  There were about twenty of us students and we came from many different denominations; Presbyterian, United, Anglican and Roman Catholic for the most part.  Despite all our differences however, we became a very close knit group.  All was well until the end.

It was suggested that we ought to celebrate communion as a part of our last worship service together.  It was agreed that this was a great idea but the question was raised; who would officiate?  The Roman Catholic students couldn’t take communion from the Protestant chaplain while the Roman Catholic chaplain was not allowed to give communion to the Protestants.  The result was a debate that escalated into an argument that led to a major blow-up with people literally storming out of the room.  Old biases and antagonisms reared their head and it seemed as if a summer’s worth of ecumenical peace and goodwill was quickly going down the drain.  Eventually everyone had left the room except for me and one other Presbyterian student.  She looked at me and then burst into tears sobbing, “Why can’t we all just get along?”

Why can’t we all just get along?  It’s an age old question isn’t it?  Sometimes spouses argue and children bicker.  People don’t always get along at work and neighbours sometimes have their differences.  Nations certainly don’t always get along and neither do those who make up a nation; all we have to do is look at our neighbours to the south caught up in their very bitter presidential election.  Our own country and society isn’t immune either and tensions are perhaps heightened by the pandemic with all of its fears and stresses.  Even within the church profound disagreements and upsets sometimes happen.  When they do people sometimes ask, “Why can’t we just get along the way people did back in the days of the early church?  To ask this however is to look at the past through rose coloured glasses.  The truth is that God’s people have never always got along and we can think of the congregation in Rome for example.

The church in Rome, like so many congregations before and since, had its troubles and there were two main areas of disagreement.  The first, which may seem rather odd to us, was whether or not Christians were allowed to eat meat.  Now contrary to what some might think at first, the debate was not over the morality of killing and eating animals.  Rather the issue was where the animals were killed.  A major source of meat in the ancient world was the local temples; the animals were sacrificed to the various gods and then the meat was sold to support the temples.  Now some people in the congregation insisted that there was no way a good Christian could possibly eat such meat; to do so was to support that temple!  What this meant in practical terms was that they became vegetarians.  Others in the congregation though didn’t see anything wrong with buying and eating the meat; doing so didn’t mean that they were worshiping the pagan idols!

As if that wasn’t enough though, the congregation’s members also argued over which day of the week was the most appropriate to worship God.  Some said that they should be worshiping on Saturdays since that day had been the Sabbath for God’s people since the days of Moses.  Others in the congregation though had switched from Saturday to Sunday since that was the day that Jesus had been raised from the dead.  Arguing about food and the day of worship made for an unhappy situation and it was Paul’s task to help them out.

In his letter Paul told them the same thing that he had already told other congregations that had found themselves in a similar mess.  First of all, it really didn’t matter whether or not they ate the meat.  Those who didn’t were following their conscience and honouring God.  Likewise, those who did eat it were following their conscience and doing what they thought was right.  Likewise it really didn’t matter on which day they worshiped God either.  They could keep tradition and worship God on Saturday or break tradition and worship on a Sunday; it really didn’t matter!  What really mattered was that they did worship!  Indeed, Paul said that there was an even greater issue or principle at stake; that of Christian love.  Even as the Romans passionately argued with oneanother, did they still love oneanother?  Did they still respect oneanother?  If they didn’t then it didn’t matter who was right or wrong because they had missed the point altogether.  Love was the key, it was back then and it still is today.

The truth is that if we are true to our conscience, we will not always agree with oneanother.  Nevertheless no matter how strongly or passionately we may disagree, we must still strive to love and love as the Bible understands it is simply treating others as we ourselves wish to be treated.  Of course it must be admitted that this can be far easier said than done.  In fact sometimes doing this even seems to go against our very nature.

Several years ago there was a news clip on TV about that day’s events at the CNE.  A part of the clip showed a family walking down the midway and all were obviously having a good time.  The family consisted of a mother, father and two kids, a boy who was about five or six and his younger sister.  The girl was carrying a big inflatable mallet and without any warning or provocation, she suddenly hauled off and clobbered her brother over the head with it!  It wouldn’t have hurt him but the boy’s face screwed up in tears of rage and protest, but before he could utter a sound the camera switched over to something else.

Now no real harm was done but I wondered.  Why did the little girl do it?  Would she have liked it if he had done the same thing to her?  It almost seems to be a part of our nature to sometimes, figuratively speaking, clobber oneanother over the head by the things we say and do.  And then we wonder why we don’t get along!  To get along means taking Jesus’ command to love seriously and this does not always come easily.  Consider this true story from the writer Jim Taylor.

“It was a tense, very difficult meeting.  The committee had been dealing with the problem of an employee who had committed a theft.

‘This business cannot function with people who are thieves,’ said one of the members of the committee.  There was widespread agreement.

‘I think a rule is a rule,’ said the manager.  ‘All of the employees will be watching us to see if we enforce the rules.’

‘As I see it, this is a cut-and-dried case.  She admitted that she stole the money.  She knows that it is wrong.  It’s as simple as that,’ chimed a third.

At length, one of our colleagues spoke up, a rather quiet person not known for her leadership.  ‘I think our company ought to be the sort of place where people are more important even than good rules.  As you say, she has admitted her guilt.  There are mitigating circumstances – her marriage situation, her two children.  None of that excuses this.  But I don’t think she is asking to be excused.  I think she is asking us to give her another chance.  I would like all of our employees to know that this is the sort of company where someone can make a terrible, tragic mistake and yet be given a second chance.’

And in that tension filled, darkened room, wrote Taylor, the light shone.”

As Taylor wrote, the light shone because, one person, as difficult or even as distasteful as it may have been for her, chose to treat another as no doubt she would wish to be treated in the same circumstances.  The light shone because she chose to love.

I began today’s message with the story of an unhappy episode from almost forty years ago and I ended my account with myself and a fellow student sitting alone in the room together.  That however is not the end of the story.  The next day we all came together again and the room was full of tension; the harsh words of the previous day had neither been forgotten nor forgiven.  Then the Roman Catholic priest spoke up saying that since the Roman Catholic students could not take communion from the Protestant chaplain, he would celebrate communion for all of us.  I asked him how he could do that since his own church’s rules quite firmly said that he couldn’t give communion to us Protestants.  His reply was that he knew what his church’s rules were but he had decided to follow his conscience.  “I have no problem celebrating communion for you” he said.  “Do you have a problem taking communion from me?”  The answer was ‘no’ and so it was done.  The differences remained and they were very real but even so we still came together as a community of faith; we did so simply because of the decision to love, to treat oneanother as we ourselves wished to be treated.

Exodus 16:1-15

          I know that I have shared this little story with you before but I am doing so again simply because it is one of my favourites.

Once upon a time there was a man who could not be pleased no matter what and finally his long-suffering wife decided that she had had enough; for one day at least, he wouldn’t be able to find anything to complain about.  That morning then she asked him, “And what would you like for breakfast dear?”

“Five slices of bacon and two slices of toast with marmalade”, he replied.  “I also want two eggs; one scrambled and the other one fried.”  His wife swiftly prepared the meal and put it down in front of him.  She stood back and waited for the compliments; after all it was exactly what he had asked for!  But what did he say?  “Doggone it woman, you went and scrambled the wrong egg!”

We may smile at this if only because it captures a truth; that there are some people in life who can never seemingly be pleased no matter what.  Indeed I wonder if God himself felt that way at the time of today’s scripture passage.

The Hebrews were on their way to the Promised Land and so far it had been a tremendous experience.  First of all there had been the Passover when the Angel of Death had passed over their blood-stained doorways but had struck down all the first-born males of Egypt.  Overwhelmed by this disaster, the pharaoh had set the Hebrews free.  After that came their tremendous experience by the shores of the Reed Sea.  With the water in front of them and the pursuing Egyptian army behind them, it seemed as if there was no escape but then God sent the wind to drive the water back enabling the Hebrews to cross over to safety.  Then when the Egyptians tried to follow them, the water had come crashing down and they had all perished.  So far the exodus had proved to be a most uplifting experience but now?  There was trouble.  They were out in the wilderness and their food supplies were running low.  Not surprisingly perhaps, the people forgot all about the great things that God had already done for them and started to complain.

“If only we had died by the Lord’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 this entire assembly to death!”

Now this of course simply wasn’t true.  They had not lived lives of ease and luxury in Egypt just sitting around eating as much as they wanted!  They had been mistreated and oppressed slaves.  Talk about a selective memory!  How quickly they had forgotten about all of the wonderful things that God had done for them.  Indeed who would have blamed God if he had just washed his hands of these ingrates altogether and found himself another chosen people?  He didn’t though; instead he provided for them.  In the evening quails covered the camp and in the morning the ground was covered with a heavy dew.  When the dew evaporated, a white, flaky and rather gooey substance was left behind.  And what was the people’s reaction to it?

They kept asking one another ‘manhu, manhu?’ which is Hebrew for ‘what is this stuff?’  Nobody wanted to touch it never mind taste it but finally one person, braver or perhaps hungrier than all of the rest did.  Much to that person’s surprise, he or she realized that this strange stuff actually tasted pretty good!  Day after day then, this mysterious substance was collected and even baked into loaves of bread.  Over time in fact the question became a noun; ‘manhu’ became ‘manna’.  There is an irony in all of this though.  All the while when the people were complaining about being hungry and asking ‘manhu, manhu?’ the food was right there in front of them; it was the bread from heaven and the visible presence of God himself.  But I have to wonder, are we ever like those people of long ago?

One of the great messages and promises of the Bible is that the One who created us, loves us and forgives us is also always with us.  We can think of what God did for the Hebrews in today’s lesson and we can also think of the words of this psalm, which is one of my favourites:

“Where could I go to escape thy spirit?

Where could I flee from thy presence?

If I climb the heavens, thou art there!

There too if I lie in Sheol.”

We can also remember the last earthly words of Jesus himself as recorded in Matthew’s gospel.  “And I will be with you always, to the end of time.”

The Bible tells us over and over again that as we journey through life and make our way to our own Promised Land, we are not alone.  But how often do we, like those Hebrews in today’s scripture passage, wonder where on earth God is?  Living in the trying times that we do with all of its uncertainty, how often do we ask the same question that they did?  The truth however is that the signs of God, his love, presence and working in our lives are all around us.  Indeed I wonder; how often are we like the subjects of the famous scientific experiment, “The Invisible Gorilla”?

This experiment was conducted by a researcher named Daniel Simon at the University of Illinois.  In it, the participants were asked to watch a film clip of a group of people walking around in a circle while passing a basketball around; half of them were wearing white shirts and the others black ones.  Those watching the clip were asked to count the number of times that those dressed in the white shirts touched the ball.  Part way through the clip though, a man dressed in a gorilla suit joined those passing the ball around.  He danced, pranced and jumped all around; there was seemingly no way that anyone could fail to notice him.  In reality though, only fifty percent of those watching the clip noticed him.  Before the start of the experiment ninety percent of those watching were confident that they would see what was going on right before their very eyes yet only fifty percent of them did.  And then when they were told that they had missed the man prancing around in a gorilla suit, some of the experiment’s participants got very angry insisting that there had never been a gorilla present;  why if there had been, then of course they would have seen him!

Now the point of this experiment is obvious.  The participants in the experiment were so focused on counting the people in white shirts who touched the ball that they quite literally did not see the man in the gorilla suit right up front and centre.  Many of the participants only saw what they expected to see but this of course isn’t just true of those in that science experiment, this can be true of all of us.  If we are not looking for God or if we are too focused on other things, then we will never see him; we will be oblivious to him and all the signs of his presence, even when they are there right there in front of us.  And this is one of the challenges laid out for us in today’s scripture passage; to be more perceptive of the presence and the working of God in the world around us.

One of the growing trends in Christianity today is an interest in the spirituality of Celtic Christianity; the spirituality of the Christians in Scotland and Ireland who lived long ago.  There are many reasons for this interest, one of which being the belief that they were much more aware of the presence of God in their lives than what we generally are today.  We can get carried away with this but there is also some truth to it as well.  With this in mind I would like to close this message by sharing the words of an old Gaelic prayer that was recited every morning.

“I awake this morning

in the presence of the holy angels of God.

May heaven open wide before me,

above me and around me,

that I may see the Christ of my love

and his sunlit company

in all the things of earth this day.

And so may we all, this day and every day.

Message for September 13, 2020

Exodus 14:19-31

Was it one of the greatest archeological discoveries of all time or was it nothing more than a product of wishful thinking?  What I am referring to is the claim that there is actual concrete proof that God parted the waters allowing the Hebrews to escape from the Egyptians.

Almost thirty years ago an amateur archeologist by the name of Ron Wyatt claimed to have discovered the actual site where, during the exodus, the Hebrews had crossed over the sea to escape from the pursuing Egyptians.  He said that the location was just off the coast of the modern day town of Nuweiba in Egypt.  Nuweiba is located on the Gulf of Aqaba which is an extension of the Red Sea.  Wyatt said that his divers had found the remains of chariots as well as human and horse bones scattered across the ocean floor at depths of 60 to 200 feet.  Furthermore Wyatt also claimed that on the Saudi Arabian shoreline opposite Nuweiba, he had found an ancient pillar with an inscription on it.  This pillar was supposedly erected by King Solomon to commemorate the Hebrews crossing over at that exact spot.  Wyatt had no doubt that he had located the site of the event described in today’s scripture passage but not surprisingly he had his critics.

Some people were skeptical because of the long passage of time since the exodus.  Most historians agree that the exodus did take place and that it happened about 1300 BC or about 3300 years ago but, given the time factor along with the water currents and the build-up of silt, what are the odds that these remains would just be lying there on the ocean floor for all to see?  And as for the pillar that Wyatt claimed to have found?  It has disappeared and no one knows where it is.  We can only take Wyatt’s word for its existence and what the inscription said.

In addition many historians doubt Wyatt’s claims because they don’t believe that the route of the exodus went anywhere near Nuweiba.  To be sure Nuweiba is located on the Gulf of Aqaba, an extension of the Red Sea but contrary to what many people think, the Bible does not say that the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea; rather it says that they crossed the Reed Sea.  This being the case, the crossing probably happened at another spot altogether, about 200 miles away.  So where does all of this leave us?

Most reputable historians do not take Wyatt’s claims seriously.  Even so, most historians do believe that the exodus does have a historical basis.  For starters, they do so because it is so rooted in Biblical tradition.  Furthermore the exodus is not the sort of history that people would usually invent for themselves either.  We can think of this parallel for example.

When people work on their family tree, many if not most usually hope to discover that their ancestors were not just ordinary people.  Rather they are hoping to find a link to someone who was rich and famous; even a king or queen perhaps!  And so it is with nations.  Despite the recent tendency to remove or even topple statues of people whose lives and actions are deemed to be wrong by our modern standards, most people still like to think that those who created and built their nation were larger than life individuals; indeed this is why their statues were put up in the first place.  With this in mind, most historians believe that the exodus did in fact take place because people inventing a history for themselves would never willingly claim that they were descendants of runaway slaves.

While there is a general consensus that the exodus did in fact take place, there is no consensus that the actual event described in today’s passage did; that Moses lifted his hands, the wind blew, the waters parted and the people were able to cross over on the seafloor.  There is no consensus about this because while the exodus may be history, the parting of the waters is a miracle, and so a matter of faith.  As the disciples of Jesus and the people of God though, we are a people of faith.  Indeed with the eyes of faith, today’s passage does not just tell us about what God did for his people so long ago; it also reminds us about what God is still doing today.

As I mentioned in a previous message, this past summer I have been reading Andrew Root’s book “The Pastor in a Secular Age”.  One of the many things that Root does is emphasize the importance of the “Age of Enlightenment” and the impact that it has had on how we think of God.  Prior to the Enlightenment people lived in what Root calls, “The Age of Enchantment”.  To most people back then the existence of God was accepted without question.  It was also firmly believed that God was present and active in the world around them.  Everything that happened was understood to be God at work; God sent the storms, droughts and sickness for example.  God was also responsible for such as the good crops and healing as well.  This was the world they lived in but then came the Enlightenment.

During the Enlightenment it was realized that there are scientific explanations for so much of what happens in the world around us and that the world operates according to natural scientific laws.  Events that were formerly attributed to God were now understood “scientifically”.  It was also firmly assumed that God would never break any of these scientific laws either.  By definition, miracles became an impossibility.  Slowly but surely God was pushed to the sidelines as if it were and seemingly became more irrelevant all of the time.  This process has been going on for the past 300 years leading up to where we are today.

While many and perhaps even most people will grant the existence of God, to them he is either just an intellectual concept or else a remote being with no role to play in their lives.  In fact it is said that even most Christians today would be as shocked as the most vehement atheist if God were to clearly answer a prayer or perform a miracle; we may pray but deep down many of us don’t really expect him to do anything.  This is the secular world that we live in today but then we are confronted by the event described in today’s passage.

The message of today’s passage is that God is not just a concept that we can use to explain the origins of the universe.  Nor is God a remote being who created it all and then just stepped back to let the universe and all therein go on its merry way.  The message and the promise of today’s passage is that God is involved in the lives of his people.  This passage though also reminds us of something else too.

It is perhaps too easy to get so caught up in the wonder of the parting of the sea, just think of Charlton Heston in the classic movie “The Ten Commandments” for example, that we lose sight of what the following verse is telling us.

“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land.”

Yes, the parting of the waters was God’s miracle but Moses still had an important role to play, and we should remember this.  God may choose to work through events that are seemingly inexplicable, events that we refer to as being miracles.  God however also works through his people and that includes every single one of us.  In the words of a prayer taken from the Iona Community:

“Christ, the Master Carpenter,

who, at the last, through wood and nails,

accomplished our whole salvation,

wield well your tools in the workshop of your world,

so that we who come rough-hewn to your bench

may here be fashioned to a truer beauty of your hand.

We ask it for your own name’s sake.”

As humble, unimportant, weak or even as unsuitable as we may seem to be, individually and collectively we are the tools of God in the workshop of his world.  Too often perhaps we may feel like small cogs in a big machine and that our lives are of little value, purpose or meaning but this simply isn’t true.  We are a part of the Body of Christ here on earth.  We are the light that shines in the darkness.  We are the ones who, each and every day not only proclaim the reality of God but the truth that he is present and involved.  And we dare think that we are unimportant or irrelevant?  We may live in a secular age but living in the uncertain times that we do, our presence and ministry are as needed today as ever before.