Message for May 1, 2022

Exodus 3:7-14

Luke 13:31-35

I was at a June presbytery meeting years ago and those who had attended that year’s General Assembly were giving their reports.  These reports are usually rather boring and these were no exception, until one of the elders gave his.  To say that he was upset would be an understatement.

Every morning at Assembly begins with a worship service and during one of the services a minister had addressed God in prayer as “our loving mother”.  The elder in question was almost beside himself with rage.  How dare that minister address God in such a way!  God is our father, not our mother!  It all made for an interesting debate but moving beyond that elder’s anger, it did raise a fundamental issue; just what is God like?

Jesus’ fame had spread far and wide, and while some people loved him others hated him with a passion viewing him as a threat to their power and prestige.  One of these people was King Herod.  One day a group of Pharisees, who are of course usually portrayed as Jesus’ enemies, warned him to run away because Herod wanted to kill him.  This warning though didn’t seem to bother Jesus at all, and his response was to say that nothing could happen to him until he went to Jerusalem.  After all Jerusalem was the place where all of the great prophets had been killed.  Jesus said that he was safe until he went to the city but, he added, the day was coming when he would go there.   Despite the danger he would go because he loved the city and its people.  Why he even wanted to protect them just as a mother hen protects her chicks under the shelter of her wings.

So goes today’s second scripture passage and as a part of preparing a sermon, I usually look at various books and authors to see what they have to say about the passage in question.  When it came to today’s text though, I discovered something rather interesting.  Without exception, the older books focused on the necessity of Jesus’ dying in Jerusalem.  The newer books however focus on something entirely different and that is one line in particular:  “I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings”.  Many modern scholars find this line very significant because when describing himself and his work, Jesus described himself not as a father figure but rather as a mother figure.  This scripture passage in fact is one of the few times where Jesus, and indeed the very Bible itself, uses feminine imagery to describe the nature of God.  To put it another way, this passage in a low-key way challenges us to think about what God is like.

In recent years there has been a great deal of debate about the nature of God and to a point this is a reflection of what has happened in the world around us; indeed while we may not realize it, many of us have lived through a social revolution.  Not all that many years ago, the ideal if not the reality, was that men went off to work while women stayed home and looked after the home and family.  Now, whether it be through choice or necessity, most women work outside of the home.  Indeed whether it be in such as the church, business or the military for example, women today are doing jobs and fulfilling roles that were unthinkable not that many years ago.  While equality of the sexes is far from being a reality, there can be no doubt that by and large women in our society today have a freedom of choice and opportunities that were unimaginable a couple of generations ago.  Inevitably this has had an impact on the world of religion and how we think about God.

We normally think of God and refer to God as being a male and this is perfectly natural because we are simply following the Bible’s lead.  The Bible generally uses masculine terms like king, lord and of course father when it refers to God.  The Bible however, besides being God’s word, also reflects the society and world in which it was written.  That world and society was incredibly male dominated.  In Jesus’ day for example, Jewish men recited a prayer every morning in which they thanked God for not creating them as women.  Women at that time had virtually no legal rights and were discouraged from leaving the house unless it was to get water, buy food, or to worship.  No matter how unhappy a marriage may have been a woman could not initiate a divorce, while a man could for any reason at all.  There is in fact a case where a man divorced his wife simply because she burnt his dinner.  And if a man did divorce his wife then she could be out on the street without a penny to her name.  The best parallel as to how women were treated in Jesus’ day is how women are treated today in certain fundamentalist Islamic countries.  Given this environment then, it is only natural that the prophets and other Biblical writers thought of God as being like a man.   And yet even while the Bible usually thinks of and describes God in masculine terms, there is some feminine imagery to be found such as today’s passage with its mother hen imagery.

I have to admit that, probably reflecting my age, I feel most comfortable using masculine language when thinking and talking about God.  If a person refers to God as “our Father” I don’t give it a passing thought, but if a person refers to God as “our Mother” then I immediately sit up and take notice.  The truth however is that God is far beyond all of our efforts to describe him.  As I have already said we traditionally describe God as if he is a male, but God is not a male.  Neither is God a female either.  And we can’t say that God is a force or a power because God is a being.  The truth is that none of our terms or names for God really do God justice; all they do at best is offer us a small glimpse of what God is like.  We can use terms like father, lord, and even mother hen to describe God, but the truth is that when we talk about God we are trying to describe the indescribable.  This in fact is the message of today’s first scripture passage.

Moses had just been told by God that he was to lead the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt and he felt totally overwhelmed by this task.  Who was he to do this?  Why would anyone ever listen to him?  Moses said that if he were to lead the Hebrews then he needed a sign or token that God had really sent him.  What Moses did then was ask God to tell him his name.

Now what we have to realize is that when Moses asked God to tell him his name, he really wanted to know a lot more then just what to call God.  In those days it was believed that a person’s name described their character; to know a person’s name was to know what they were really like deep down.  For this reason people often had two names, a ‘public’ one that everyone knew and a ’private’ or ‘real’ name that was only known by the person’s family and closest friends.  And with this in mind, what was God’s name?  What is God’s reality?  “I am who I am”.  When asked point blank to describe himself, God didn’t reply with either masculine or feminine imagery.  Rather he simply said:  “I am who I am”.  God is what God is.  God is, as the theologians like to say, “totally other”, so different, so holy, so righteous, so creative, so powerful, and so far removed from us.  This leads us to the great paradox of God.

I am who I am.  God is what God is and he is beyond all of our attempts to describe him.  This is one reality and yet, the other reality is that God is so close, so loving, and just like a mother hen.  That God is so close and yet so beyond us is a mystery.  How can God be so close yet so far, so righteous yet so forgiving, so similar yet so different?  It is only our human pride and arrogance that lets us think that we can and should be able to explain and understand everything, including God himself.

While not a Christian book as such, I think that the British writer Kenneth Grahamme captured the paradox of God very well in his classic, “The Wind in the Willows”.  The scene opens with Mole and Rat searching for a little lost otter child.  After looking and looking they eventually found him, safely guarded by the half animal, half man, god Pan.  Then, to quote the story itself:

“‘Rat!’ he found breath to whisper, shaking.  ‘Are you afraid?’  ‘Afraid?’ murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love.  ‘Afraid!  Of HIM?  O, never, never!  And yet – and yet – O, Mole, I am afraid!’   Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.”

Afraid of God … never!  And yet in the face of the paradox that is the nature of God, the least we can do is bow our heads and worship.

Pastoral Prayer

Gracious God, you truly are in the words of a hymn, “Immortal, invisible, God only wise.  You are in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes.  You are the most glorious, the Ancient of Days”.  We have so many images and metaphors that try and describe you and yet, at best, all they do is give us a glimpse of the wonder that is you.  We praise you and thank you for your very being, and we also praise you and thank you for your greatest self-revelation of all, your one and only Son.   We thank you for your Son’s life, teaching, death and resurrection and all that they mean.

We thank you for this day, the first of yet another month in the life of your creation.  We thank you for the life that surrounds us with its beauty and goodness.  Truly we are blessed with so much, more than what we really need.  In a world where so many go hungry, we dare ask ourselves what to eat and sometimes even say that there is nothing to eat, even as our cupboards, fridges and freezers are overbrimming with food.  May we always be grateful for what we have.

We pray this day for your blessing on all who are ill and on all who grieve.  We thank you for all the special people that mean so much to us, praying for their well-being and your blessing upon them.

Looking ahead to the provincial election next month, we give you thanks that we live in a nation where we are free to choose those who govern and make the laws.  We thank you for the candidates who are willing to stand for office, and for all of the officials and volunteers who make the election process work.  We pray for all the lands where the very idea and prospect of choosing those who govern is a distant dream at best.

As the war in Ukraine continues and even threatens to escalate, we pray for the safety and well-being of all in that suffering land.  We pray for wisdom for all in positions of authority as to how to respond to the violence and suffering.  We pray for the restoration of peace and security, and that there may be justice as well.  We give you thanks and pray too for all the people in Ukraine and elsewhere, including those in our own land, who are trying to alleviate the suffering.

May your blessing be over all that you have made.  We ask these blessings in your Son’s name.  Amen

Message for April 24, 2022

John 20:19-31

It was the evening of the very first Easter Sunday and ten of the original twelve disciples had gathered together in a room somewhere in Jerusalem.  Judas of course was not present since, full of remorse for his betrayal of Jesus, he had died by his own hand.  And as for Thomas, the other missing disciple?  No one knew where he was.  Perhaps he was full of disgust and had had enough of everything after what had happened during the past forty-eight hours.  There was certainly enough to be disgusted about too.  After all they, the disciples, had been Jesus’ closest followers for the past three years.  They had known him as no others had.  They had seen his miracles, heard his parables, and had even thought that he was the Messiah himself but now it all seemed to be so foolish.  Far from inaugurating the kingdom of God here on earth and ruling in glory, Jesus had been betrayed by one of his own followers, arrested, tried, and then executed in the most shameful way imaginable.  And when the crisis had struck, all of them with the exception of the beloved disciple, had failed Jesus.  Even Peter, who was nicknamed ‘the rock’, had failed Jesus when he denied ever knowing him three separate times.  It was all so shameful and as if all of that wasn’t bad enough, there was what had happened following Jesus’ death.

Normally the bodies of convicted criminals were thrown into the garbage dump to be devoured by the carrion birds and scavenger animals.  This is what would have happened to Jesus’ body too if it hadn’t been for Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.  They weren’t even followers of Jesus but unlike the disciples, they had had the courage to claim Jesus’ body and give it a decent burial.  Overwhelmed by fear, the disciples had abandoned Jesus in his time of need and even now, two days later, they were still petrified with fear.  The authorities had shown no hesitation in killing Jesus so who was to say that they wouldn’t come after them as well?

It had seemed as if things couldn’t possibly get any worse, but it did as there was also a strange story making the rounds that Jesus wasn’t really dead, he had been resurrected.  Mary Magdalene had even claimed that she had seen Jesus and spoken with him!  The disciples couldn’t believe that it was true, and indeed they weren’t even sure that they wanted it to be true.  Just suppose for a moment that Jesus had been raised from the dead and that he came looking for them.  In light of the way that they had all acted towards him, what would he say or do?  The disciples then cowered in the room, dreading what might happen next.  Might there be a knock at the door and then the voice of the one that they had failed so miserably demanding entrance?  Or even, might there be a knock at the door and then the stern voice of authorities demanding entrance, telling them that they were now under arrest?

There was no knock at the door.  Instead, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there amidst them.  But if Jesus’ appearance was a miracle, what he said was even more so.  “Peace be with you!” he said, and just to make sure that they got the point, he said it again.  After that he breathed upon them and gave them the gift of the Holy Spirit.  And as for the disciples, they could hardly believe it!  Jesus truly was alive again and he had even forgiven them!  Far from casting them off, Jesus would still use them to fulfill his ministry here on earth!  Truly it is no wonder that they were, as John puts it, overjoyed.

Thomas however was absent while all this was going on.  When he finally returned, the others wasted no time in telling him what had happened, but Thomas was sceptical to say the least saying, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my hand into his side, I will not believe!”  But why was Thomas so sceptical?

The usual answer is that Thomas found the whole concept of the resurrection just too hard to believe.  Why everyone knows that dead people simply don’t come back to life!  There is truth to this explanation, but I also believe that something else was going on too.  I don’t doubt that Thomas, like the others, was weighed down by grief, guilt, and shame.  The last person that he wanted to see was Jesus and then, when the other ten disciples said that they had not only seen Jesus but that he had forgiven them and entrusted his ongoing ministry to them, it was just too good to be true.  Thomas probably wanted to believe but he couldn’t.  One week later though when all of the disciples had gathered together once again, Jesus joined them a second time and the first thing that Jesus did was say to Thomas, “Peace be with you!”  Now all of Doubting Thomas’ doubts could be laid to rest.  The other disciples had told the truth!  Jesus really had been raised!  Jesus really had forgiven him and the others for their failures and shortcomings!  Jesus really had entrusted his on-going ministry into their hands, but what is the point of this trip down the Bible’s memory lane?

Simply that the disciples’ story is our story.  We too have been called to be the disciples of Christ.  Like the original twelve, we too have heard his teaching and know what he desires of us.  Like the first disciples, we too know who and what Jesus is and yet, so often like them, we also fail him and let him down.  Sometimes we fail to love both God and others.  Sometimes we are oblivious to the presence and working of God in our lives and in the life of the world around us.  Sometimes we too are filled with fear and are reluctant to proclaim who and what we are, the disciples of Christ, in what is sometimes a hostile world.  And if we are honest about it, many of us sometimes have our doubts.  In the face of heartache, suffering and pain, we may doubt God’s goodness and care.  In the face of death, we may doubt that there is a life yet to come.  Indeed if we are experiencing what Marty Martin called, “the dark night of the soul”, then we may even doubt the reality of God himself.  Yes, sometimes we may be sorry excuses of disciples but even so, Jesus still comes to us with his wonderful words of love and grace.  As one person has said:

“There’s no vow you can break, no good intention that you can fail to carry out, that he cannot forgive.  If he rose and returned and forgave his disciples, he can forgive anybody.”

He can and he does forgive anybody and everybody, including each one of us, despite all of our failures and shortcomings.  All can be forgiven, and this is what sets us free to live our lives without being weighed down by guilt, fear, or the past.  That we are set free is one of the great promises of Easter.  Indeed the great news of Easter is that we aren’t just set free from the power of sin and death, we are even set free to be the church.  Is the church, including this congregation, perfect?  Of course not!  The church never has been nor ever will be perfect, but as William Willimon once wrote:

“That Easter evening could be said to be the birth of the church, the foundation for our gathering here this morning.  Who is the church?  A bunch of people who make promises to serve Jesus, to be a part of his reign, to witness to him and to work with him and then stumble, fall away, backslide, deceive, and cowardly disappoint him and ourselves.  That’s the church.  And then he returns to us and says ‘Peace’.  He forgives us, breathes his Holy Spirit upon us, even us, and once again we are able to pick ourselves up, take a deep breath and follow him.  That’s the church.”

This is as good a description of the church, including every congregation, as any.  In fact this is the story of all of Christ’s disciples going all the way back to the very first ones:  messing up time after time, breaking promises, full of good intentions that all too often have stayed just that, good intentions.  Even so, the wonderful promise of Easter is that we are still loved, forgiven, and redeemed.  This is what enables us to not give into feelings of despair and hopelessness.  This is what enables us to carry on and persevere.  Easter isn’t just about what will happen after we pass through the valley of the shadow of death.  Easter is also about our lives here and now.  For good and for bad, the first disciples’ story is our story too, but in good and in bad, Jesus’ great words of love, hope and promise to them are also his words to us as well.  “Peace be with you”.

Pastoral Prayer

Gracious God, hear us as we come to you in prayer on this spring morning, one week after Easter.  We thank you for what we celebrated last Sunday and still remember today; the resurrection of your Son with all its meaning and implications, that through your love we have life in all of its fullness, now and forevermore.

On this spring morning we thank you for the life returning to your creation such as the sound of the birds, the growing greenness of the grass, the shoots in the gardens, and the early buds on the trees.  Truly, when seen through the eyes of faith, the natural world around us speaks of you and your presence.

On this first Sunday after Earth Day, we do not just give you thanks for the beauty, wonder and goodness of your creation, but we also offer up our prayer for its well-being.  Help us to come to grip with the growing threat of climate change with its potentially dire implications, not only for us but for all forms of life everywhere.  Help us to remember that this is your world and not ours.  Grant us the wisdom, courage, and strength to do what ought to be done to avert an ecological catastrophe.  Grant too that your creation may be all the better for our being a part of it.

We offer up our prayer this morning for the sake of all the people around us as the pandemic continues.  We pray for healing in the lives of those who are ill and comfort for those who grieve.

We pray this day for all who are struggling to get by as the interest rates and inflation rates continue to rise.  We pray for all the businesses and institutions, including your church, that are struggling to cope with the many changes brought about by the pandemic; living, working, and ministering in a world that is now so different from what was a mere two years ago.

As we have so often lately, we once again offer up our prayer for the nation and the people of Ukraine.  We witness the barbarity and atrocities, the plight of countless people forced from their homes, and we wonder how this can possibly be happening.  We pray then for the restoration of peace and security.  We pray too for justice and righteousness; that those responsible for the atrocities and suffering will be held accountable.  And as all of this happens, help us to remember that while you are the God of love and forgiveness, you are also the God of justice and righteousness.  With all of this in mind, we pray for your church and her ministry in the world; that she may fearlessly proclaim your values and do your work.

We ask these things in your Son’s name.  Amen

Message for April 17, 2022

Easter Sunday

John 20:1-18

The Easter Egg in all of its varied forms is one of, if not the best known and best loved symbols of Easter.  They have certainly always been a part of my own Easter celebrations.  When I was a child, my sister and I often decorated hard-boiled eggs.  When my own children were young, we usually spent Good Friday afternoon doing the same.  And every Easter morning the kids were up bright and early searching the house for the candy eggs left by the Easter Bunny.  Many towns also have their own community Easter egg hunts.  I remember for example back in Colborne when the children of the village, including my daughter Rebecca, had a field day in Victoria Park looking for the candy eggs hidden amongst the trees and bushes.  And of course, Easter eggs come in a variety of different forms other than the ones decorated at home or the candy ones.  Some Easter eggs are even works of art that are decorated by professional artists and eagerly sought after by collectors.  And then there are also the really expensive ones that are based on those made by Faberge for the Russian Tsars.  Some congregations have even incorporated Easter eggs into their Easter morning worship service.  The worshippers exchange Easter eggs with one another with the first person saying “Christ is risen”, and the reply being “He has risen indeed”.

Truly the Easter egg in all its varied forms is an integral part of our Easter celebrations, but we might well wonder ‘why’ as there is absolutely no reference to them in the Biblical accounts of what happened on that first Easter Sunday.

The answer of course lies in their symbolism.  First of all, the eggs symbolize new life.  It is a treat for example to watch a chick or some other bird peck its way out of an egg, and to watch the emergence of a new life from out of that enclosed space.  And just as a chick, a new life, emerges from an egg so too did Christ emerge from the tomb.  To take this one step further, the eggs are also symbols of our own resurrection since one of the most basic messages and promises of Easter is that while like Christ we shall die, like him we too shall be raised and live forevermore.  But while the eggs symbolize the resurrection of both Christ and ourselves, they also symbolize something even more specific associated with that first Easter morning and that is the stone that sealed the tomb shut.

Back in the days of Jesus, many bodies were not buried in the ground.  Instead they were placed in tombs that were often hollowed out of the hillsides.  At that time and place wood was expensive and certainly too expensive to be used as doors for the tombs.  What people did then was use huge stones to seal the tombs shut.  These stones were so big and heavy that it usually took several men to move them, and this by the way is why the women on the way to the tomb that first Easter morning wondered who would move the stone for them.  Without being sexist about it, they knew that they couldn’t possibly budge it on their own.  Those stones were not very round either; rather they, like an egg, were oval in shape.  And this is yet another reason why eggs are such an integral part of our Easter celebrations; they symbolize the huge stone, the removal of which proclaimed the triumph of Jesus over death with all of its glorious implications.

Not everyone though believes that the resurrection did in fact take place.  Back in the days of Jesus for example, the authorities claimed that the disciples themselves had stolen the body and then made the whole resurrection story up.  And since then there has been no shortage of other so-called ‘rational’ explanations for Jesus’ resurrection.

One common one is that Jesus never died, rather he was simply unconscious, revived in the tomb, and then walked away.  How he, suffering from his injuries including having a spear thrust into his side, could have possibly rolled the huge, massive stone away from inside the tomb and then walked away, is never really explained.  Yet another theory is that Mary, along with the other women and the disciples, simply went to the wrong tomb that morning, an empty one.  And as for their encounters with the angels and even Christ himself?  They were all just hallucinating!  And on it goes; there are certainly no shortage of ‘rational’ explanations for the resurrection.  In all honesty though these ‘rational’ explanations are harder to believe than the resurrection itself.  Truly by any objective standard that we may care to use, something very wonderful and mind-boggling did happen that spring morning.  Even so, people including some Christians, still insist on trying to comprehend and explain it.

One of the greatest theological minds of all time is St. Augustine who lived more than sixteen hundred years ago during the last days of the Roman Empire. He is famed for his books, “The City of God” and “Confessions”, both of which are still considered to be Christian classics.  Now as brilliant as he undoubtedly was, Augustine could not get his mind around what happened on that first Easter Sunday.  The fact that he could not really explain Jesus’ resurrection frustrated him to no end, but then one day as he was walking along a beach he saw a young boy playing.  The child dug a hole in the sand, took a seashell down to the water, filled it, walked back to the hole, and poured the water in.  As Augustine stood there and watched, the child continued to try and fill the hole with the water.  Finally Augustine couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer and asked, “What are you doing?”.  Very seriously the child replied that he was going to pour the entire sea into the hole.  It was then so-to-speak that the light went on for the saint.  He realized that as smart and as educated as he most certainly was, even he could not fully understand or explain what we remember here today.  Trying to fully understand the resurrection is like trying to pour the vast ocean into a hole, it simply cannot be done.

I have long thought that the meaning and promise of Easter are best felt rather than explained.  In fact the resurrection is like being in love, and the more we try to understand and make sense of being in love, the less we really do.  Perhaps the tremendous music of Easter such as this verse says it best:

Soar we now where Christ hath led,

Following our exalted head.

Made like him like him we rise,

Ours the cross, the grave, the skies.

To put it another way, quoting the words of a modern-day theologian:

“The resurrection of Christ cannot be argued or demonstrated, much less proved.  It must simply be told, proclaimed, witnessed.”

The reality is that the resurrection of Christ, and by implication our own as well, is a mystery, the ultimate mystery.  Can we prove that Christ is risen?  No, we cannot.  Can we prove that we will be raised?  No, we cannot.  Even so, we still believe that he who was truly dead is alive again.  And because he lives forever, so too shall we.  And it is this, the fact that we do indeed live forevermore, that gives our lives here and now, value, purpose, and meaning.  One person who was well aware of this was Sir Winston Churchill.

Churchill knew that after his death his funeral would be a state occasion and so, in keeping with his forceful character, he planned the entire service.  In accordance with his wishes the service began with a bugler playing “Taps”.  This was appropriate since Churchill was a war veteran as well as the leader of the United Kingdom during the Second World War.  Taps of course is the traditional way of marking the end of a day in the military, and playing this symbolized his death.  After this beginning the service continued, but once it was over everyone in the church was startled when the bugler unexpectedly launched into the “Reveille”, the stirring trumpet call that marks the dawn of a new day.  But why did Churchill order that this be played at the end of his funeral service?  Because he wanted everyone to know that while his life here on earth was now over, a new day had dawned and his new life had just begun.

This is the great promise of Easter.  A new day will dawn for all of us, and what better symbol for this new day than the Easter Egg.  Christ is risen, we are risen, thanks be to God!

Pastoral Prayer

Almighty God, by whose power our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, hear us as we come to you on this, our most joyful and triumphant day of all.

We thank you that the one who was truly dead is alive again, both now and forevermore.  We thank you for what this, the last, greatest, and most ultimate mystery of all means for us; that while like Jesus we shall die, like him we too shall live.  We thank you for what this means for our lives here on earth, that they have value, purpose and meaning.

We thank you that since your Son is alive, he is also a living, present reality in our lives here and now as we make our way on life’s journey.  We confess that nothing in ourselves makes us worthy or deserving of your great love as revealed to us by the resurrection; all we can do is say thank you, and so we do.

We pray this day for your church here on earth, that she may fearlessly proclaim the wonderful promise of what we celebrate this Easter Sunday.

We pray for all who need to hear the wonderful promise of this day, and especially those who are lost in a world of grief, despair, and hopelessness.  We pray for healing in the lives of those who are ill and those feeling overwhelmed, even as the pandemic surges once again.

We pray for all who need to hear the great promise of this day:  that love will triumph over hate, that good will triumph over evil and that life will triumph over death.  We pray this Easter morning for all the places in this world where it seems as if the exact opposite is true, those places where it seems as if hate, evil and death will surely prevail.  We especially offer up our prayer for the people of Ukraine as the Russian onslaught continues.  We pray for the injured, the homeless, and those who mourn.  We pray for an end to the invasion and wisdom for leaders everywhere as they wrestle with what should be done, and how to stop the needless aggression and barbarity.

On this day when we remember and celebrate your victory over the greatest enemy of all, we pray for your triumph over all that is contrary to your will.  May the day come when your will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Until that day dawns, may we truly live as an Easter people.  In your Son’s name we pray.  Amen

Message for April 15, 2022

Good Friday

Luke 23:26-46

Today being Good Friday, our focus quite naturally is on Jesus’ death on the cross.  The four gospel accounts of what happened that first Good Friday differ on some of the details but even so, they do agree on one thing and that is that Jesus did not die alone.  Two other men were crucified alongside of him but how much do we know about these two unfortunates whose only claim to fame is the where and when of their deaths?

Virtually nothing; the gospel accounts simply tell us that they were criminals and more specifically, that they were thieves.  Now normally where the Bible is silent, myth and legend rush in to fill the void, but not so in this case.  Indeed there are very few stories or legends about them though according to one legend, the so-called good or penitent thief was named Dismas while the other was called Gestas.  Are these names true?  Probably not as the names didn’t appear until hundreds of years after the crucifixion.

Truly, from the scholar’s point of view the lack of stories and legends about these two criminals really is strange; it is almost as if the fact that Jesus was put to death along with some convicted criminals is somehow embarrassing.  We do however know some things about those two men and far from being inappropriate, their dying alongside Jesus cuts to the very heart of what today is all about.

To begin with, back in those days there weren’t any jails or prisons as we understand them.  When a person went to ‘jail’ they were usually just kept in a person’s home and stayed there until their trial.  At the trial the accused was either found not guilty and set free or else found guilty and punished.  Punishment however did not mean going back to ‘jail’.  If a person was a convicted thief, then he or she might have to pay restitution to the victim and a fine as well.  If the felon persisted in wrongdoing, then that person might be branded, the scar proclaiming to everyone what the person was.  If the thief still persisted in pursuing a life of crime then a hand might be cut off with the rationale being that it would be a lot harder to steal if the person was one-handed.  And if that failed to deter the person then the state resorted to the ultimate punishment, execution.

Well, the penalty for these two thieves was death by crucifixion so presumably they were viewed as being incorrigible and beyond all hope of redemption.  Like Jesus then, they were nailed to a cross and condemned to a death so painful that we cannot really imagine it.  Before the thieves died however, something else happened first.

According to Luke, one of the two thieves, and for convenience sake I will call him Gestas, turned to Jesus and covered him with abuse which is a polite way of saying that he said a lot of very impolite things.

Now it is easy enough to be critical of Gestas but really, who could blame him?  Indeed if we are honest about it, are we not at least sometimes a little bit like Gestas?  We are so to speak on a cross, whatever that cross may be.  We have lost all hope and have no options left, and so we turn to God saying “Do something, save me!  Prove that you are for real by getting me out of this mess”.  Our demand may even sound like faith, but it isn’t.  It isn’t because we, like Gestas, don’t really expect God to do anything; in fact we don’t even think that God can do anything.  This, turning to God as the last resort, demanding that he do something even as we in our heart of hearts don’t think that he can or will, is pride and arrogance at its worst.  And I wonder, how much pain did Gestas add to Jesus’ suffering that day?  It is then that the second thief, whom I will call Dismas, spoke up.

“Don’t you fear God” he said to the other thief, “since you are under the same sentence?  We are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve.  But this man has done nothing wrong.”  And after that came his wonderful words of faith, hope, and trust:  “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

It is so easy to pass over these words but think about what Dismas was asking.  He was an incorrigible criminal who was viewed as being beyond all hope of redemption.   He had made a total mess of his life and was not a follower of Jesus either but even so, he still dared to ask Jesus:  “Remember me”.  And what was Jesus’ reply?

Wracked by a pain, both mental and physical that none of us can truly imagine, Jesus still found the love and grace to say:  “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”  Today you will be with me in paradise was Jesus’ promise to Dismas, but what had he said or done to deserve this?  Absolutely nothing.  In the words of the Christian writer Max Lucado:

“No stained-glass homilies.  No excuses.  Just a desperate plea for help.  At this point Jesus performs the greatest miracle of the cross.  Greater than the earthquake.  Greater than the tearing of the Temple curtain.  Greater than the darkness.  Greater than the resurrected saints appearing in the streets.  He performs the miracle of forgiveness.  A sin-soaked criminal is raised by a blood-soaked Saviour.  Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Even that convicted dying criminal whom everyone else had thought was beyond all hope of redemption, wasn’t beyond the reach of God’s mercy, love, and forgiveness.  And what went for him goes for us too.  To be sure, we are followers of Jesus but how often do we mess up?  What harm have we done to ourselves and others by the things that we have said and done?  In the end Dismas’ plea is ours as well:  “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”, and this is what Jesus does.  Jesus’ promise to the thief is also his promise to each and every one of us:  “I tell you the truth, you will be with me in paradise”.  This is the good in Good Friday.

Pastoral Prayer

          Hear us as we bow our heads before you in prayer, on this, the most solemn day on our Christian calendar.

We thank you for what it is we remember today, the dying and undying love of your Son on the cross.  We thank you that he willingly chose to bear our sins and die, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that we might have life, now and forever in all of its glorious fullness.  Help us to remember that while we are sinners, we are forgiven and redeemed sinners and that there is a world of difference between the two.

We pray this day for everyone for whom this Good Friday is not, for whatever reason, good.  We pray for all weighed down by sin and guilt.  We pray for all lost in a world of pain, hurt and regret for what was and is.  We pray for all who suffer at the hands of others.

We pray this day that you will help us to remember that your love, mercy, forgiveness, and redemption truly is over all that you have made.  Help us to remember that even when we, whether it be because of pride, guilt, or forgetfulness, forget about you, you in your love never forget about us.

In your Son’s name we pray.  Amen

Message for April 10, 2022

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21:12-17

It was what we would call a first-rate tourist attraction, and the building was enormous.  There was gold plating everywhere that dazzled the eyes in the bright Middle Eastern sunshine and it was even hoped that eventually the entire building would be gold plated.  The construction crews had been working on the building for more than 84 years and the work was still nowhere near complete.  But what building am I talking about?  The Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the first Palm Sunday.

By all accounts the Temple was a wonder to behold but all of this construction work was very expensive.  Not surprisingly, the Temple authorities were, to put it in modern terms, always looking for a way to make a buck.  One way they did so was through the Temple Tax.  Jews throughout the entire Roman Empire were expected to pay it and it added up to about two day’s income per year for the average worker.  This tax brought in a lot of money but not nearly enough.  The authorities then decided that the tax had to be paid in one particular currency and so the money changers came into existence.  There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with this other than the fact that the money changers added on a thirty-three percent commission to the transactions!  This too raised a lot of money but even that wasn’t enough.  The Temple authorities then came up with yet another way to raise money.

Many of those who worshiped at the Temple brought a bird or animal to be sacrificed as a sin offering.  These birds and animals could be bought quite cheaply in the Jerusalem markets but the Temple authorities decreed that the offerings had to be without blemish as only the perfect was good enough for God.  The birds and animals then were inspected when they were brought to the Temple but, and perhaps we shouldn’t be that surprised by this, virtually none of them passed inspection.  As it so happened though, the Temple kept a stock on hand and they were quite happy to sell a dove or an animal to the worshiper whose offering had just been rejected.  Of course the Temple added a surcharge to pay for this service and the result was that such as a dove that cost the equivalent of four dollars in the Jerusalem markets cost $75 when purchased from the Temple.

These then were some of the ways that the Temple authorities tried to raise the money needed to not only keep the Temple operating but also to pay for the ongoing construction.  It truly was quite an operation at the time of that first Palm Sunday.

After Jesus entered the city in triumph, he made his way to the Temple where he seemingly lost his temper.  Jesus made himself a whip and then went on a rampage, overturning tables and sending the money boxes flying.  After that he chased out the money changers and livestock sellers.  “My house shall be a house of prayer” he thundered, “but you have made it into a den of thieves!”  As if that wasn’t enough, Jesus then invited the blind and the lame into the Temple where he healed them.  He also invited the children in who ran around playing.  We perhaps may not really appreciate the significance of Jesus’ actions, but they were very symbolic.  Far from being welcome and cared for, the blind and the lame weren’t even allowed to enter the Temple because they were not physically perfect.  In fact it was even said that their physical imperfections offended God.  And the children had no business being there either since they weren’t important; the Temple was for adults only!

What Jesus did that day was, as dramatically as possible, criticize the religious establishment.  In effect he said that the authorities exploited the people and had lost sight of what their religion was all about.  In the eyes of Jesus, religion was all about the love of God and others, but was this love, exploiting people and barring both the disabled and the children?  Of course it wasn’t!  Quite naturally though, the Temple authorities didn’t like hearing this criticism and they were beside themselves with rage.  The stage was now set for Good Friday, but one thing that we have to realize is that Jesus wasn’t just trying to make a point to the authorities, he was also making a point to his own followers as well.  He knew that his time remaining with them was numbered in days if not hours, and that somehow he had to get through to them what his kingdom, and ultimately his church, were to be all about.  They were to be all about people with the institutions of worship serving them instead of exploiting them.  And seen from this perspective, Jesus’ act of cleansing the Temple serves as both a guideline and a warning.

It is easy enough for us to condemn the Temple authorities for turning God’s house of prayer into a den of thieves, but I don’t believe that they ever set out intending to do this.  Rather it happened because they got their values and priorities mixed up.  It was natural that they wanted the Temple to be a beautiful place, worthy of worshipping God in.  Unfortunately though, in the end that building became more important to them than both God and the people that it was meant to serve.  The authorities didn’t set out to do wrong but rather they drifted into it, and this has happened so many times since with God’s people.

The church has never been nor ever will be perfect; it can’t and won’t simply because it is made up of ordinary people like ourselves.  We can think of various episodes from history for example, such as the crusades where Christians waged wars to conquer the Holy Land, and the inquisitions where people were burned at the stake for holding the wrong beliefs.  More recently there has been the tragedy of the residential schools which has been in the news a lot lately because of the delegations of indigenous people to see the Pope.  What we must never forget however is that while most of the residential schools were operated by the Roman Catholic Church, not all were.  At one time we Presbyterians were very proud of our involvement in the residential school system; in fact one of the most notorious incidents was connected to a school run by our denomination.

Chanie, who is also known as “Charlie” Wenjack, was born on a reserve in 1954.  At the age of nine he was sent to the Cecilia Jeffrey School which was located in Kenora, some 600 km or 370 miles from his home.  After three years there, at the age of twelve, he decided to run away and walk the 600 km home following a rail line.  Only dressed in a light jacket, he walked for thirty-six hours in sub-freezing temperatures before he collapsed and died from hunger and exposure.  This happened in 1966 and in the years since Charlie, in part due to Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip who often sang and spoke about him, has become a well-known symbol for many of the residential school survivors.

There is of course no excuse for what happened to that child but what we must realize is that our denomination sincerely believed that it was doing the best thing for the children.   I have never forgotten a woman who spoke at a General Assembly years ago.  She had been very involved in the school system and was in tears.  She had really believed at the time that they, that she, had been doing the right thing.  It was only in retrospect that she wondered how she and the church could have possibly got it all so wrong.

The church can be and in fact often is, justly criticized for the gulf between what she preaches and what she does.  Even so, despite her faults and shortcomings, the church is still unique.  She is because she still embodies the love of God and his presence in the world.  This is why it is so crucial that the church and all of her members, including us, must strive to have the right values and priorities.

The church is not all about a building, as beautiful and as meaningful as it most certainly may be.  Nor is the church all about an institution, traditions, policies and the like, as necessary or as loved as they may be.  Rather the church, the kingdom of God here on earth, is all about relationships; having the right relationship with both God and with one another.  Embodying the love of Christ for all of God’s children, regardless of who they are or where they are, is what we are all about.  And it is when we forget this that we, like those well-meaning yet so wrong Temple authorities of so long ago, lose our way.

Pastoral Prayer

All glory, laud and honour be to you redeemer King, for you are the King of Israel and David’s greater son.  We thank you for what it is that we remember on this first day of a week that we like to call “holy”, the entry of your Son into Jerusalem.  We thank you too for what we remember in the days that followed; the Last Supper and the cross, all leading up to our most holy and triumphant day of all, Easter Sunday.  We do not just thank you for what happened in Jerusalem so long ago but also for what it means; that no matter who we are or what we have done, you still love, forgive, and redeem us.

We pray for everyone for whom the coming week will, far from being “holy”, be just another week leading up to a long weekend.   We pray for all for whom next Friday will just be a day off, devoid of all spiritual meaning and significance.  We pray for all who will celebrate next Sunday by such as getting together to enjoy a festive meal, not realizing what they are celebrating and why.

We pray for everyone who needs to hear the good news of the coming days.  We pray for those weighed down by regret or a guilty conscience for what was and still is.  We pray for those weighed down by illness, be it their own or someone else’s.  We pray for all who are weighed down by grief and need to hear the good news of the resurrection; that while death is an ending, it is also a beginning.

As we witness the on-going horrors in Ukraine and the senseless deaths of so many civilians, we remember the need for the cross.  Contrary to what we may sometimes like to think, sin and evil are very real in our world today.  We pray for all the injured and the millions who have fled their homes.  May a true peace and justice come about.

As the pandemic continues and as the number of cases once again rises, we pray for the well-being of all, and especially for those whom we know and love.  We pray as well for all those on the front lines of our medical system as they continue to care for those who are ill with Covid, as well as caring for all the others with their assorted needs.

As we look to next weekend, we pray for your church and her ministry to and in the world.  So often your church has got things wrong and acted in ways that Christ would never approve of but even so, your church is still your Son’s body here on earth.  Help her, and us, to live lives of gratitude in response to what it is that we will be remembering next Friday and Sunday, your Son’s death and resurrection.  We ask these things in your Son’s name.  Amen

Message for April 3, 2022

Lent 5 & Communion

John 12:1-8

It was a Saturday evening and the room must have been filled with tension.  Jesus and his disciples were having dinner at the home of Lazarus and his sisters.  Lazarus was one of Jesus’ best friends and a few weeks earlier he had become deathly ill.  Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary, had promptly sent word to Jesus begging him to come and heal their brother and Jesus had agreed.  By the time that Jesus arrived however Lazarus was both dead and buried.

When Martha heard that Jesus had finally come, she went to meet him while Mary remained in the house.  Martha could have said many things to Jesus, but instead she uttered one of the most poignant and faith-inspired statements of the entire Bible:

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  And even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”

Even though it seemed as if Jesus had completely and utterly failed her, Martha still believed that Jesus could and would do something.  Her faith and trust were not misplaced either as Jesus performed his greatest miracle of all, raising Lazarus from the dead.  Quite predictably this miracle had a huge impact on everyone and that included the religious authorities in nearby Jerusalem.  Up to this point they had been content to try and ignore Jesus, hoping that he was just a seven-day wonder who would soon go away, but now they could no longer ignore him.  Jesus had to be dealt with before he, as they saw it, totally perverted the Jewish faith.

Knowing this, the smart and prudent thing for Jesus to have done was to have kept a low profile but instead he started to plan a grand entry into Jerusalem.  Entering the city as the prophets had predicted that the Messiah would, would publicly proclaim once and for all who and what he truly was.

It was the night before the grand entry and as I have already said, Jesus and his disciples were at the home of Lazarus and his sisters for dinner, and the room was filled with tension.  Then Mary suddenly did something both wonderful and shocking.  When the meal was finished, Mary entered the room carrying a jar of pure nard or ointment.  She stooped down in front of Jesus, poured the ointment on his feet, let down her long hair, and then proceeded to wipe his feet with it.

Now this behaviour was not only strange but it was also positively scandalous as well.  This of course was Mary’s way of thanking Jesus for what he had done weeks earlier when he had brought her dead brother back to life but even so, her behaviour still shocked everyone.  A good, respectable Jewish woman back then would never ever let down her hair in front of a man who was not her husband!  And then to wipe his feet with it?  Such behaviour was positively scandalous and besides, think of how much that ointment was worth!  It was worth a year’s pay to the average worker!  As shocked and as scandalized as everyone was though, no one said a word except Judas.  He objected to Mary’s behaviour saying that the ointment should have been sold and the proceeds used to help the poor.  Jesus however had no time or patience for Judas’ criticism.  He silenced Judas saying that money could be given to the poor at any time, but there were now precious few opportunities left to do something kind for him.

This public dressing down humiliated Judas and there can be little doubt that it contributed to his decision to betray Jesus.  The stage was now set for Palm Sunday and all that followed but when we think about it though, the behaviour of Mary and Judas provides us with quite a contrast.  On the one hand there is extravagant Mary.  She was so grateful for all that Jesus had done that she simply had to express her joy and love.  So what if the ointment was worth a year’s income?  So what if her behaviour shocked everyone?  Her love knew no bounds and simply had to be expressed.  Judas on the other hand was the practical and down-to-earth one.  Unlike Mary, his love had its bounds.  But what of us?  During the next two weeks we will remember the amazing love of God for each and every one of us as revealed by the cross and the empty tomb, but what is our response to this amazing love that will not let us go?  Is no sacrifice too great, or is any sacrifice too great?  To put it another way, which one do we have more in common with, Mary or Judas?

There are times in life when we are like Mary and are so full of faith and commitment.  At other times though we have more in common with Judas.  Our faith and commitment have its limits and like Judas we may sometimes even betray Jesus, even as we loudly proclaim how much we love him.  The one thing that we should never ever forget though is that Judas, despite his faults and failures, was still just as much a disciple of Jesus as Peter and the others.  Like them, Judas too gave up everything to follow Jesus.  Somewhere along the way though he lost his way leading up to his betrayal of Jesus with a kiss.  And yet, despite doing this, all was not lost for Judas and, by implication, all is not lost for us either.

The Bible tells us that Judas, overwhelmed by remorse, committed suicide shortly before Jesus was crucified.  In the early church though there was a very strong tradition that says that Judas’ suicide was born, not out of despair, but rather out of hope.  Judas knew that if God was just, then he would go straight to hell.  If however God was also merciful, then Jesus would go to hell to save the damned.  And if Jesus descended into hell to save the inhabitants there, then presumably he would also save Judas.  As odd as it may sound then, Judas’s suicide was not an act of despair but rather an act of hope; only by getting to hell before Jesus, could Judas hope to get to heaven.  In the words of Frederick Buechner:

“It’s a scene to conjure with.  Once again they met in the shadows, the two old friends, both of them a little worse for wear after all that had happened, only this time it was Jesus who was the one to give the kiss, and this time it wasn’t the kiss of death that was given.”

None of us of course know whether this ancient tradition is true or not, but it does bear witness to the early church’s conviction that no one, including Judas, is beyond the scope of God’s mercy, forgiveness and redemption.  There are times when we may be like Mary whose faith and commitment knew no bounds.  And sometimes we may be like Judas and our faith and commitment only goes so far.  Sometimes like Judas we may betray Jesus even as we say how much we love him and how committed we are.  Regardless of whether we are more like Mary or more like Judas though, all is not lost.  We are not lost.  We aren’t because of what we will be remembering during the next two weeks, and there is no greater reminder of Jesus’ death and resurrection then the sacrament that we will now celebrate.  So let us now, in the words of this morning’s communion hymn, “taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven”, “giving sweet foretaste of the festal joy, the Lamb’s great bridal feast of bliss and love.”

Pastoral Prayer

Gracious God, hear us as we come to you in prayer on this, the first Sunday of another month.

We thank you for the gift of this month just begun that is characterized by life returning to your creation after the winter.  We thank you for the life now appearing in our gardens and the return of the birds as well.  We thank you for the spiritual life that we celebrate as we draw ever closer to Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  We thank you for the lives of our loved ones, and all that sustains our lives, both physically and spiritually.  Above all though we thank you for the holy mysterious, loving wonder that is you, for you truly are the source of all life, now and forevermore.

We pray this day for all for whom life is not so good.  We pray for all who are ill, whether it be of mind, body, or soul.  We pray for all who mourn, and we pray too for all who feel worn down and worn out, not just by the major issues and problems of life, but also by the wear and tear of day-to-day life.

This past week we witnessed the delegation of the Inuit, Metis and First Nations at the Vatican and we pray for a true reconciliation between our indigenous peoples and our larger society.  We pray for all whose lives were and still are devastated by their experiences in the residential schools.  Grant we pray, that we may learn from our past so that there may never again be such a tragedy.

We pray this day for the people of Ukraine; those caught up in the fighting and those who have fled.  We pray for the sake of healing for those who have been wounded by the horror of what is happening there, both physically and mentally.  We pray for an end to the invasion and the fighting.  We pray that peace may be restored.

With this in mind, we pray for the ministry of your church and your disciples throughout the whole of your world.  May we do our best, secure in your love and forgiveness, to be dedicated followers of your Son, faithfully fulfilling his ministry here on earth as best we can.

We ask these things in your Son’s name.  Amen

Message for March 27, 2022

Lent 4

Luke 15:11-32

It is said that a student in a theological college was once asked to prepare an outline of how he would preach on the well-known Parable of the Prodigal Son.  The student said that his sermon would have three main parts:  badness, sadness, and gladness.  Each of these parts in turn would have their own subdivisions.  His nine-point sermon would then go something like this:  the prodigal son spent his time caviling, traveling, and reveling.  When the good times ended, he went to the dogs, ate with the hogs, and lost his good togs.  Then when he came to his senses and went home, he got the seal, ate the veal, and danced the reel!

Well, this is one way to preach on today’s scripture passage, but I would say that its focus is far too narrow.  In fact even this parable’s traditional title, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son”, largely misses the point of what Jesus was saying.  It does because this parable isn’t just about the younger son; just as importantly it is also about his older brother and father as well.

This famous story centres around a man and his two sons.  One day the younger son came up to him and demanded his half of the estate.  Since we have heard this story so often we are not particularly shocked by his demand, but think about what he was really saying.  “I know Dad that when you die I will inherit half the estate, but I can’t wait that long.  I want it now!”  What a terrible thing to say but while the father must have been hurt by his son’s callousness, he gave him what he had asked for.

The younger son then left home with his riches and went off to a far-away country where his life was ‘party time big time’, but then the money ran out and so too did his friends.  He had to get a job and when he did, it was one of the most degrading jobs imaginable for a Jew, looking after a farmer’s pigs.  The pay was terrible and he was hungry all the time.  At this point he came to his senses and decided to go home, reasoning that it was better to live at home and be one of his father’s servants then to keep on going like this.

The young man though had a problem.  After what he had said and done, would his father ever take him back?  All the way home he rehearsed his speech, but his worry was all for nothing.  When his father saw him coming, he ran out to greet him, smothered him with kisses and showered him with presents.  Then, as if that wasn’t enough, his father also decided to throw him a great big welcome home party.  And this is where many people like to end this story, but this is not where Jesus chose to end it.

While the party was still in full swing, the older brother got home from work and to say that he was not impressed would be an understatement; indeed he was absolutely furious!  Why he was the responsible son, the good son, the hard-working son, but his father had never thrown him a party!  And how could his father just take his brother back after all that he had said and done?  He decided that there was no way he was going to go in and join the party!

Well aware of his eldest’s son’s feelings, the father went out and tried to reason with him saying that they should be happy because his brother was now home safe and sound.  Besides he, the eldest son, would still inherit all of the remaining estate.  The son however remained angry, and the depth of his anger is revealed by the language he used.  When speaking about his younger brother he did not refer to him as ‘my brother’ but rather as ‘your son’.  He would not acknowledge any sort of relationship with his brother whatsoever, and this is where the story ends.  Was there a happy ending?  Were they all reconciled?  Or was the older brother now estranged?  We don’t know and it is left to us to supply the answers.

So goes one of the best-known and, I would say, one of the most shocking stories that Jesus ever told.  There is the callous self-centred behaviour of the youngest son, at least until he came to his senses.  There is also the harsh, judgmental, unforgiving behaviour of the eldest son.  But while their behaviour may be shocking, surely it is that of the father that is the most shocking of all.  The one son treated him like dirt and then messed up his life big time, but that didn’t matter; ‘welcome home!’  The other son’s behaviour was less than admirable too, but that was okay; ‘come on in!’  Was this father a saint, a fool, or something else?  That is up to us to decide, but that father does represent someone else; he represents God, and that is the most shocking thing of all.

There are times in life when we are a bit like the youngest son.  We stray far away from our spiritual home and Father, wasting our lives and squandering our inheritance; the gifts and abilities that God has given us.  But while we may sometimes be like the younger son, there is perhaps an even greater danger for us in the church to be like the oldest son.  Like him we at least try to be good people but what is our honest reaction to those who, like the younger son, are unfaithful to God and are cheerfully squandering their God-given talents and abilities, having a devil of a good time?  Do we look at them with compassion?  Do we pray that they may come to their senses?  Would we or even do we welcome them when they do come home?  This question is posed by the American preacher William Willimon in his re-telling of today’s scripture passage.

“We had predicted it.  At age fourteen she was on the rear end of a Honda, screaming up and down the street as if it were Daytona.  ‘She will end up bad,’ we said.  At fifteen I could tell, by the empty beer cans on my front yard the next day, what kind of weekend she had wasted.  ‘They’re just going to have to take her in hand,’ I said.  ‘She’s headed for trouble.’

Then at sixteen, there was a story in the papers, the trial, and she was sent away for a year at the Youth Correctional Institution.  ‘We told you so,’ we said.  ‘Only a matter of time,’ we agreed.  While there, she gave birth to the child she was carrying.

The day of reckoning came.  I was cutting my hedge at the time.  I could see them though.  Cars began gathering about ten or eleven that morning.  Loud music coming from the house.  People came and went, bringing baskets of food, dishes, stacks of plates.  Chairs were put out on the lawn.  The music grew louder.  Finally, a car pulled up.  People came pouring out of the house and huddled around the car.  Everybody oohing and aahing.  I was hacking at the hedge, cutting it down to the roots by this time.  Some kind of little basket, decorated with pink ribbons, was unloaded.  Everyone paraded behind it into the house.  I watched them from my now-sparse hedge.  Before going in, my neighbour had the nerve to stand on the porch and yell, ‘Hey, she’s home, and the baby too.  Come on over and join us.  We’re having a party!’

Who?  Me?  Humph!  I’m a Christian!”

Is Willimon right?  Is there a possibility that we ever judge others saying that there is no way that they could ever repent and really mean it!  And even if they did repent, it wouldn’t be enough because God would never forgive them!  Us, yes!  Them, no!  Indeed, perhaps rather unfairly, what is the popular stereotype of a Christian?  A person who is kind, loving and compassionate?  Or a person who is harsh and judgemental?

The tremendous though possibly disturbing news of today’s lesson is that God is the greatest prodigal of all; lavish and extravagant with his love and forgiveness.  Sometimes we may act like squandering fools with all the wrong values and priorities, making a mess of it all.  And sometimes we may be harsh and judgmental, full of an unholy, unlovely self-righteousness.  Even so, none of us are beyond the reach and scope of God’s love and redemption.  God is always patiently waiting for us to come to our senses and come home.   Truly none of us are beyond the reach of God’s love, mercy, and compassion.  With this in mind, I would like to end this message by sharing a favourite verse of mine.  It is humorous but it also has a point.  It goes:

“I dreamed of death the other night,

And heaven’s gates swung open wide.

An angel with a halo bright

Ushered me inside.

And there to my astonishment stood folks I had judged and labeled

As ‘quite unfit’, of ‘little worth’, and ‘spiritually disabled’.

Indignant words rose to my lips, but never were set free,

For every face showed stunned surprise:

Not one expected me!”

Pastoral Prayer

Hear us we pray as we once again bow our heads in prayer before you.

We begin this prayer by offering you our thanks, for we truly do have so much that we can and should be grateful for.  We thank you for the gift of this day, and that we are here as a part of your good creation.  We thank you for the goodness of your creation as the days grow longer and warmer.  We thank you for the bounty of your creation, supplying our wants and needs as it does.  Help us we pray to treasure the world around us; grant us the wisdom to use its resources wisely and well.

We pray this day, not only for the sake of your creation but also for the sake of all who live therein.  We pray for healing in the lives of those who are ill.  We pray for peace, comfort, and strength in the lives of those who mourn.  We pray for those struggling to get by, and for those too who are unsure of what to do and are feeling overwhelmed as the pandemic restrictions continue to be eased.

As we have so often in the past weeks, we once again pray for the people of Ukraine.  We pray for all those caught up in the fighting, and for all who have fled and are now refugees.  We pray as well for those who have lost contact with family members and friends and have been left wondering and fearing about what has happened to them.  May the fighting stop and may peace be restored.

As the world’s attention is focused on what is happening in Eastern Europe, we remember and pray as well for other places in the world where there is so much pain, heartache, and destruction, such as that experienced by the people in the American South after the tornadoes of the past week.

During these days of Lent, we remember your very nature and our relationship with you.  With this in mind, we thank you that you are prodigal with your mercy, love, compassion, and forgiveness.  We thank you that your love and compassion truly is over all that you have made, including each and every one of us.  Help us then not to be harsh, judgemental, and uncaring.  Help us to see others as you do.  Help us we pray to love, even as we are loved.

We ask these things in your Son’s name.  Amen

Message for March 20, 2022

Lent 3

Luke 13:1-9

Of all of the horrific images from the current war in Ukraine, one of the most haunting is surely that of a very pregnant woman being carried out of a maternity hospital that had just been shelled.  Most of her face was covered and only her eyes, which reflected sheer terror, could be seen.  Tragically despite all the efforts to save them, both she and her baby died.  It was a very disturbing image and it brought home the sheer horror and inhumanity of what is happening.  We like to think that we are past wars like this.  Didn’t we learn anything from the Second World War?  Not surprisingly many people are asking the question ‘why’; why is this happening?

Now in a sense this is a very easy question to answer.  There is a war simply because one person, for reasons known only to himself, wanted one. Sometimes though when people ask the question ‘why’, they are doing so on a ‘deeper’ level.  What they are really asking isn’t so much why it is happening but rather if there is a meaning or a purpose to what is happening.  Is this war a part of God’s great plan for the world?  If not, then where is God in all of this?  If God is love, and if God is all powerful, then why doesn’t he do something to stop the fighting and suffering?  Why didn’t he do something to save that woman and her child?  Indeed, why do bad things happen anyways?  There is of course nothing new in such questions and in fact such questions were even asked of Jesus himself.

One day some people told Jesus about two recent tragedies.  In the first, there had been a confrontation between some worshippers and Roman soldiers at the Temple and the result was that a number of people had lost their lives.  In the second incident, a tower in Siloam had collapsed.  The collapse may have been a construction accident or perhaps it was due to a minor earthquake but whatever the cause, eighteen people had been killed.   Jesus’ questioners wanted to know why these particular people had died.  Had they perhaps been punished for their sins?

Jesus rejected their reasoning altogether saying:  “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?  I tell you no”.  Then, right after rejecting the notion that those poor people had been punished for their sins, Jesus went on to say something that was truly shocking:  “Unless you too repent, you too will perish” and just to make sure that they got the point, he repeated it.

I have to be honest and admit that these words have always troubled me; they do simply because they sound so harsh and uncaring.  As another pastor once said, imagine being called to a hospital by parents who have been told that their child has a life-threatening illness and they wanted to know why this was happening; was it because of something that they had said or done?  Were they being punished for their sins?  “No” said the minister, “you are not being punished for your sins but unless you repent, you too will perish”.  What sort of pastoral care would that be?  No minister I know would ever say such a thing, so why then did Jesus?

What Jesus was doing, as he so oftentimes did, was change the focus.  What Jesus was saying is that there is no real point or value in asking the question ‘why’ when bad things happen.  We don’t know why, and we will never know why, at least in this life.  When tragedy strikes, Jesus told his listeners, what really matters isn’t an answer to the question ‘why’.  Rather what really matters is the state of our relationship with God.  With this in mind, Jesus then moved on to tell them a story.

Jesus said that there was a farmer who planted a fig tree.  Everyone back then knew full well that fig trees were supposed to be very fruitful and produce two crops a year.  Far from producing two crops a year though, this particular tree hadn’t even produced one single fig in three years!  Quite understandably the farmer had run out of patience and so he ordered that the tree be cut down; if nothing else, the wood of this useless tree could be used for kindling.  His servant though interceded on the tree’s behalf.  “Give it another year” he urged.  “Forgive it” he said, and forgive by the way is the actual word that he used.  The servant promised that he would dig around the base of the tree, fertilize it, and do everything else he could to help it bear fruit.  Forgive it and give it more time he begged, and while the story doesn’t say so, the clear implication is that that is what the farmer did.  But what is the point of this parable?

This parable is of course a story about us and our relationship with God.  Just as the farmer planted the fig tree and expected it to bear fruit, so too has God in a manner of speaking planted us and expects us to bear fruit.  What fruit?  Some would say that we are to bear what St. Paul called the fruits of the Spirit:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  These are the qualities that are supposed to characterize us and our lives as God’s people and the disciples of Christ.  Love and all the rest are supposed to be reflected in how we relate to everyone whether they be members of our families, our friends, the people at church or at work, the staff who serve us in a store and yes, even those annoying people who phone us at dinnertime and want to clean our ducts!  But seriously, are our lives always characterized by these qualities?  Are we always fruitful?

If we are honest about it then the answer is ‘no’, we are not always fruitful.  In the eyes of God, we are perhaps far too often like the fig tree in today’s lesson.  Metaphorically speaking, we sometimes deserve to be cut down and thrown into the fire but even so, all is not lost.  It isn’t because with God there is no point of no return.

Imagine for a moment that a train is barreling down the tracks and then, off in the distance, the engineer sees something lying across the rails.  It is so far off that he is not sure what it is but even so, his reaction is almost instinctive; he blares the horn and slams on the brakes.  There is the loud screeching sound of metal grating on metal, but will the train be able to stop in time?  That all depends on whether or not it has passed what is called the point of no return.  The point of no return is an imaginary line or tipping point.  Before we reach it, things can be changed and the outcome altered.  Once we have passed the point of no return however, it almost seems as if the outcome is carved in stone and nothing can be done to change it.

Now this may be true of many things, but it is most certainly not true when it comes to our relationship with God.  It isn’t, simply because just as the gardener was there for the fig tree doing his best to make it fruitful, so too is Jesus here for us.  Perhaps no one knew this better than St Paul, a man who was very well aware of his shortcomings and failures to live the life and be the person that God had called him to be.  Even so, as he said in his letter to the Romans:

“Who would dare to 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!

I have become absolutely convinced that neither death nor life, neither messenger of Heaven nor 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 world has any power to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!”

This is the good news and promise of the gospel, that while there are times in life when we are less than fruitful, all is not lost.  It isn’t, because the one who judges us is also the one who died for us, was raised for us, and is even now praying for us!  It is never too late to repent and turn life around because with God there is no point of no return unless we decide that there is.  We believe in the God of a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, and as many other chances as we need or want, and this is the good news and promise of these weeks leading up to Good Friday and Easter.

Pastoral Prayer

Gracious God, hear us we pray as we come to you in prayer on this, the first day of spring.  We give you thanks for this season of life now upon us as the earliest shoots and flowers emerge from the ground after the cold barrenness of winter.  We give you thanks too for the spiritual life that we celebrate at this time of year during these weeks leading up to Good Friday and Easter.  We praise you and thank you because you are the source of life, both physically and spiritually, in all of its glorious fullness and abundance both now and forevermore.  We thank you for everyone and everything that makes our lives so good and full; truly you have blessed us with so much, more than what we really need or deserve.  Help us we pray to bless, even as we have been blessed.

We pray this day for all for whom life is not so good and who do not feel so blessed.  We pray for those who are ill and those who mourn.  We pray for those who are struggling to make ends meet as inflation continues to rise.  We pray for those who have no home, and those who wonder if they will ever own a place to call home as house prices continue to rise.

We pray this day for all the victims of violence, and we especially pray for the people of Ukraine; those who are there, and those who have fled and are now refugees with no place to call home.  We pray for an end to the war and a just resolution.

We confess that we see what is happening and we wonder how and why this is happening.  Indeed we see bad things happen to good people all of the time and sometimes we wonder why life seems to be so unfair.  Even as we don’t know the answers, help us to put our faith, our trust, and our hope in you, at all times and in all circumstances.

We thank you for the wonderful news and promise of Lent, that you are a God of love, mercy, and forgiveness.  We thank you that there is no point of no return with you, and that forgiveness and new beginnings are always ours for the asking.  Help us, and your people everywhere, to live as what we are; a redeemed people; redeemed through and by your Son.

We ask these things in your Son’s name.  Amen

Message for March 13, 2022

Lent 2

Matthew 5:38-48

          One evening during the past week I was watching the evening news and, not surprisingly, it focused on the war in Ukraine.  Most of the stories focused on the plight of the more than two million refugees who have fled to Poland and elsewhere for safety.  Being curious, I switched over to one of the American stations to see how they were covering the story.  Like our Canadian stations, their focus was also on the war, but their reports were somewhat different.  Their coverage focused more on the actual fighting and reports of Russian atrocities which included a picture of an entire family killed by the Russians.

I have to be honest and admit that I got angry as I watched the news and muttered some very un-Christian comments to the effect that wouldn’t it be good if Putin got a taste of his own medicine.  My comments were very un-Christian to be sure but later they made me think about just how we as Christians should respond to what is happening in Ukraine right now.  Indeed how should we respond to any war or armed conflict?

In a way this isn’t a hard question to answer and in fact we already know the answer.  All we have to do is read the Sermon on the Mount or the Sermon on the Plain:

“You have heard it said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth’.  But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.  If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.  You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’”

Following the teaching and example of Jesus, the Christian response to war and violence appears to be very straight-forward; war and violence are not a morally acceptable option, even when we are the victims.  But this of course isn’t what we want to hear is it?  I am reminded of the episode I shared with you a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned an elder’s response to Jesus’ teaching that we must turn the other cheek and love our enemies.  The elder, whose task it was to offer up a prayer in response to the sermon, simply said, “Lord, we heard your word today and we don’t like it”.

If we are honest about it, we may well decide that we really don’t like God’s word in today’s scripture passage either.  And because we may not like it, we may well be tempted to dismiss it as being totally unrealistic and reason that we are free to ignore it since no one can ever possibly live like this.  That however would not be true because the earliest Christians did.

In the earliest days of our faith, the Christians did their best to live according to today’s lesson.  They were what we would call pacifists and as such they refused to join the army.  Their refusal to serve and fight however enraged the authorities and helps explain why the authorities hated and persecuted the Christians.  Then, when Constantine the Great made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, things changed overnight.  The Christians could no longer depend upon others to fight and protect them from the invading barbarians.  Like everyone else, the Christians too now had to fight.  This was their reality but even so, the tension remained between Jesus’ teaching and life ‘in the real world’ where war was a fact of life.

In an effort to try and resolve the tension, St. Adoman of Iona proposed that if a war was unavoidable, then those fighting had to do their best to spare the women, children and clergy.  Centuries later this led to the famed “Truce of God”.  According to it, a war could only be fought if the cause was just and all efforts to resolve the differences had failed.  In addition, all parties at war had to do their best to keep the civilians and their property safe.  It was also decreed that war could not be waged during the weeks leading up to Christmas or the weeks leading up to Good Friday and Easter.  In addition, battles couldn’t be fought on Sundays either.  This was a real effort to try and at least control war, if not eliminate it altogether, but it was doomed to fail.  Instead, as we entered the Modern Age, wars grew in their intensity and ferocity until we got to the point where we are today; total war where civilians are thought to be legitimate targets.  Indeed all we have to do is look at what is happening in Ukraine right now with hospitals being shelled, numerous civilians dead and injured, and more than two million people now homeless refugees.  But even so, the ‘Just War Theory’ is still as if it were, the ‘official’ Christian position when it comes to war.  If the cause is just, non-combatants are spared, and casualties are kept to a minimum, then war is a morally acceptable option.  Not surprisingly though, not everyone agrees with this and insist that we must get back to the teaching of Jesus.

His name might not be familiar to most of us but George MacLeod, who was the founder of the Iona Community, is one of the most controversial figures in modern Presbyterian history.  MacLeod was born into a wealthy aristocratic Scottish family in 1895.  He served as an officer in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders during the First World War and was decorated for bravery.  After the war he went into the ministry and after ministering in some very wealthy congregations, he chose to minister in the slums of Glasgow.  He was a noted preacher and became quite famous.  He even had his own radio show where he preached a sermon every week.  Then the Second World War broke out and MacLeod announced that he was a pacifist and totally against the war.  His popularity nose-dived and he lost his radio show.  He was also jeered at and said to be a coward, though that really wasn’t fair as proven by his military service in the previous war.  But what did MacLeod propose instead of fighting?  Inspired by such as today’s scripture passage, he called for passive, non-violent resistance.

Passive non-violent resistance also inspired Mahatma Gandhi in his quest for India’s independence from Great Britain.  This also inspired Martin Luther King Jr. and the American civil rights movement.  Don’t resort to violence in the face of violence and oppression; instead turn the other cheek, love your enemies, and pray for them.  And in the case of both India and the United States, it worked too.  While there was some violence, the British government was unwilling to use unlimited brutal force against peaceful protesters and so India gained its independence.  While there was some violence in the United States as well, generally speaking, the authorities were reluctant to use brutal force against those marching for racial equality and civil rights.  In both of these instances the way of Jesus worked, but it only did so because the authorities felt that violence was not a morally acceptable response.  Such however is not always the case.

We can think for example of how the Chinese government responded to the students who demonstrated in support of democracy in Tiananmen Square twenty-three years ago.  The authorities did not hesitate to resort to violence to crush them.  And even now in Ukraine, how would the Russians respond if they were confronted by a large crowd of peaceful protestors standing in front of their tanks?  Based on the Russian behaviour so far, do we really think that the tanks would grind to a halt, the fighting would stop, and that peace would be restored?

Sadly, we live in a fallen sinful world.  We pray “thy kingdom come” and “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, but all too often it seems as if the Kingdom of God is as far away today as it ever was.  And where does that leave us as the disciples of Christ?  Do we simply dismiss Jesus’ teaching as that of an other-worldly dreamer whose words have no real meaning or relevance in the ‘real’ world in which we live?  Or do we try and live out his teaching, realizing that the cost can be terribly high?

For over 1600 years we Christians have debated and argued over how to resolve the tension between what Jesus taught and life as it is in our sin-filled world.  Some people try and live the Sermon on the Mount while others, while paying it lip service, dismiss it as being impractical.  But even as we Christians disagree about whether war is ever a morally acceptable option, we do agree on one thing and that is our moral obligation to care for all those who are victims, whether they be victims of the current war in Ukraine or anywhere else.  We, the disciples of Christ, are to love and to care for all until the day finally dawns when God’s kingdom here on earth is a reality and his will is done on earth as it is in heaven.  And God himself has promised that that day will surely come.

Pastoral Prayer

Hear us as we come to you in prayer on this late winter morning.

We thank you for this season slowly coming to its end, and for the early signs of the season of life that will soon be upon us.

We thank you for this weekend as well, a weekend that for many marks the start of the March Break and a welcome break from both routine and work.  With so many travelling we pray for the well-being and safety of all.

We look around us and we see a world that is seemingly in chaos, filled with so much heartache and pain.  Living here in this land and nation blessed with the peace, stability, and prosperity that it is, we have so much to be thankful for.  So often we complain but help us to never forget that compared to most of your children, we are amongst the most blessed of all.

We pray this day for all the places in this world where there is little if any peace, and we especially offer up this prayer of intercession for the people of Ukraine.  We pray for those who mourn for the death of a loved one.  We pray for those who have been wounded and not just physically, but mentally as well.  We pray for the millions who have been forced to flee with little more than the clothes on their backs and we pray too for those who wonder what has become of loved ones.  May the war come to an end and may there be peace and justice.  Guide all in positions of authority, granting them the knowledge and the courage to do what is just and right.

On this second Sunday in Lent as we continue the journey towards Good Friday and as we look at this sin-filled world in which we live, we remember the necessity of Good Friday and the promise of Easter Sunday; we thank you that sin, evil, and death will not have the final say and that in the end love, justice, and righteousness will prevail; they will prevail because the day is coming when your will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

In your Son’s name we pray.  Amen

Message for March 6, 2022

Lent 1

Luke 4:1-13

In one of his short stories, Oscar Wilde says that there was once a monk who lived by himself in the desert.  He was a very good man and the fame of his holiness spread far and wide; many people even thought that he was a living saint.  Some evil spirits then decided that it was their task to tempt him to do something wrong.  First of all, the spirits offered him the forbidden fruit of fleshly lust, but the monk stood firm.  Then they tried to sow the seeds of doubt and fear in his mind but that didn’t work.  After that, they tried to make him feel proud, but this didn’t work either.  With a mounting sense of desperation, the spirits then held him up to ridicule by saying that he was nothing more than a silly old fool to be spending all his time in the desert praying and fasting.  The monk however just ignored them.

The spirits were at the point of giving up altogether when Satan himself showed up.  The spirits told the devil about how their attempts to tempt the monk had failed.  Satan’s response was to say, “Your methods are too crude, permit me a moment”.  Very quietly Satan then tiptoed up to the saint and whispered in his ear:  “Have you heard the good news?  Your brother has just been made the Bishop of Alexandria!”  Upon hearing this, a tidal wave of jealousy and resentment swept over the monk and his normally serene countenance gave way to a most hideous scowl of envy.

The point of this short story is simple enough and it is that no one is truly immune from temptation.  Whether it be jealousy of another’s success or whatever else, we all give in to temptation from time to time.  Only one person has never done so, and that person is of course Jesus.

After he had been baptized, Jesus went to the wilderness for a period of time so that he might pray, fast, and prepare himself for his ministry.  When he was finished, he was totally exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually.  It is no coincidence then that Satan chose this opportunity to tempt Jesus to do something wrong.  Satan began by saying, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread”.  After all Jesus was hungry and besides, if he changed stones into bread, then he could feed all of the people all of the time!  His popularity would know no bounds, and everyone would know that he really was the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God!  All he had to do was compromise a little and then there would be no need to travel around the countryside preaching and teaching.  There would certainly be no need for the cross either!  Why not just take this short cut?  Things would be so much easier! Jesus however refused.

This ploy having failed, the devil decided to try another tack.  He took Jesus up to a high place and showed him all the kingdoms of the world.  They could all be his said Satan; riches, power, and dominion.  Once again there would be no need to endure the cross and the grave!  There was of course one small catch; Jesus would have to compromise his principles just a little and worship him, but wouldn’t it be worth it?  Once again though Jesus held firm.

Despite having failed twice, the devil remained undaunted.  He next took Jesus up to the very pinnacle of the Temple and urged him to jump off.  Very cleverly Satan even quoted the scripture passage that said that no harm could come to the Son of God.  If Jesus jumped off the angels themselves would catch him before he hit the ground and wouldn’t that sight impress the crowds down below!  They would be so impressed that they’d all have faith and believe!  Once again there would be no need for Jesus to fulfill his ministry the hard way.  Once again though Jesus held firm, and the testing came to it’s close.

This then is the story of the temptation episode.  There are many different aspects to today’s scripture passage but as I thought about it, the thing that struck me the most about it was that there was no compromise!  It must have been so tempting for Jesus just to have given in.  Being human as he was, Jesus probably didn’t want to wander around the countryside for three years with no place to call home.  He most certainly didn’t want to be arrested, scourged, and crucified.  And to think that he could have been a success too without all of this if he was willing to compromise and bend his principles a little.  It must have been so tempting for Jesus to have taken the attitude that the ends justify the means, but he didn’t, and his refusal has left us with the example to follow.

A TV show that I often watch is “Chicago PD”.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, it is a crime show that focuses on an elite police squad commanded by Detective Sergeant Hank Voight.  Voight does not hesitate to bend the rules and even smash them if need be to get results.  To him the ends most certainly justify the means, and it is hard not to root for him.  What does it matter if he plays fast and loose with the rules?  At least the bad guys get their just rewards!  When I think about it though, I wonder if Voight, ethically and morally, is really any different than the criminals he is out to catch?

Now this of course is an example from just one fictional TV show but think of how often the heroes in so many of the shows and movies that we watch flout the rules and buck the system, all in the name of a greater good.  In fact such shows even touch on one of the great ethical issues of our time.  Whether it be in policing, business, politics, or whatever else, many people today believe that the ends do justify the means no matter what.  We can think of what is happening in Ukraine right now as an example.  Putin firmly believes that Ukraine was, is and always should be a part of Russia and that that justifies the invasion.  This is an extreme example but sadly almost anyone can try and justify anything by arguing that the ends justify the means.

Once we start doing this though we can find ourselves on a very slippery slope.  We reason to ourselves that no real harm is being done but, if we aren’t careful, one compromise leads to another which leads to another.  Before we know it, we end up wondering how we got ourselves into such a mess in the first place.  To use an analogy, compromising with sin is a little bit like ivy.

Like all plants, ivy has a small beginning when it starts its journey growing up a wall or a tree.  It seems so harmless and even attractive but what happens?  If it is climbing a tree, then it will eventually kill it by sucking the life out of it.  If it is climbing up a wall, then it will slowly but surely destroy the wall by crumbling the bricks and mortar.  I remember well, by way of example, the back wall of the garage of the manse.  It was covered in ivy, and it looked so attractive.  It was realized though that it was damaging the wall and should be removed.  And sure enough, when the ivy was torn down the bricks were all scarred.

So it is with sin; once it gains a foothold in our lives, it can so easily become entrenched, take over, and do so much damage, scarring our lives, the lives of others, and that of the world around us.  It can be very difficult but in the long run we are better off if we follow Christ’s example and resist the temptation to compromise in the first place.  Of course, it must also be admitted that despite all of our will power and all of our good intentions, we sometimes fail.  Sometimes we do end up compromising and that brings us to what these weeks leading up to Good Friday and Easter are all about.

The good news and promise of Lent is that no matter what we may have said or done, and no matter how often we may have compromised with sin, all is not lost.  It isn’t simply because Christ died for us, Christ was raised for us, and even now Christ is praying for us.  John Bakewell sums it up well in his hymn “Hail Thou one despised Jesus”.

Jesus hail!  Enthroned in glory

there for ever to abide.

All the heavenly host adore thee,

seated at thy father’s side.

There for sinners thou art pleading,

there thou dost our place prepare.

Ever for us interceding,

till in glory we appear.

The incredible and even mind-boggling redeeming love of God that will never let us go, is what Lent is all about.  In the wonderful words of the medieval English poet William Langland; “All the sins of the world are but one burning coal in the sea of God’s grace”.  And so they are.

Pastoral Prayer

Hear us we pray as we once again come to you, this first Sunday in Lent, the beginning of our journey to Good Friday and our most holy and triumphant day of all, Easter itself.

We thank you for what it is that we remember, celebrate, and affirm at this time of year; that while we are most certainly sinners, we are in fact forgiven sinners and that there is a world of difference between the two.  We thank you for your Son’s life, teaching and example.  We thank you for his glorious resurrection as well, with all of it’s glorious promises.   Above all, today we thank you for your Son who, in the words of St. Peter:  “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.”  We thank you for your promise that no matter what we have ever said or done, forgiveness is always ours for the asking.  We pray this day for all who are haunted and weighed down by the sins of the past; grant them the peace of mind and soul that only you can.

We pray this day for the people of Ukraine, their well-being and safety.  We pray for the million people who have fled their country and are now homeless.  We pray for all of the mothers, wives and children who are fearing for the safety of their sons, husbands and fathers as the struggle continues.  We pray for all in positions of authority, that you will grant them wisdom as to how to bring this war to a just end.

We pray this day for the sake of healing in the lives of all those who are ill, and for comfort for all those who mourn.

As the pandemic restrictions continue to be eased, we pray for all who do not perceive this as good news to be welcomed but rather the exact opposite, something that sparks unease, and even fear and dread.  We pray as well for all the business owners and workers fearing for their livelihoods and hoping for an economic rebound after all of the restrictions of the past two years.

We ask these things in your Son’s name, he who knows full well from first hand experience just how good and challenging life can be.  Amen