tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36329152409941050852024-03-28T19:51:08.998-03:00My Next Great AdventureMy adventures in a life that is always joyfully, wonderfully, and occasionally fearfully changing. A place for me to share the adventures I have, books I read, new ideas I wrestle with and learn from, and things I write.Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.comBlogger283125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-2902786829992935452024-03-28T19:50:00.000-03:002024-03-28T19:50:08.183-03:00Lessons from Sabbatical - Holy Week (and Mandy Patinkin)<p><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">This
week, I have found my mind wandering back to Holy Weeks of a couple of decades
ago, which was the last time (other than my years in Tanzania) when I didn’t have
any responsibilities for presiding at anything or the music. This has felt like
a strangely empty week – I have a deep awareness of the week that is unfolding
around me, but I have no responsibilities for anything.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
I was a church musician, especially the last couple of years before beginning my
theological studies, Holy Week was a very busy time, playing for all of the
services at Trinity Lutheran Church, while also trying to sing in the choir for
as many services as possible at my own church, Knox Shuniah United. It usually
looked something like:<br />
Thursday: Play for Maundy Thursday at Trinity, then zip across town for a choir
practice at Knox<br />
Friday: Play for Good Friday at Trinity in the morning, then sing in the Cantata
at Knox in the evening<br />
Sunday: Attend the Easter Sunrise Service; cross town to play for the Easter
service at Trinity, then zip back across town to sing in the Easter service at
Knox<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
I started with this whole clergy thing, my Holy Weeks all of a sudden involved
a whole lot fewer services!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
this year the week feels empty in comparison, like it hasn’t felt since the
year 2000. This afternoon, I did something that I haven’t done in many years –
I sat down at the piano to play and sing through some of my favourite Holy Week
hymns. And I felt those words and melodies deeply in my soul. I have the luxury
to stay in the moment of what is going on in the story, rather than practicing
Easter hymns and anthems while it isn’t even Good Friday yet, or writing my
Easter Sermon before the “Hosannas!” have faded from my ears.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">This
morning as I ate breakfast, I listened to an interview with Mandy Patinkin on
CBC Radio. (He is bringing his one-man show to Saint John next week, so this
was a promotional interview.) He is always an interesting interview subject,
and one thing that he said this morning caught my ear. He was asked about how
he has managed to keep his (singing and speaking) voice in shape over the
decades, and in part of his reply he shared some advice that he was given when
he was in <i>Evita</i> at the age of 25.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Oscar
Eustace, who runs the public theatre in New York, refers to actors, singers,
and anyone who tells a story, as ‘emotional athletes.’ 99% of the game, for me,
is caretaking of my being so that I’m rested, I’m exercised, I’m eating right,
I’m meditating, and I’m doing everything I can to conserve my energy and pace
myself so that I can get up there for 2 hours and give you everything I have.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Emotional
Athletes. I think that I would probably include clergy in that category, along
with other story-keepers and storytellers. I’m starting to recognize that a lot
of the fatigue that I’ve been carrying – the fatigue that made rest my number 1
sabbatical goal – this fatigue is more than just physical and mental fatigue
but it’s also emotional fatigue.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
carry the stories of all of the people that we encounter and hold these stories
alongside the sacred story in an attempt to make meaning. And so all of this
advice from Mandy Patinkin about resting and exercising and eating right and
meditating (praying) and pacing – this is not just about managing physical and
mental fatigue, but it’s also about managing emotional fatigue.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
grief that I have been working through this season of Lent has cracked open my
emotions and made me realize everything that I have been carrying.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">And
I think that this is what I need to pay more attention to when I go back to
work in May – I tend to be aware of my physical and my mental state, but I need
to be more aware of my emotional state, and do better (especially at the pacing
part of his advice).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are Emotional
Athletes, and this is a marathon and not a sprint.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVZT1WZ_MH6ZZ_vfI7P9oKZNOvpCRowUXAhGx3fQdCMssaFtx76om89jS9Ow8qqFpvZHJ3_EtPzcA0od1kNEYnRr9owu8ndWD9lSzqogFo8612Tw7QJOBJkOcHxjSkrvZ89Jcb4QBQXbz-7gYt1me8P9thwI3TyId67WtHXDTTbNHExtRIBIL3oZCV_Ez/s3024/20240328_165516.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVZT1WZ_MH6ZZ_vfI7P9oKZNOvpCRowUXAhGx3fQdCMssaFtx76om89jS9Ow8qqFpvZHJ3_EtPzcA0od1kNEYnRr9owu8ndWD9lSzqogFo8612Tw7QJOBJkOcHxjSkrvZ89Jcb4QBQXbz-7gYt1me8P9thwI3TyId67WtHXDTTbNHExtRIBIL3oZCV_Ez/w400-h400/20240328_165516.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Spending some
time today with Holy Week music</span></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-58162286380019561112024-03-09T11:17:00.000-04:002024-03-09T11:17:15.967-04:00Lessons from Sabbatical - Week 5<p><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">If
I had to pick a word for this week, it would probably be “spaciousness.” It
feels like this was the first week when I really found the spaciousness that I
had hoped to find in this Sabbatical. I had time to get everything done that
needed to get done and that I wanted to do without feeling rushed or pressed
for time – picking up my new car, exercising every day, getting enough sleep
each night, cooking, music practice.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">One
of my explicit Sabbatical goals was around resuming old spiritual practices or
exploring new practices. Confession time: in March 2020, when the pandemic
turned the whole world upside down, one of the casualties was my usual
spiritual practices. Even though I knew that I needed them more than ever, I
couldn’t quiet my mind and spirit to be able to sit with them. And then as the
initial chaos lessened, I was out of the routine. This was the week when I was
able to resume them. (Though I have always had a cat on my lap during my
morning prayer time – first Lily and then Paka. Nuru is in the room with me,
but she prefers to watch me from the cat tree or windowsill rather than sitting
on my lap.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">My
challenge is going to be figuring out how to carry this spaciousness with me
when I return to my church duties. I know that the things that I’m finding in
this spaciousness – prayer, sleep, exercise – make me healthier overall, and I
don’t want to lose them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwWS7FPqs0MDRreKiMbA6VVmWBSbLiaKGjon3yPPWNpjhf1FaLZjyJXC573_f3DwCS8iB4O0tuzoR5rbFZc6dSW98BlZRqWthap5_CU9RqjD_SCiYf3Gexl6t95nrJ__2Q4W_o2t5TG15PmWqmIBf_C2U2mzA_Oa_fOc4HPGjJcYKf2Yv7f2UqweOVUnpe/s3024/20240308_072549.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwWS7FPqs0MDRreKiMbA6VVmWBSbLiaKGjon3yPPWNpjhf1FaLZjyJXC573_f3DwCS8iB4O0tuzoR5rbFZc6dSW98BlZRqWthap5_CU9RqjD_SCiYf3Gexl6t95nrJ__2Q4W_o2t5TG15PmWqmIBf_C2U2mzA_Oa_fOc4HPGjJcYKf2Yv7f2UqweOVUnpe/w400-h400/20240308_072549.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nuru, supervising
morning prayer</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">from her perch
on the cat tree</span></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-77825135235995559852024-03-02T23:07:00.003-04:002024-03-02T23:07:51.825-04:00Lessons from Sabbatical - Week 4
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Grief,
upon grief, upon grief.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOf2rDfXvf-czoSKPE8Kpg-_aFElof8dnmQjyL4ubdnqfP9wLPYNaBTA_5FGXPvvMpsWzcBRf43c-0OEwKTKA_Bn2syfOpoJB4kT7iXHYgooUCiV05VBaxPHW3Xq-6Z_4k3TNGPiWt9JOdRRGehL2MHSpDoCKROJRpCkfC_7WfeThONRmsRWH7nqZZitFj/s3024/20240301_082052.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOf2rDfXvf-czoSKPE8Kpg-_aFElof8dnmQjyL4ubdnqfP9wLPYNaBTA_5FGXPvvMpsWzcBRf43c-0OEwKTKA_Bn2syfOpoJB4kT7iXHYgooUCiV05VBaxPHW3Xq-6Z_4k3TNGPiWt9JOdRRGehL2MHSpDoCKROJRpCkfC_7WfeThONRmsRWH7nqZZitFj/s320/20240301_082052.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Paka<br />
April 1, 2007 – March 1, 2024</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
adopted Paka from the Thunder Bay District Humane Society the summer after
moving back to Canada from Tanzania. Lily (8 years old at the time) did better
with another cat around, and since Ambrose had died while I was overseas, Paka
joined our household once Lily had had a chance to make it her own.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Paka
was the little grey kitten in a cage full of grey kittens who wouldn’t let me put
her back into the cage.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">She
is probably the smartest cat I’ve ever been owned by. She taught me how to play
fetch with her pompoms, but she never fell for the red dot of the laser pointer
as she figured out right away that it was coming from the thing in my hand. She
could open closet doors from the inside or the outside. Treats are reserved for an after-claw-trimming reward - usually by the time I finished trimming Nuru's claws, Paka would be sitting by the treat cupboard and I would trim her claws right there. In the pandemic, she discovered the joy of Zoom calls and livestreaming - I swear that she could hear when I pressed "go live" or "join call" on my phone or computer, and people on the other end learned to recognize her tail sticking straight up in the air as she jumped up on my lap.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8vulESPs5_PUpxBA-yfqMXTgGio5A0RXv9QrKsOwEkIHPbII2Vypvwt4t-OR4-fOfU9T-KqZXyMzh3srn9iPpULQR43110jGnMKeoMepo1nArqoJ2kyAlyvPyfb68lNZgF2wocP2-fF3UjuT0PE2gbPVM5jF4u6Tf_AzXKNUNaC_jiVFDnEDBMsgWrpFK/s3024/20220707_233623.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8vulESPs5_PUpxBA-yfqMXTgGio5A0RXv9QrKsOwEkIHPbII2Vypvwt4t-OR4-fOfU9T-KqZXyMzh3srn9iPpULQR43110jGnMKeoMepo1nArqoJ2kyAlyvPyfb68lNZgF2wocP2-fF3UjuT0PE2gbPVM5jF4u6Tf_AzXKNUNaC_jiVFDnEDBMsgWrpFK/s320/20220707_233623.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">She
wasn’t a lap cat for the first half of her life, but sometime around her 8<sup>th</sup>
birthday she figured out that laps were a good place to be, and then she would
jump up on my lap as soon as I sat down. In the last year, she has moved
further up my body, and her favourite place became tucked right under my chin.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfLAmS67FbMpHRCDzwZxm-wrzht75xcND8Y5s5d_NtWOf5qT4kc74-3o56YumsK1kXyvACcyh5Yr3jWUeHT5OGCEXeQQieDA93YHw6qYBbiZ0bYEe2kvS9CzxkTAoYpyomaUXrQ9kMMOzLm8nSUa9H0PecOIl_XFuNA2UEAm73s9QjtjXVyXlHB86Kk6NK/s3024/20200122_193313.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfLAmS67FbMpHRCDzwZxm-wrzht75xcND8Y5s5d_NtWOf5qT4kc74-3o56YumsK1kXyvACcyh5Yr3jWUeHT5OGCEXeQQieDA93YHw6qYBbiZ0bYEe2kvS9CzxkTAoYpyomaUXrQ9kMMOzLm8nSUa9H0PecOIl_XFuNA2UEAm73s9QjtjXVyXlHB86Kk6NK/s320/20200122_193313.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">My
cats generally don’t eat people-food, but I occasionally snuck her bits of
salmon which she enjoyed. Nuru also taught her, in the past couple of years,
that yoghurt is a good thing. Her bizarre human food preferences were for
unsweetened grapefruit and porridge. It’s going to be hard to make myself my
usual Sunday morning porridge tomorrow without her by my chair begging to lick
out the bowl.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO7JHSL9xl2k8izxMcH33H5b7Jxi9oisrjKemM3fwZiP0EuDVmSn5D5DU6aVYGHdg6fqhPX830MiQt04NhkkASq8m_M0DvmW78pgWg_6Ya2Q0HZvjTb_rjGpNUeXFFI1lHl8Eu5Nix4gODeCLj2vY5U4y7Qqv_UfjHrAUsGEdHqMDtNziPJHMZqZewIH1_/s3024/20190930_221952.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO7JHSL9xl2k8izxMcH33H5b7Jxi9oisrjKemM3fwZiP0EuDVmSn5D5DU6aVYGHdg6fqhPX830MiQt04NhkkASq8m_M0DvmW78pgWg_6Ya2Q0HZvjTb_rjGpNUeXFFI1lHl8Eu5Nix4gODeCLj2vY5U4y7Qqv_UfjHrAUsGEdHqMDtNziPJHMZqZewIH1_/s320/20190930_221952.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Paka
lived in more provinces than most Canadians. She was born in Thunder Bay (ON),
moved with me to Kenora (ON) for 8 months when I relocated temporarily for
work. She moved half-way across the country with me to Dartmouth (NS) when I
went back to school in 2014. She moved all the way across the country with me
to Chetwynd (BC) for my internship, and then she moved all the way back across
the country with me when I accepted my call here in Nerepis (NB).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJEIdf5CUKYDQF2j53tKW0yAHmNQsqWk8L93KHfNOm92geJrEgHWPwk_Pm7yAgKCv1-WL4SVg-o9iBjtUur3J138PPv0vdwQdqkeTKF9U8MzCge2qlHqkwLY14DoRR0kXUv3GjxAYa84VfKM3jVA8f6JJ3n9p9Gocv6TcBnWGAHga0l9NX-tW1YMp4WzYF/s3024/20190714_210417.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJEIdf5CUKYDQF2j53tKW0yAHmNQsqWk8L93KHfNOm92geJrEgHWPwk_Pm7yAgKCv1-WL4SVg-o9iBjtUur3J138PPv0vdwQdqkeTKF9U8MzCge2qlHqkwLY14DoRR0kXUv3GjxAYa84VfKM3jVA8f6JJ3n9p9Gocv6TcBnWGAHga0l9NX-tW1YMp4WzYF/s320/20190714_210417.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">She
had been failing over the past year and a half or so, and her vet and I were on
the same page with respect to no invasive tests or interventions for my
old-lady cat.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Right
from when she was a kitten, Paka liked to sleep under the covers with me,
curled up behind my knees. On the hottest nights of summer, she still needed to
be on the bed with me, but fortunately not under the covers – just reaching out
to make sure she was touching me with one paw. As she got more frail, she found
it harder to move around under the covers, but she still wanted to be near me
(and unfortunately gave me some bad scratches in the past few months, crawling
over my head in the middle of the night, which usually resulted in her being
banished from the bedroom for the remainder of the night). In the past couple
of months, she would only try to get up on the bed once a week or so. <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Last
week, the night before I flew to Ontario for the week, was one of those nights.
She crawled up on the bed in the middle of the night, and eventually settled
down in front of the other pillow, and we had a good cuddle even though I had
to get up early the next morning to catch my flight.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhApe5NQkr4Y5j6ihbFnQnJduxPQJqviQRgrTm1RN_1qUW36GaQHgi8cX0ZaI1yx17SQQZsWMnyjIHcXJlgj-jn3rUU0CIaL8jty8a5ChDGJMU2XWPiqy_2WjdYb2ygD-URUwuusnad1InTpULPqMvHpQ0mTdSb5FnisOLPx27Yv7aI4h491O4i9i3l0wZF/s3024/20200623_212505.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhApe5NQkr4Y5j6ihbFnQnJduxPQJqviQRgrTm1RN_1qUW36GaQHgi8cX0ZaI1yx17SQQZsWMnyjIHcXJlgj-jn3rUU0CIaL8jty8a5ChDGJMU2XWPiqy_2WjdYb2ygD-URUwuusnad1InTpULPqMvHpQ0mTdSb5FnisOLPx27Yv7aI4h491O4i9i3l0wZF/s320/20200623_212505.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
I got home late Thursday night, she was clearly telling me that it was time,
and so Friday morning I called the vet’s office. They had an appointment at 11:30
(with my favourite vet in the practice, no less), and the vet affirmed what I
already knew. Shortly before noon, with assistance from the vet, Paka fell
asleep in my arms, tucked into her favourite spot under my chin.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
I was making my sabbatical goals, I didn’t predict that so much of my time
would be spent processing grief.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
went home from the vet’s on Friday, had lunch, and changed my clothes to go to Catria’s
funeral (my next door neighbour who died a couple of weeks ago). I sat in the
back row of the local Catholic church and let myself cry.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
cried for Catria. I cried for Paka. I cried for Alison (a friend and colleague
who died on Ash Wednesday). I cried for all of the people whose funerals I have
conducted in the past 5 ½ years (most of them people I cared very deeply for).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
was strange but good to be at a funeral with no responsibilities other than to
grieve. It was good to have permission to let my sadness out. And there was so
much comfort in the funeral liturgy, even though it was from a tradition not my
own. The reassurance of resurrection. The call of “come to me, all you who are
weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Fr. David spoke
words that my heart needed to hear on Friday afternoon, even though I was a
snotty mess through all of it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nuru
knows that something isn’t right. She sometimes wanders through the house meowing,
as if she is looking for Paka. But we are both going to be OK. (And when the
time is right, there will likely be another feline joining our household.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZGuL7XwR4WC0z8I7qS4VR05rHbdaTihD3H2-Kq68NNMdejjJvFZDxtn90iCt4l3qoABFKaYOsrTHhhUb4hRarXC70Hevt_h8wsNX457epk9Ln3IAfXKGw9W-BR3uiGh7F-x5PCGqllRblt__XkPa5qlZeoepbj_jSkZD-9CrH36tVOrbZFlZgzbHqF925/s3024/20190605_083601.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZGuL7XwR4WC0z8I7qS4VR05rHbdaTihD3H2-Kq68NNMdejjJvFZDxtn90iCt4l3qoABFKaYOsrTHhhUb4hRarXC70Hevt_h8wsNX457epk9Ln3IAfXKGw9W-BR3uiGh7F-x5PCGqllRblt__XkPa5qlZeoepbj_jSkZD-9CrH36tVOrbZFlZgzbHqF925/s320/20190605_083601.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Grief,
upon grief, upon grief. And yet there is a time for everything (one of the
other readings from Friday afternoon), and so I know that this season won’t last
forever. Lent will continue to unfold into Good Friday, and suffering
will be replaced by resurrection. But for now, this season seems to be a season of moving through grief.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQQvGSoS2JBZOpUMkXilz8fpIr2JevQEqtQwQQd__M1D4kDxk3TMu4aMQNTTAuL0oS8cN9xBlufl37V5dWfHk5ujg39u58KLapd3Xd-Gj2Ya8YLtjS8uXPWaW0SAiUWLjN14ZfnYHhVL1ChFIKM2yoEhj8Qx3g8ahhf5h31KSwo0u8TvuV5aC6vsX0vjYV/s3024/20200611_083637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQQvGSoS2JBZOpUMkXilz8fpIr2JevQEqtQwQQd__M1D4kDxk3TMu4aMQNTTAuL0oS8cN9xBlufl37V5dWfHk5ujg39u58KLapd3Xd-Gj2Ya8YLtjS8uXPWaW0SAiUWLjN14ZfnYHhVL1ChFIKM2yoEhj8Qx3g8ahhf5h31KSwo0u8TvuV5aC6vsX0vjYV/s320/20200611_083637.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-87402399344684347112024-02-17T20:34:00.004-04:002024-02-18T12:37:36.592-04:00Lessons from Sabbatical - Week 2<p><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Week
2 was about grief. On Wednesday (Ash Wednesday, by some warped coincidence), I
learned that <a href="https://vjmcgillivray.ca/tribute/details/2075/Rev-Alison-Etter-Glace-Bay/obituary.html#tribute-start" target="_blank">a friend and colleague died</a>, and I learned that <a href="https://castlefh.ca/tribute/details/32511/Catria-Jackson/obituary.html#tribute-start" target="_blank">my next-door neighbour died</a>. And to add insult to injury, my car didn’t die, but it entered
the palliative stage of life, which means that I’m also car shopping a year or
so earlier than I had hoped. (To be fair, Prezley the Impreza has 290,000km on
the odometer so doesn’t owe me anything at this point.)</span></p><p><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">I
did break my church communication sabbath this week, as a couple of colleagues reached
out to me to make sure that I had heard about Alison; and then I joined some of
them on a video call on Friday night so that we could grieve together.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">We,
as people who deal professionally with grief, tend not to grieve well
ourselves.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">As
Kendall observed, to have a video chat full of ministers and none of us had
anything to say, in itself says how profound our grief is.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">So
I don’t know if this post is about “lessons” from sabbatical, but is rather “observations”
about grief.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">I
am going to miss Catria. Conversations over the fence. A smile and wave driving
past. A knock on my back door saying “I felt like a glass of wine but I didn’t
want to drink alone.” And on top of that the most fabulous cat-sitter – Nuru,
who usually doesn’t like having anyone other than me in the house used to roll
over at her feet and ask for belly rubs.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">God
of Incarnation, hear my prayer; even when I don’t know what my prayer is.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0VUpKri06d9xmSfwVKQpv_JMLMGVAThlm7vzf_eTjL9B4OiEL5TtaXq8-sr-aruhmg8FGFyGSXkzRyrAAdvzAt-mgMfHnA3vecUaLTuC-YLpcSv44EeoWES3vXDBrMA6savHDyej9ViIwGdlkquLOCHyQlFwFz9pyMcgyZnnL34CYxABb8aDhurUsEO7/s2208/20240214_202746.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2208" data-original-width="2208" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0VUpKri06d9xmSfwVKQpv_JMLMGVAThlm7vzf_eTjL9B4OiEL5TtaXq8-sr-aruhmg8FGFyGSXkzRyrAAdvzAt-mgMfHnA3vecUaLTuC-YLpcSv44EeoWES3vXDBrMA6savHDyej9ViIwGdlkquLOCHyQlFwFz9pyMcgyZnnL34CYxABb8aDhurUsEO7/w400-h400/20240214_202746.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">“From dust you
have come,</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span face=""Gill Sans MT",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">and to dust you
shall return.”</span></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-71069675273309339062024-02-07T21:58:00.001-04:002024-02-08T08:32:47.693-04:00Lessons from Sabbatical - Week 1<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Today
was day 7 of a 3-month sabbatical that began on February 1. My primary goal for
this time off is rest – it’s been an exhausting almost-4 years of leadership in
a pandemic. The first couple of years of the pandemic were marked by a
continual demand on creativity as we figured out how to do everything
differently; continual vigilance as we monitored the public health situation
and the always-changing public health restrictions and regulations; and
continually holding any plans loosely as we always had to be prepared to pivot
with short notice.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Two
lessons stand out from this first week of rest:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Gill Sans MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Gill Sans MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">As much as I
frequently proclaim that we are “human beings” and not “human doings,” this is
easier said than done. Now that my only job is to be, it is really hard to
ascribe worth to being rather than to doing. Letting go of the need to be
productive is hard.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Gill Sans MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Gill Sans MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The spaciousness
of time. With only minimal demands on my time, I don’t need to be stingy with
the minutes and hours of each day. Time is no longer a resource to be hoarded.
I can let myself go to bed at a decent hour because I will have more time tomorrow
to continue what I am doing tonight. I can give myself permission to do things
that are fun and that make me feel good, like singing and exercising every day.
My next learning should probably be around figuring out how to carry this
spaciousness into post-sabbatical life, but for now I’m just going to enjoy it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMzYvX5Zgn8LEVFxyQlDGWGZoNMuENT7q2L98s8FAvrkwSyxRLBqnBnSc_7ZWGrdr9dE2VBGsNNpTbGImFUd5ja-jvltZMKaIKVhFZSThbrKbrsJtjVoRkse9WxJeCrxRQkzN_Cil1ohM-8zzMvxHJYyFVfYLD-1iHRB19MKCx1NVYG5uYKIaDP7NnqsX/s3024/20240206_163211.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMzYvX5Zgn8LEVFxyQlDGWGZoNMuENT7q2L98s8FAvrkwSyxRLBqnBnSc_7ZWGrdr9dE2VBGsNNpTbGImFUd5ja-jvltZMKaIKVhFZSThbrKbrsJtjVoRkse9WxJeCrxRQkzN_Cil1ohM-8zzMvxHJYyFVfYLD-1iHRB19MKCx1NVYG5uYKIaDP7NnqsX/s320/20240206_163211.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">My supervisors,
ensuring that I am resting!</span></p>
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{margin-bottom:0cm;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-33592241046754607402024-01-28T16:15:00.000-04:002024-01-28T16:15:25.924-04:00"The Church Will Be Churching!" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday January 28, 2024<br />
Scripture Reading:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2018%3A15-20&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Deuteronomy 18:15-20</a><br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
I know that I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but I do love the book
of Deuteronomy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our regular bible study
people are now experts on the book of Deuteronomy, as we’ve been meandering our
way through the Old Testament and spent part of last fall in Deuteronomy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To set the scene:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Ancient Israelite people had been slaves
in Egypt until God called to Moses out of the burning bush telling him that he
would be the one to lead the people to freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Moses went to Pharoah and demanded, “Let my people go!” After a number
of wonders that God worked through Moses, the people were able to escape; Moses
parted the waters of the Red Sea so that the people could cross safely to the
other side and escape the Egyptians who were hot on their heels; and then the
people spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness, learning to trust in God’s
presence, learning to trust in God’s guidance, learning to trust in God’s
provision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along the way, Moses climbed
to the top of a mountain in the middle of the Sinai desert where God gave him
the Law, beginning with the 10 Commandments.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Forty years, and a lot of adventures
later, the people are perched on the banks of the Jordan River, about to cross
over into the Promised Land – the land that God had promised to them and to
their ancestors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But before they cross,
Moses stops the people and reminds them of everything that has happened since
they left Egypt, and recites the whole law for them a second time, beginning
with the 10 Commandments.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The punchline comes towards the end of
the book – the part of the book that I especially love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God, speaking through Moses pleads with the
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Look, I’ve showed you the way
to life and blessings through following my commandments. Now choose life and
abundance by following me – it’s right there in your grasp! Choose life!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(We’re going to stay in Deuteronomy
today, but if you are curious about what happens next, and how long the people
were able to do what God was asking of them, you can ask any of our regular
bible study group!)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now, with the part of Deuteronomy that
we read today, we’re only about half way through Moses’s recitation of the law
– we haven’t reached that exhortation to choose life yet. But Moses pauses for
a moment to reflect on the current situation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Keep in mind that Moses is 120 years
old at this point, and he has been leading the people for more than 40
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God has also told him that he
isn’t going to live long enough to cross the river into the Promised Land, so
now that they are right on the banks of the Jordan River, he knows that his
days are limited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in this section
that we read today, Moses reassures the people that even when he is gone, God
is going to raise up a new leader for them – God will raise up a new prophet
for them from among their own people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not an outsider, but one of their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They won’t be left leader-less.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The lectionary that we follow gives us
four readings for each week – one from the Old Testament, a Psalm, a reading
from the Epistles or letters in the New Testament, and a reading from the
Gospels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when I read through the
options for today, and saw this passage for Deuteronomy, I thought to myself
that this was the perfect reading for the Sunday before I begin my Sabbatical.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Because God is always raising up new
leaders from with the people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I said
in my Mid-Week Message on Wednesday, I am going away for 3 months with full
confidence that Two Rivers Pastoral Charge will keep on churching while I’m
gone. The church isn’t just about one person and what that one person does, but
instead the church is about what all of us do, and about the shared leadership.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The church will continue to gather
together to worship God. Different Lay Worship Leaders and clergy will lead
worship. Our musicians will continue to lead the music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The quilters will continue to quilt and the
UCW will continue to prepare funeral lunches (though hopefully not too many).
Ross will continue to encourage the church to share out of our abundance with
Mission and Service; and Chris and the rest of Session will continue to pray
for the church and nourish the spiritual life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bette, Anne, and the rest of the Church in the World Committee will
remind the church to leave food in Ida’s Cupboard, and search out new
opportunities in the world where we can serve our neighbours.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The church will keep on churching,
because God is always raising up new leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is God’s church, and God will always equip us so that we can do the
work of churching that God puts before us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so these words of Moses are a good
ego-check for me this week, reminding me that it’s not all about me and
re-assuring me that it’s not just OK to step back, but it’s good to step back
for a time to rest, knowing that this is God’s church, and God’s got us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so I step away for three months,
knowing that I will likely be a slightly different person when I return, shaped
by my sabbath months; but also knowing that Two Rivers will also likely be
slightly different then too, because this is a living church, and God is always
raising up new leaders from among us to lead us in the new directions where God
is calling us to follow.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And may we all have the courage to say
yes when God is calling!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXAB6h6n6wa_eIKk8obVrnDuVzaWCPe53uGoROvhDpy9LmMO3UlkdbA5lCSOVoFCo3xKaCx0aBTS7TTRI6mWYIwn6R0qxVQEws5IcDdhIK5qwBbxlUAgwWSBPJh7TZXemTBB7Sjdnf6pV-sLr9aLfopfajoqjALMDL1p5rzfQRCmj742caGPYaGZGNBSYn/s3264/32062297114_ccdc1191d3_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXAB6h6n6wa_eIKk8obVrnDuVzaWCPe53uGoROvhDpy9LmMO3UlkdbA5lCSOVoFCo3xKaCx0aBTS7TTRI6mWYIwn6R0qxVQEws5IcDdhIK5qwBbxlUAgwWSBPJh7TZXemTBB7Sjdnf6pV-sLr9aLfopfajoqjALMDL1p5rzfQRCmj742caGPYaGZGNBSYn/w400-h300/32062297114_ccdc1191d3_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Butterfly Jigsaw Puzzle Underway”</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">by Christchurch City Libraries on flickr</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://flic.kr/p/QReDU7" target="_blank">Used with Permission</a></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Together, we are even more beautiful than when</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">we are apart!</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-88033463089869980842024-01-28T16:01:00.002-04:002024-01-28T16:01:49.613-04:00"Call and Response" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday January 21, 2024<br />
Scripture Reading:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201%3A14-20&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Mark 1:14-20</a><br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
This week I was talking to someone about growing up with my sisters in rural
Ontario. We lived at the end of a dead-end road, and there were a lot of
families with kids on the road. Even though I was one of the older kids, age
didn’t really matter and we tended to run around as a pack, usually with our
bicycles. This was in the day long before cell phones, so when it was time for
us to come home, either for supper or at bedtime, Dad would stand in front of
the house and blow his soccer coaching whistle. When we heard that whistle, we
knew that it was time to go home. And because we were generally pretty good
kids, when we heard that call, we went.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(In fact, the only time I ever remember our parents ever grounding any of
us, it was when my sister didn’t come home when she heard the soccer whistle.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dad called, and we responded.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which is a cute story, but it ties in
with today’s bible reading where Jesus is calling his disciples. As I read this
familiar story this year, I started wondering – which is more important, the
call or the response?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Usually when I read this story, I think
about the act of calling. Jesus called those first disciples to leave their
nets behind and follow him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually I
think about Jesus coming across Simon and Andrew and James and John as they are
fishing in the Sea of Galilee, looking them in the eye, calling them by name,
and saying “Follow me.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Usually when I read this story, I think
about how God calls all of us, and how we need to have our hearts attuned to
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually I think about the times
when I have sensed God calling me to something new, whether that was the first
time I sensed God’s presence, telling me that I am their beloved child, or
whether it was when I began to sense that I was being called into ministry…
which was less like a voice calling softly in the night and more like an
annoying itch that wouldn’t go away.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But this year when I read this story, I
also started wondering about what happens after the calling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the story from the bible, we read about
how Simon and Andrew and James and John immediately leave their nets, their
livelihood, and their families behind and follow after Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started wondering if the response to God’s
call isn’t at least as important as the calling itself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What would have happened if these first
disciples hadn’t left everything to follow Jesus?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would go on to become Jesus’s inner
circle and leaders in the very earliest church after Jesus’s death and
resurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These fisherpeople from
the backwater of Galilee would go on to preach and to teach and to heal and to
proclaim the good news of God’s love made known in Jesus to crowds of
thousands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact it is Simon who is
later renamed Peter about whom Jesus would say, “Upon this rock that is you, I
will build my church.” Would we have a church today if these four hadn’t
responded to the call?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I also wonder if Jesus ever called
people to follow him, and those people refused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even these four in today’s story would have every reason to refuse.
After all, they are leaving behind not only their families but also their means
of providing for their families in order to follow after this itinerant
preacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many people heard a
similar call and then said no?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But these
four, we are told, left everything behind and followed him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I do think that the response is at
least as important as the call.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Just
ask my sister who didn’t respond to the call of the whistle!)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which brings us back to our own
calling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each one of us is called by
God. Just by virtue of the fact that you are here today, God has called
you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe that call happened when you
were too young to know, maybe it happened in such a gradual way that it crept
up on you without you noticing, or maybe you can pinpoint the hour and the day
when God called you by name, saying, “follow me.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I think that what all of us do with
that calling is at least as important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are called to be the church, as the new creed reminds us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are called to be the church – to celebrate
God’s presence; to live with respect in creation; to love and serve others; to
seek justice and resist evil; to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge
and our hope.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our calling, as disciples of Jesus,
usually isn’t to sit back and say, “OK, I’ve been called, that’s all.” Instead,
we are called to a living faith. We are called to let the Holy Spirit work in
us, transforming us into who God created us to be; and we are called to let the
Holy Spirit work through us as we live out the mission that God gives to us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God nurtures us on the journey –
nurturing us through the sacraments, nurturing us through being in community
with each other, nurturing us through worship, nurturing us through the
different spiritual practices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then,
with bodies and spirits nourished, we leave our literal or metaphorical nets
behind to follow Jesus on whatever exciting paths we are called to follow,
individually or as a whole church.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the call is just the beginning, but
it is the response that opens up new horizons to us – ones that we might never
have imagined traveling before!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And may God give us the courage to
answer the call with a resounding “yes”! Amen.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwY1-Z01Krkj1bkNnWwXOsTSpreRfpiQZ5hiMJT7JDembb6Z5_T44gTeLAvUwpKRwoaY8VFpSjfvOcE56B-VFhgPebEYusYYlPKYBmI3PcobaYUzqEL1bm0ykqlOmiF4B_vPhg7yqAyzugZNm-YOS5rYA-XM1ek3bidXBYkMuM2ZcwdYyan1Buw-aweeRU/s1738/Mafa046-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1142" data-original-width="1738" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwY1-Z01Krkj1bkNnWwXOsTSpreRfpiQZ5hiMJT7JDembb6Z5_T44gTeLAvUwpKRwoaY8VFpSjfvOcE56B-VFhgPebEYusYYlPKYBmI3PcobaYUzqEL1bm0ykqlOmiF4B_vPhg7yqAyzugZNm-YOS5rYA-XM1ek3bidXBYkMuM2ZcwdYyan1Buw-aweeRU/w400-h263/Mafa046-large.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The First Two Disciples”</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">by JESUS MAFA</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48379" target="_blank">Used with Permission</a></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-34054371774295068072024-01-14T16:44:00.001-04:002024-01-14T16:44:19.697-04:00"Turning Towards God" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday January 14, 2024 (The Baptism of Jesus)<br />
Scripture:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+1%3A1-11&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Mark 1:1-11</a><br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /><br />
I have a confession to make. I have to confess that on Thursday afternoon I
wrote a sermon for today, and when it was three quarters written, I said to
Elaine that what I had written was boring and I couldn’t figure out how to end
it. Baptism itself is endlessly exciting, but talking about it isn’t
necessarily. And this got me thinking about baptism, and what is baptism, and I
remembered my Worship Foundations class at AST, and how, in the week when we
were going to be talking about sacraments, our professor began the class by
reading a passage from a novel to us. And so I thought that is what I might do
this morning, instead of the boring sermon that I wrote on Thursday.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The novel is <i>Gilead</i>, by
Marilynne Robinson, and it written from the perspective of an elderly retired
Congregationalist minister who, nearing his own death, is telling his life’s
story to his son. I will also mention that not only is the narrator a minister,
but his father was as well. The part that I am going to read to you comes from
close to the beginning of the novel, when he is talking about his childhood.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We were very pious children from pious
households in a fairly pious town, and this affected our behaviour
considerably. Once, we baptized a litter of cats. They were dusty little barn
cats just steady on their legs, the kind of waifish creatures that live their
anonymous lives keeping the mice down and have no interest in humans at all,
except to avoid them. But the animals all seem to start out sociable, so we
were always pleased to find new kittens prowling out of whatever cranny their
mother had tried to hide them in, as ready to play as we were. It occurred to
one of the girls to swaddle them up in a doll’s dress – there was only one
dress, which was just as well since the cats could hardly tolerate a moment in
it and would have to have been unswaddled as soon as they were christened in
any case. I myself moistened their brows, repeating the full Trinitarian
formula.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Their grim old crooked-tailed mother
found us baptizing away by the creek and began carrying her babies off by the
napes of their necks, one and then another. We lost track of which was which,
but we were fairly sure that some of the creatures had been borne away still in
the darkness of paganism, and that worried us a good deal. So finally I asked
my father in the most offhand way imaginable what exactly would happen to a cat
if one were to, say, baptize it. He replied that the Sacraments must always be
treated and regarded with the greatest respect. That wasn’t really an answer to
my question. We did respect the Sacraments, but we thought the whole world of
those cats. I got his meaning, though, and I did no more baptizing until I was
ordained.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Two or three of that litter were taken
home by the girls and made into fairly respectable house cats. Louisa took a
yellow one. She still had it when we were married. The others lived out their
feral lives, indistinguishable from their kind, whether pagan or Christian no
one could ever tell. She called her cat Sparkle, for the white patch on its
forehead. It disappeared finally. I suspect it got caught stealing rabbits, a
sin to which it was much given, Christian cat that we knew it to be,
stiff-jointed as it was by that time. One of the boys said she should have
named it Sprinkle. He was a Baptist, a firm believer in total immersion, which
those cats should have been grateful I was not. He told us no effect at all
could be achieved by our methods, and we could not prove him wrong. Our Soapy
mut be a distant relative.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I still remember how those warm little
brows felt under the palm of my hand. Everyone has petted a cat, but to touch
one like that, with the pure intention of blessing it, is a very different
thing. It stays in the mind. For years we would wonder what, from a cosmic
viewpoint, we had done to them. It still seems to me to be a real question.
There is a reality in blessing, which I take baptism to be, primarily. It
doesn’t enhance sacredness, but it acknowledges it, and there is a power in
that. I have felt it pass through me, so to speak. The sensation is of really
knowing a creature, I mean really feeling its mysterious life and your own
mysterious life at the same time. I don’t wish to be urging the ministry on
you, but there are some advantages to it you might not know to take account of
if I did not point them out. Not that you have to be a minister to confer
blessing. You are simply much more likely to find yourself in that position.
It’s a thing people expect of you.”<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I love this passage now, even more than
I did the first time I heard it, almost 9 years ago, and not just for the
humour in the image of those children by the creek with the kittens and the
mama cat desperate to retrieve her babies. I love how it describes baptism as a
blessing, baptism as the power of acknowledging the sacredness that is already
present.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I don’t think that baptism is either a
beginning or an ending – instead I see baptism as a pivot-point, or as a moment
of turning. One of the biblical scholars I listened to this week talked about
how baptism is a turning towards God, who is always turned towards us.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Baptism doesn’t make God love us more – God’s
love is always there, but instead, with our baptism, we turn towards and
acknowledge that ever-present love.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We read about this with Jesus’s
baptism. This happens right at the very beginning of his ministry – he is
turning towards God and accepting the calling that had always been there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the same is true with our baptism –
whether you were baptized as a baby or as an adult, at your baptism, promises
were made by you or by your parents or guardians, turning your life towards
God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you were with us last week, either
in-person or online, we talked about all of the different ways that God
communicates with us, and baptism is one of those ways. At each and every
baptism, we turn towards God, and God says, just as God said at Jesus’s
baptism, “You are my child, my beloved. With you I am well pleased.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">May each one of us know in our hearts,
that this is true. Amen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgDMs_PHxcR6dj08vrOyPaLE6i0JKhvpV5H2Qpysm4WqePSyGnArdIbn4hftd6Rt8Ktkja3NU5DJKnLcgnpMEpBnGEeVAqmT9DQKXjJmxkqYzHX4xDwjcsVQvPFxQE6botJBcASdTu2-YVQWworRW9jJD8mAmywpOvWNxU9pHxAcTdH0igZ75OpEXYwlv2/s387/Gileadcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="258" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgDMs_PHxcR6dj08vrOyPaLE6i0JKhvpV5H2Qpysm4WqePSyGnArdIbn4hftd6Rt8Ktkja3NU5DJKnLcgnpMEpBnGEeVAqmT9DQKXjJmxkqYzHX4xDwjcsVQvPFxQE6botJBcASdTu2-YVQWworRW9jJD8mAmywpOvWNxU9pHxAcTdH0igZ75OpEXYwlv2/w266-h400/Gileadcover.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Marilynne
Robinson, <i>Gilead</i>, Toronto: Harper Collins, 2004, ebook.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <a href="https://www.pulpitfiction.com/notes/baptismchristb">https://www.pulpitfiction.com/notes/baptismchristb</a></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p><style>@font-face
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mso-endnote-numbering-style:arabic;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-36696843723741681862024-01-07T14:24:00.001-04:002024-01-07T14:24:33.502-04:00"God is Still Speaking" (sermon)<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday January 7, 2024 (Epiphany Sunday)<br />
Scripture – <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A1-12&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Matthew 2:1-12</a><br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
Last year, in the season of Lent, we started sharing our God Sightings at the
beginning of our worship services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
theme during Lent last year was encountering Jesus – we read stories from the
bible each week about people who had a life-changing encounter with Jesus; we
gathered on Wednesday evenings for a time of meditation where we might
encounter the still small voice of God in the silence; and at the start of each
worship service, we started sharing with each other the times in the week when
we had noticed God at work in the world, or when we were especially aware of
God’s presence.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And then when we came to the end of
Lent, we had a conversation at Session about how much people appreciated this
opportunity to share, and so we have continued with this practice in the months
since.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And from my perspective at least,
it has been beautiful to see the variety of encounters that have been shared,
and the depths of those encounters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Collectively, we have spotted God moving and working in the world in too
many ways to count.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Occasionally, someone will begin to
share their God Sighting along the lines of, “Well… it’s not really a sighting,
but this is how and when I was aware of God’s presence this week.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s perfectly alright! God
communicates with us through all of our senses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(And maybe we need to come up with a different name for it than “God <i>Sightings</i>”
so that we aren’t privileging one sense over the others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m also trying to be careful not to talk
about God speaking to us, because that might limit God’s voice to only our
sense of hearing!)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God created us with all of our senses;
and God communicates with us through all of our senses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you think just about the sacraments – in
baptism we see and hear the water being poured, and then we feel the water as
it trickles down our forehead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in
communion, we see the bread being broken, we see and hear the wine being
poured, we feel the piece of bread as we hold it in our hands, and we smell and
taste the bread and the juice as we eat it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Through the sacraments, God uses all of our senses to tell us, “I love
you.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And it’s the same with our God
sightings – sometimes we witness with our eyes an act of love so profound that
we know that God is a part of it. Sometimes we hear God speaking through the
voice of another person, nudging us in a new direction. Sometimes we feel the
weight of God’s love when we are feeling sad or anxious and a friend wraps us
in a hug. Sometimes we can smell God’s presence and the fulfilment of hope when
the first rain begins to fall after a dry spell. Sometimes we can taste God’s
presence at a potluck when family and community join together, like at the one
we had last Sunday.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the story that we read at Epiphany,
the story of the wise ones following a star to visit Jesus, we find God
communicating in a couple of different ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The obvious one here is the star – the magi came from the east to
Jerusalem asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For
we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage”; and later
on we read that the star stopped over the place where the child was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The magi were astronomers and astrologers,
people who studied the stars in the night sky, along with the meaning that
those stars brought. They were foreigners, coming from some unnamed country
east of Jerusalem, and wouldn’t have been
followers of the God of the Jewish people, and yet this God chose to speak to
them, to call them using a language that they would understand – the appearance
of a new star in the sky.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And then we read about God
communicating through the religious leaders of Jerusalem – people who had
studied the scriptures, the law and the prophets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When King Herod asks where the Messiah, the
Anointed One, was to be born, they were able to quote the prophet Micah, who
spoke of a leader coming from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. God communicates
and gives direction through the scriptures. </span><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(Now what Herod did with this communication is a sermon for another day!)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And we also see God communicating
through dreams. After the wise ones have offered their gifts of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh to Jesus, they don’t do as Herod had asked them to do,
they don’t return to Jerusalem with directions about how to find the infant
king. Instead, God warns them in a dream that Herod’s intentions are not good,
and they find another route back to their home in the east… one that will
bypass Jerusalem.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God is communicating with the people in
so many different ways in the story, but in order for the message to be heard,
the people have to be alert to perceive God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If those magi hadn’t spent years studying the night sky, if they hadn’t
been diligent in scanning the stars, they wouldn’t have noticed a new star when
it appeared. And later on, if they hadn’t trusted that God might speak through
their dreams, they might have brushed an odd dream off as a bad bowl of lentil
stew before bed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And isn’t it the same with us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we practice being alert to God’s
presence in the world, we are much more likely to notice God’s presence. And so
something like sharing our God sightings every Sunday, or asking ourselves
every night at bedtime, “Where did I notice God today?” – these sorts of
practices exercise our muscles of noticing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And when we are practiced in looking for the presence of the divine
around us, then epiphanies, or Aha moments of insight or recognition… they
become second nature to us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For God is still communicating with us
each and every day – speaking to us, revealing their divine presence to us,
embracing us in love. And may all of our senses be open to perceive this. Amen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSRC-KWziseeiS70jCRnzmKXX4ZCIhJaAiYdBP6OMw4x7s_YwRW0svN-X03yu5-CeK9drTelH9Xc8znDUTLbOoXb59HRdy_t50pFy9g8GtcfxCoIbX5ha4A8_o9kkRupaSxzJmDlVEVf1ncMjnyXXkJhulhkpY-DEAQO2ztx4uAXwetWQd4pnDDhCpbAd5/s3024/20231221_171458.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSRC-KWziseeiS70jCRnzmKXX4ZCIhJaAiYdBP6OMw4x7s_YwRW0svN-X03yu5-CeK9drTelH9Xc8znDUTLbOoXb59HRdy_t50pFy9g8GtcfxCoIbX5ha4A8_o9kkRupaSxzJmDlVEVf1ncMjnyXXkJhulhkpY-DEAQO2ztx4uAXwetWQd4pnDDhCpbAd5/w400-h400/20231221_171458.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Outline of the Magi (and their camel)<br />
from the Live Nativity in December</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;</style><br /></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-91426993146104457482024-01-01T18:26:00.003-04:002024-01-01T18:28:07.148-04:002023 in Books<p><span style="font-family: Gill Sans; font-size: medium;">I've just looked back at <a href="https://katesnextgreatadventure.blogspot.com/2023/01/2022-in-books.html" target="_blank">last year's reading summary</a>, and I'm relieved to announce that this year was a much better reading year. (And I managed to keep my reading spreadsheet up-to-date this year, so there will be some stats at the end of this post!)<br /><br />First up, my favourite reads of the year - not in order of favouritism, but in the order I read them in!<br /><br /><b>Killers of a Certain Age (Deanna Raybourn)</b><br /><br />I have probably recommended this book more than any other this year. Take a group of "women of a certain age" but make them trained killers. And then have them retiring, and trying to avoid being eliminated by their former employer. Such a fun book!<br /><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid23VTaDsOm8sveA0YVEXVsu2nXNGT7un42MSKl3p9hNOdPbOCcwdzeBHgJGDlxzpHhU5HrbKxzsiYz9pN4IZvsLGdzmRGdLESJoIOhnrJpB7e_7fVP7V8-bTcvC_kpKpuX-cMiEKgSPgjZzdVz_E-5PluWp1LtA5V3g-bFINMsVNpYVJUk3tyWxhZYS90/s1500/60149532.jpg" style="font-family: Gill Sans; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid23VTaDsOm8sveA0YVEXVsu2nXNGT7un42MSKl3p9hNOdPbOCcwdzeBHgJGDlxzpHhU5HrbKxzsiYz9pN4IZvsLGdzmRGdLESJoIOhnrJpB7e_7fVP7V8-bTcvC_kpKpuX-cMiEKgSPgjZzdVz_E-5PluWp1LtA5V3g-bFINMsVNpYVJUk3tyWxhZYS90/s320/60149532.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Gill Sans;"><br /><br /><span><b>Fayne (Ann-Marie MacDonald)<br /></b><br />This book was so good that it got its own <a href="https://katesnextgreatadventure.blogspot.com/2023/01/fayne-ann-marie-macdonald-book-review.html" target="_blank">book review blog post</a>. At almost 1000 pages, it still felt too short. Seriously - everyone needs to read this book!<br /><br /></span></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAhNsB-jfGDyz_noycp0pMBvm6426VlrDMQ1X2GNWbhk7Jsq6omG7NvayxT1sTPwfYr3hTZicg59NHVBQkSj5fsCrl167p4FzAI4M_Wz1SodzjYQ58r7tSUxDFQf6B5hEqhLo0JgtFC0Atkh7zvXhp6Lu7EOc1ALDGso26hSG4e3Mm2Q-uThmkN4fechK/s450/Fayne%20Cover.jpg" style="font-family: Gill Sans; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="304" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAhNsB-jfGDyz_noycp0pMBvm6426VlrDMQ1X2GNWbhk7Jsq6omG7NvayxT1sTPwfYr3hTZicg59NHVBQkSj5fsCrl167p4FzAI4M_Wz1SodzjYQ58r7tSUxDFQf6B5hEqhLo0JgtFC0Atkh7zvXhp6Lu7EOc1ALDGso26hSG4e3Mm2Q-uThmkN4fechK/s320/Fayne%20Cover.jpg" width="216" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Gill Sans;"><br /><br /><span><b>Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (Kate Beaton)</b><br /><br />I loved Beaton's earlier works/comics, and this was a full-length graphic novel. I read it just before it was a contestant on Canada Reads, and I was cheering for it all the way. The images enhanced the story being told, which made it a story that couldn't have been told as well in any other way. And it is a story that has stuck with me in the months since I read it.<br /><br /></span></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85ZwxZS53n8O-o6sycmUczY0ANlqmMvOf2-TS7JIyHM5WPUfvfF1_pZymLaYmdoYwK53jjW5IUuaqt1qTfAR30iQAZVqz7P7dM8C3nzigrJ3baKpbfMFsS1aqnKJLsfUpLIX0Z6u5d3R1NDWV5KWgZcYDvHXigHSrBdMFPIekWrIQoteBqgAydKjN7D7E/s1024/59069071.jpg" style="font-family: Gill Sans; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="711" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85ZwxZS53n8O-o6sycmUczY0ANlqmMvOf2-TS7JIyHM5WPUfvfF1_pZymLaYmdoYwK53jjW5IUuaqt1qTfAR30iQAZVqz7P7dM8C3nzigrJ3baKpbfMFsS1aqnKJLsfUpLIX0Z6u5d3R1NDWV5KWgZcYDvHXigHSrBdMFPIekWrIQoteBqgAydKjN7D7E/s320/59069071.jpg" width="222" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Gill Sans;"><br /><br /><span><b>The Book of Longings (Sue Monk Kidd)</b><br /><br />Another book that made me look at the world differently. An imagined story of Jesus's life (sacred imagination being one of the things that I like to draw on when preaching), this is the story told from the perspective of Jesus's wife.<br /><br /></span></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGHhAcAxfLdbEeYbq38VgjegXJijGgQdCAmlJDLjTsHiwKhUAyyKi8n20_r01gsv06eXL3kqpl8Vx2JLKqXuFTwP_iOmJy-I3PGfpabNEZwCutBV9TLUQEu_V7vqB9xoyOhksWT0fDXg0nRFulTQk81pNNFyZRnNoNwCEUeObz-Za5wBRMdzfEJnD4aR_f/s450/52698452.jpg" style="font-family: Gill Sans; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="296" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGHhAcAxfLdbEeYbq38VgjegXJijGgQdCAmlJDLjTsHiwKhUAyyKi8n20_r01gsv06eXL3kqpl8Vx2JLKqXuFTwP_iOmJy-I3PGfpabNEZwCutBV9TLUQEu_V7vqB9xoyOhksWT0fDXg0nRFulTQk81pNNFyZRnNoNwCEUeObz-Za5wBRMdzfEJnD4aR_f/s320/52698452.jpg" width="210" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Gill Sans;"><br /><br /><span><b>Care Of (Ivan Coyote)</b><br /><br />This is a book mostly of letters that the author wrote in the early months of the pandemic, responding to letters that they had received (with original letters and the responses shared with permission of the letter writers). Coyote is such a strong writer and storyteller that this book gave me a deep insight into their own mind and heart, as well as capturing the zeitgeist of the early pandemic months.<br /><br /></span></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfw5m-GtwngZssIuGqgISuesUAKpZkylPcqhYgXfYPeIfMvorx_TohmeYfV-nkIke4t3gQgB0obP11ucjTLBNgpJgFKIz_D_5EDMlE6OXcnm7F-h5wpt_nT9VSX-ua3xiKwjLCbYhTG8oNo5W7PDjE-eL9NxqRVwSVgXBN9nYRbm0NYuED39CKmrd1w1rW/s400/55829275.jpg" style="font-family: Gill Sans; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfw5m-GtwngZssIuGqgISuesUAKpZkylPcqhYgXfYPeIfMvorx_TohmeYfV-nkIke4t3gQgB0obP11ucjTLBNgpJgFKIz_D_5EDMlE6OXcnm7F-h5wpt_nT9VSX-ua3xiKwjLCbYhTG8oNo5W7PDjE-eL9NxqRVwSVgXBN9nYRbm0NYuED39CKmrd1w1rW/s320/55829275.jpg" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Gill Sans;"><br /><br /><span><b>Run Towards the Danger (Sarah Polley)</b><br /><br />I listened to this book as an audiobook, read by the author, and loved it - it was very hard to hit the stop button, so I ended up listening to it over just a couple of days. It is a series of long-form essays, each addressing a different challenging situation she has had to face in her life - from stage fright, to scoliosis, to losing her mother, to being assaulted by a well-known former CBC radio host, to being a child TV star. I'm sure that this is a great read, but I think that I got even more out of it by hearing the powerful words in the author's own voice.<br /><br /></span></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihkujMiFiXGDOLdJm7f_RafbwsGgp_WtXvSOeoSD_p1N9ZJNQK778ZqSLTIr4SVhWD1DJDMPifLvzWJ16bS7HpCqB10Qe20KAeibVwUSkU1CCPqXmZPhCNpk9FnpioAQAa4kqhXDEvPEtOgYkgEiguIvk3X27ZoIs6HS2UFc-8Zkkb-AlV_R3iTVOI6zx_/s400/58284103.jpg" style="font-family: Gill Sans; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="265" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihkujMiFiXGDOLdJm7f_RafbwsGgp_WtXvSOeoSD_p1N9ZJNQK778ZqSLTIr4SVhWD1DJDMPifLvzWJ16bS7HpCqB10Qe20KAeibVwUSkU1CCPqXmZPhCNpk9FnpioAQAa4kqhXDEvPEtOgYkgEiguIvk3X27ZoIs6HS2UFc-8Zkkb-AlV_R3iTVOI6zx_/s320/58284103.jpg" width="212" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Gill Sans;"><br /><br /><span><b>Bonus Entry: The Crossing Places (Elly Griffiths)... along with the subsequent books in the series (so far I've read The Janus Stone, The House at Sea's End, and A Room Full of Bones)</b><br /><br />This is a new-to-me mystery series - I was gifted the first two books in a Secret Santa exchange a few years ago, and finally got around to reading them this year (and promptly wondered what had taken me so long). Fortunately I've been able to access the rest of the series through the library, and I've been making my way through them. I still have lots to go! An archeology professor, a police detective, the desolate Norfolk coast, and some well-drawn secondary characters make these books a fun place to visit.<br /></span><br /></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggrd3tK8-9pc0CfpLlAx7rmd5pvw-QukH0U8eOWN36FUQqSXjMQ0MqCvP8_Oy-Lfl-ugaah6Z9_7rXA_JMt3tpP4-6nnqj8zof4ltbDlJ4RScp_XJM7pl7JVn00RSJeD3dHO0EdU-HTQN0bXh1uBXCKBXXaGAGyNZWVEqcjlsjrmrMQVVn6BiMOzpQ8rat/s475/9787054.jpg" style="font-family: Gill Sans; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggrd3tK8-9pc0CfpLlAx7rmd5pvw-QukH0U8eOWN36FUQqSXjMQ0MqCvP8_Oy-Lfl-ugaah6Z9_7rXA_JMt3tpP4-6nnqj8zof4ltbDlJ4RScp_XJM7pl7JVn00RSJeD3dHO0EdU-HTQN0bXh1uBXCKBXXaGAGyNZWVEqcjlsjrmrMQVVn6BiMOzpQ8rat/s320/9787054.jpg" width="212" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Gill Sans;"><br /><br /><span>And now for some stats, because stats are always fun (and if I'm keeping a spreadsheet of my reading, I should be allowed to do something with the data!).<br /><br />Number of Books Read in 2023: 37<br /><br />Fiction: 24<br />Non-Fiction: 13<br /><br />Books I Purchased: 12<br />Library Books: 20<br />Borrowed: 3<br />Gifted: 2<br /><br />Paper Books: 20<br />E-Books: 15<br />Audiobooks: 2<br /><br />Books by Non-White Authors: 7<br />Books by White Authors: 30<br /><br />Books with Racial Diversity: 20<br />Books with an All-White World: 11<br />(The remaining 6 books were non-fiction books with no characters.)<br /><br />Books by LGBTQ+ Authors: 4<br />Non-Queer Authors: 33<br />(To the best of my ability to determine.)<br /><br />Books with Explicitly Queer Characters: 13<br />Books with no Queer Characters: 18<br />(The remaining 6 books were non-fiction books with no characters.)<br /><br />Books by Female Authors: 29<br />Books by Male Authors: 6<br />Books by Non-Binary Authors: 2<br /><br />Books by Canadian Authors: 14<br />Books by non-Canadian Authors: 23<br /><br />And all of the books I read this year, except one, were first-time reads. (My one re-read was Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth.)<br /><br />And that was my 2023 in books! I'm going to re-set my spreadsheet and get ready to track my 2024 reading. I don't set reading goals or targets - my reading tends to go with what I want to read. But if I were to set some aspirations for 2024:<br />- Read 52 books (ie one a week). Since I am going to be on Sabbatical for 3 months, this might be the year that it happens!<br />- Read more queer authors.<br />- Get through some of the books I've already purchased rather than buying new books. (And continuing to support the library!)<br /><br />I wish all of you lots of lovely reading in the year ahead.</span></span></span><br />Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-9356492948852106412023-12-17T14:31:00.000-04:002023-12-17T14:31:13.736-04:00"A Message from God" (sermon)<p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday December 17, 2023 (Fourth Sunday of Advent)<br />
Scripture Reading:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201%3A5-20&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Luke 1:5-20</a><br />
</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br />
(This year, our Advent theme is focused on midwifery and birth. Each week, we
will hear the story from the bible of someone who was a midwife, or who
encountered a midwife. The waiting, the longing, the pain of the “not yet” –
all of our Advent themes – are captured in the metaphor of a midwife, in the
metaphor of birth.)</span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">My name is
Zechariah, of the tribe of Levi, a descendant of Aaron, and a priest in the
eighth division of Abijah. My wife, Elizabeth, is also a descendant of Aaron,
and I suspect that she would be an even better priest than I am, except that
our laws forbid women from entering the most holy parts of the temple where
God-whose-name-is-holy resides.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We were
married when we were very young, and we grew up together and we grew old
together. When we were first married, we assumed that we would have a large
family just like most of our neighbours, but as the years passed, that dream
slowly faded.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Elizabeth was
heart-broken. She told me that she felt as though she had failed at the most
important thing that she was supposed to do. My heart broke to see her heart
broken. I told her that I wasn’t angry with her, that it didn’t matter. I told
her that God-whose-name-is-holy is mysterious, beyond our ability to
comprehend, and that we might never understand why we hadn’t been given the
gift of children.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We were
determined not to let our grief drive us apart, and instead we let our shared
grief bring us closer together.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am speaking
to you today, but there was a time – nine months to be precise – when I wasn’t
able to speak. It began when I was serving in the temple in Jerusalem, and it
was my turn to enter the holy of holies where God-whose-name-is-holy resides. I
had been in there before, and it was always an honour, but this day was
different.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Even though
the events of that day are burned into my memory, it is hard for me to put
words to what I experienced. I remember that the room was filled with flames
and feathered wings and it felt like there were eyes in every corner of the
space, watching me, and something was spinning that made me feel dizzy to look.
I knew that it must be an angel, a messenger from God-whose-name-is-holy, and I
felt terrified. I was sure that I was going to die, right there in the holy of
holies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And then I
could sense this being speaking to me, though I’m sure that it wasn’t with
human words. I was told, “Don’t be afraid.” As if I could leave my terror
behind at the door! But maybe I felt a little less afraid, for I was able to
work out the next part of the message, telling me that Elizabeth and I were
going to have a son, and that he will be named John, and that he will go about
the world, pointing all people towards God.<br />
<br />
Now I know that angels are messengers of God-whose-name-is-holy, so I knew that
this message must come from God-whose-name-is-holy, but still. I also know that
according to the way of women, Elizabeth was at least 10 years past this being
possible. We would have welcomed this news when we were young, but now that we
are old, it felt cruel to taunt us with this.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But when I
told the angel that I didn’t believe the message, these were the last words I
spoke for 9 months. The angel told me that because I didn’t believe the good
news, I wouldn’t be able to speak again until the good news was fulfilled.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And when I
left the holy of holies, as hard as I tried, I wasn’t able to speak a single
word.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I went home
to Elizabeth. I told you earlier that she would probably make a better priest
that I am… well, she had no difficulty believing what the angel had told me.
Using the unspoken language that grows between people who are friends as well
as spouses, I was able to tell her about the angel’s visit, and a few weeks
later when she suspected that she was carrying a new life within her, she
didn’t seem surprised at all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We kept
mostly to ourselves through the months of her pregnancy. I was ashamed that my
voice had been taken from me due to my lack of faith, and Elizabeth was content
to stay at home where it was just the two of us. Her kinswoman Mary paid her a
visit, and I let the two of them spend time alone together, but for the rest of
those 9 months, it was mostly just Elizabeth and me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">When the time
came for our baby to be born, I was just as terrified as I had been in the
presence of the angel. I know that even young women can die when delivering
babies. I didn’t know what I would do if I lost Elizabeth. I ran out to find
our village’s midwife, and even though I couldn’t speak, I was able to
communicate what was happening… though I suspect that she already knew what was
happening when I showed up at her door!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The midwife
came back with me to our house, then sent me out of the house to wait for it
all to be over. I believe that most men go share a drink with friends while
they are waiting, but I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t abandon Elizabeth after
all that we’d been through together. And so I sat down on the ground outside of
our house to wait. And wait. And wait.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It's hard to
wait for something that you long for and dread in equal measure. And I didn’t
know how long the waiting was going to be. And even though the angel had told
me that this child is going to be important to God, I still didn’t fully trust
the angel’s message, and I was terrified that I was going to lose both
Elizabeth and our baby.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I could hear
Elizabeth’s cries inside the house through those long hours of waiting. The
midwife sent her apprentice out a couple of times to fetch things – water,
herbs, clean linens.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And just when
I thought that I couldn’t wait any longer, I heard Elizabeth give a loud cry,
and then there was silence. And then I heard the most beautiful sound in the
world – the cry of a newborn baby. And then I heard the voices of the midwife
and her apprentice, and yes, Elizabeth’s voice too, singing a song of praise,
and I knew that everything was going to be OK.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I wasn’t able
to speak right away. I was able to hold my son, and look at his face and his
perfect fingers and his tiny toes, but he wasn’t able to hear my voice at
first. On the eighth day, according to our custom, he was circumcised, and
Elizabeth insisted that his name was John. Our family tried to dissuade her,
telling her that there was no one named John in either of our families, and
wouldn’t she rather he be named Zechariah after his father? But she insisted,
and then I found a writing tablet, and I wrote on it, “Elizabeth is correct.
His name is John.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And in that
moment, once all that the angel had told me had come true, my tongue was
released and I was able to speak and sing and praise God-whose-name-is-holy!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am not a
prophet. I had never before been given a God’s-eye vision of the world. But
that day I was given a glimpse of God’s plan for the world. I spoke to all the
people gathered, saying “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked
favourably on his people, and has redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty
saviour for us in the house of his servant David.” And then I spoke to my
child, to John, saying “You, child, will be called the prophet of the Most
High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of
salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Because we
are old now, I don’t know if Elizabeth and I will live to see the day when our
son will prepare the way for God-whose-name-is-holy, but what we will do is
raise him to know, to love, and to revere God-whose-name-is-holy, so that he
can do his part to do whatever God-whose-name-is-holy calls him to do.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And isn’t
that all that any of us can do; to serve God-whose-name-is-holy with whatever
gifts we have been given?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjud-IcNbc2LnRU4QrqNz1R-jbBOU6u9e3VerowSIsb_eR7Nx7dr2cxYOrMNqVr-0cA8hG1n5dxqkfuoh9-p6R616IuNbkru2Y_WhEn-1mSwVNJg-PJd8n_qSbUJ7zDPdIpOQzb_FahkJo_pacw-pyvmeAo0CkH7DHWsL68kMigZGarkvyxBre-xr_0pww6/s1920/angel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjud-IcNbc2LnRU4QrqNz1R-jbBOU6u9e3VerowSIsb_eR7Nx7dr2cxYOrMNqVr-0cA8hG1n5dxqkfuoh9-p6R616IuNbkru2Y_WhEn-1mSwVNJg-PJd8n_qSbUJ7zDPdIpOQzb_FahkJo_pacw-pyvmeAo0CkH7DHWsL68kMigZGarkvyxBre-xr_0pww6/w400-h400/angel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Angels probably don’t look the way<br />
the way they are usually portrayed!<br />
After all, every angel begins their message with<br />
“Do not be afraid!”<br />
(Try searching Google for images of<br />
“biblically accurate angels” – this was<br />
one of the less-disturbing images I encountered!)</span></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-73629746756583833062023-12-10T14:53:00.000-04:002023-12-10T14:53:10.724-04:00"A Midwifing God" (sermon)<p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday December 10, 2023 (Third Sunday of Advent)<br />
Scripture Reading:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+46%3A3-11&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Isaiah 46:3-11</a><br />
</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br />
(This year, our Advent theme is focused on midwifery and birth. Each week, we
will hear the story from the bible of someone who was a midwife, or who
encountered a midwife. The waiting, the longing, the pain of the “not yet” –
all of our Advent themes – are captured in the metaphor of a midwife, in the
metaphor of birth.)</span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I wrote those
words that you just heard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you
surprised?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect that you expected
me to be a man talking to you, but I am a woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am a woman from the tribe of Levi, a
descendant of Israel, though I was born in the foreign land of Babylon.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I’ve taken a
look through that book that you have named Isaiah, and it made me laugh. The
first part was so clearly written by someone when our people were still living
in Jerusalem, before we were taken into exile in Babylon. But then I recognized
my own words, written in Babylon, in the middle part of the book. And the words
at the end – they seem to have come from a time after I died, as I don’t
recognize any of them. And yet your scholars have lumped us all together and
named us Isaiah.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am a
prophet, and the daughter of a prophet. When my parents were only just married,
the Babylonian army put their city of Jerusalem under siege, and eventually
destroyed it. Because my father was a prophet, they weren’t allowed to remain
there in the rubble, but instead they were carried off to Babylon along with
all of the other people with power and prestige.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">My father
told me about those early years in exile – the years when I was too young to
remember for myself. All of the people who had been carried away were in deep
grief. They had seen their homes destroyed and their city destroyed. They had
witnessed the deaths of their family members and friends and neighbours. They
had even witnessed the destruction of the temple at the heart of the city – the
temple that was the home of our God-whose-name-is-holy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And now that
they were living in exile, they didn’t even have a place to go to pray. And my
father said that the deepest grief of all was that they were separated from
God-whose-name-is-holy who lived in Jerusalem. My parents used to sing me the
songs of those early years of exile:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>By the rivers of Babylon –</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>there we sat down and there we
wept</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>when we remembered Zion.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>On the willow’s there</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>we hung up our harps.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For there our captors asked us for
songs,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>and our tormentors asked for mirth,
saying,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>“Sing us one of the songs of
Zion.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>How could we sing the Lord’s song in a
foreign land?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">How </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">can</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> we sing the Lord’s song in a
foreign land, when the Lord our God is buried under the rubble in Jerusalem?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am the
youngest child of my parents, yet I am the only child who inherited the gift of
prophesy from our father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t
remember a time when I wasn’t aware of the presence of God-whose-name-is-holy
within me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">My father
tells me that I, and the other prophets of my generation, were important to the
elders in exile. At first, they weren’t able to sense God’s presence there in a
foreign land. The voice of grief drowned out the voice of God-whose-name-is-holy.
But then they were able to hear my voice, and the voices of the prophets who
hadn’t known Jerusalem. They heard how God-whose-name-is-holy was still
speaking to us. And all of the people began to realize that
God-whose-name-is-holy wasn’t limited to the pile of rubble that had been the
temple, but that God-whose-name-is-holy is with us wherever we are.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The message
that I and the other prophets began to receive was that our people were going
to eventually be able to return to Jerusalem. God-whose-name-is-holy was going
to make the mountains bow low and the valleys rise up so that our pathway
through the desert would be smooth. God-whose-name-is-holy was going to give us
wings like eagles so that we would be able to soar over the miles that
separated us from the place that we call home. We would run and not grow weary;
we would walk and not feel faint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God-whose-name-is-holy
was going to usher us into new life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">God-whose-name-is-holy
was going to be like a midwife for our people, birthing us from a life in exile
to a new life back in the Promised Land. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Which is why
you shouldn’t be surprised that I am a woman. This image of
God-whose-name-is-holy as a midwife, it is much more likely to be given to a
woman who has known the pain of childbirth than to a man who has only witnessed
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet God-whose-name-is-holy is
very much like a midwife, accompanying her people through a time of pain and
danger, encouraging her people, and keeping us safe, until the danger has
passed and new life is here.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And I don’t
think that my voice is the only female voice in scriptures, even when our names
have been concealed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you look
closely, you will be able to find us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some of the psalms that our people sing – words that are attributed to
our ancestor, King David, they speak of God delivering us from our mother’s
womb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So many of
the other prophets speak of God-whose-name-is-holy delivering us to safety as a
warrior does; it’s good to balance out this image of a Warrior-God with the
image of God-whose-name-is-holy delivering us to safety as a midwife does.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And just as
there is rejoicing when a midwife has safely delivered a baby, there will be
rejoicing when God-whose-name-is-holy has safely delivered us back to
Jerusalem. There will be rejoicing and celebration and joy and singing and
dancing beyond imagination when that day comes. For the pain of labour is only
temporary, and God-the-Midwife is delivering us from our pain and from our
suffering.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And then,
won’t you rejoice with me?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZZdzC-ogVzZgBo3uxo7336gHOCxSvE_oBjmCpjPKalo9ypwPtgkOjsVRTI-cDYTsAzADEqWxsQvNcJjN9dzUmMukMIxX6cI7c_5-LG6LDH3kKHrgYULcV-wPxcfYJOSV8vj-mWtv5o6bu2jBjeEEMyj_TIqjPPvfgJ9yvkqdLKHem7RXcn8zIWyLSnBj9/s3872/15766615470_91ccb17e0f_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2592" data-original-width="3872" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZZdzC-ogVzZgBo3uxo7336gHOCxSvE_oBjmCpjPKalo9ypwPtgkOjsVRTI-cDYTsAzADEqWxsQvNcJjN9dzUmMukMIxX6cI7c_5-LG6LDH3kKHrgYULcV-wPxcfYJOSV8vj-mWtv5o6bu2jBjeEEMyj_TIqjPPvfgJ9yvkqdLKHem7RXcn8zIWyLSnBj9/w400-h268/15766615470_91ccb17e0f_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">What “tools” would a Midwifing-God
use</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">to deliver us from our pain and
suffering?<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://flic.kr/p/q2f2tL" target="_blank">Image Credit: Direct Relief onflickr; used with permission</a></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-72999147460329347472023-12-03T15:28:00.001-04:002023-12-03T15:28:58.917-04:00"Peace Be With You" (sermon)<p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday November 26, 2023 (First Sunday of Advent)<br />
Scripture Reading:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2035%3A16-21&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Genesis 35:16-21<br /></a>
<br />
</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(This year,
our Advent theme is focused on midwifery and birth. Each week, we will hear the
story from the bible of someone who was a midwife, or who encountered a
midwife. The waiting, the longing, the pain of the “not yet” – all of our
Advent themes – are captured in the metaphor of a midwife, in the metaphor of
birth.)</span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">My name is
Miriam, and I am a midwife in the town of Ephrath, also known as Bethlehem. I was
the first-born of 8 children, and when I was a child, I watched the midwife
come to our house again and again to deliver my younger siblings. When I was
just 6 years old, I began to assist her, fetching her water and clean cloths.
She told me about the herbs that she was using, and she had me hold my mother’s
hands as my mother strained and pushed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">When my 9<sup>th</sup>
sibling was being born though, my mother died, along with the baby. The midwife
cried as she bundled up the wee body and covered my mother’s face with a
blanket. I was only 13 years old at that point. My father didn’t know what to
do with all of us, and he talked about finding a husband for me, so that I
would be one less child he had to worry about.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But then the
midwife came and spoke to him, and offered to take me on as an apprentice. She
would put a roof over my head, and put food in my belly, and teach me
everything that she knew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew right
away that I didn’t want to get married. I had seen what had happened to my
mother, and I didn’t want babies of my own. But instead, I wanted to learn how
to help other women and keep them and their babies safe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And I did
learn all this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned the rhythm of
labour, how it ebbs and flows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned
how to use different herbs to lessen the pain, to speed up the labour, to slow
down the labour, to stop the blood flow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I learned how to feel the baby in its mother’s womb, and how to use the
pressure of my hands to change the position of the baby. I learned what prayers
to pray to help a mother through the birth. I learned how to deliver the
afterbirth, how to cut the cord, how to clean up after the messiness of birth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I still
remember the first time that a mother named her child after me. It had been a
long labour, more than a day, but when her baby was safely lying on her chest,
the mother smiled at me and told me that she was going to name her Miriam, so
that she would never forget how I had helped.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I’m now an
old woman. I’ve been working for many years now, and I have started to deliver
the children of the babies I delivered when I first started out. The midwife
who taught me died last year, but before she did, she told me that my skills
were even greater than hers. The student has surpassed the teacher.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Last night
was one of the hardest nights I’ve had to face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I had been called out a day and a half earlier to attend a birth at a
caravan that was passing through Ephrath. The woman’s name was Rachel, and her
husband was Jacob.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve seen some
strange families in my time, but I have to say that this was one of the
stranger ones. Rachel was Jacob’s favourite wife, but her sister Leah was his
first wife and the one with precedence in the family. Jacob had 12 children so
far – 11 boys and 1 girl. Leah, the first wife, had born 7 of the children.
Rachel, the favourite wife, had only born 1 son so far. I’ve you’re doing the
math so far, you know that there are 4 children left – two of them had been
born by Bilhah, the slave who belonged to Rachel; and the other 2 had been born
by Zilpah, the slave who belonged to Leah.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We had many
hours to talk, Rachel and I, as she laboured through the long days and
nights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the things that we do as
midwives, the first time we meet a woman, is to find out her history of
childbearing. Rachel told me that childbearing didn’t come as easily to her as
it did to Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even
though she was the favourite wife, she hadn’t conceived a child for many, many
years of marriage, and her heart broke every time she saw the birth of another
child to her husband.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">She also
shared with me, as she rested between the contractions, that when her first
son, Joseph, had been born, it hadn’t been an easy passage for either of them.
It had been another long and difficult labour, and when he was born, she felt
as though she was being ripped in two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It had taken her weeks before she was able to get out of bed and move
around her tent, and months before she was able to care for her new baby on her
own.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This labour
was also a slow one. I could see her energy waning as she entered the second
night of labour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t know if she
was going to have the strength to push out this child when the time came. I
kept talking to her, and encouraging her, and giving her cups of tea that would
hopefully keep the labour moving forward.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And finally
it was time for her to push. The pushes were weak at first, but then her body
seemed to remember what to do, and the pushes became stronger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, there was a rush of fluid and blood,
and I caught this tiny baby before he could land on the straw that had been
laid out. He was blue at first, but I knew what to do. I rubbed his little back
until he let out a cry, and then I wrapped him in a cloth and laid him on his
mother’s chest so that he could feel her breathing, in and out, in and out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Poor Rachel
was exhausted, and she kept slipping in and out of sleep. I sat back to wait
for the afterbirth, and I knew that I might need to wait a while after such a
long and exhausting labour. There was no hurry to cut the cord until the
afterbirth was delivered.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But then
everything seemed to happen all at once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rachel gave a loud shriek which, of course, started the baby to cry. And
then there was blood. So much blood, coming fast and bright red.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I kept my
voice calm, and I told Rachel that she had to nurse this new baby of hers. She
had to focus all of her attention on this new life that she had just brought
into the world. And she did. After that first shriek, she talked quietly to her
baby, despite the pain and the fear that she must have been feeling.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I tried
putting pressure on her womb. I prayed every prayer that I knew. I gave her a
tea of herbs that might stop the bleeding. But none of them worked this time. I
could see the life fading from her eyes as her blood continued to flow out of
her. The last words that she whispered before falling unconscious were to name
this new child Ben-Oni or “Son of My Sorrow.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It is hard to
tell a husband that his wife has died. I remember how inconsolable my father
had been when my mother and baby sister died. This time, at least, the baby had
survived. I went out of the tent to search for Jacob, and found him sitting
right outside. He had heard everything, and he had already guessed what had
happened. I watched the tears stream down his face when he heard that his
beloved Rachel was gone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But then I
was able to tell him that his son was still alive, and the most incredible
peace seemed to pass through his body. I’m amazed at how, at a time of such
deep grief, peace can still be given as a gift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I placed his son in his arms, and told him that Rachel had named him
Ben-Oni. Jacob said no – this child wasn’t going to carry the name of grief,
and instead he was going to be called Benjamin, or Son of My Right Hand.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Rachel is
going to be buried here, outside of the walls of Bethlehem, near the tent where
she had died. And yet her son lives, and the cycle of life continues.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I pray that
the peace that was given to Jacob that day might be the sort of peace that
lives in all of our hearts – a peace that endures, no matter the circumstances
that we face. May this peace be yours, today and every day. Amen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BJLP47lTj4ZYldMRktMoZLmy8grDyzKGlYyjhJrLSv1BCXo5TezOQcU22MteeGitfLBSbnwNDCKPkyIoQXcZBP2MjLMk-dZBS_g0Rq5pI-qcWv08ggDWaGejMkQPLczRcGMqUj_lQ1YyCNdC8tnIasBoQfrCz80IH0FuOb30IaS5Oa5NQgSUQOQp2Yg-/s3264/517092530_55756bbf30_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BJLP47lTj4ZYldMRktMoZLmy8grDyzKGlYyjhJrLSv1BCXo5TezOQcU22MteeGitfLBSbnwNDCKPkyIoQXcZBP2MjLMk-dZBS_g0Rq5pI-qcWv08ggDWaGejMkQPLczRcGMqUj_lQ1YyCNdC8tnIasBoQfrCz80IH0FuOb30IaS5Oa5NQgSUQOQp2Yg-/w400-h300/517092530_55756bbf30_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Rachel’s Tomb, just outside
Bethlehem, is now a mosque,</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">and is located near a checkpoint in
the wall that separates</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">the West Bank from Israel. There
are so many layers of irony</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">in this tourism poster near that checkpoint.<br />And yet
the message of peace abides.</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Photo Credit: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/MGeAs" target="_blank">James Emery on flickr</a></span></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-55236777046703170042023-11-26T14:41:00.000-04:002023-11-26T14:41:06.168-04:00"Midwives of the Future" (sermon<p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday November 26, 2023 (First Sunday of Advent)<br />
Scripture Reading:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%201%3A8-22&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Exodus 1:8-22</a><br />
<br />
</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(This year,
our Advent theme is focused on midwifery and birth. Each week, we will hear the
story from the bible of someone who was a midwife, or who encountered a
midwife. The waiting, the longing, the pain of the “not yet” – all of our
Advent themes – are captured in the metaphor of a midwife, in the metaphor of
birth.)</span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">My name is
Shiphrah, daughter of Milcah, granddaughter of Hannah, of the tribe of
Naphtali. Like my mother and my grandmother before me, I am a midwife. When the
time comes for a mother to birth a child, I am sent for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I accompany a woman through the hours or
through the days of labour. I encourage her. I tell her when to push and when
to refrain from pushing. I remind her to continue to draw fresh air into her
body. If needed, I give her the herbs I have learned how to use to speed up her
labour or to stop her bleeding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the
baby comes, I catch the baby. I am the one to place the baby on the mother’s
chest. I catch the afterbirth, I cut the cord, and I wash the baby. The day after
the baby is born, I come to check on the baby and the mother to make sure that
all is well.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Even though I
live in the land of Egypt, I am an Israelite. I am a descendant of Jacob who
was called Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a time of famine,
Israel’s son Joseph was able to bring our people to Egypt under the protection
of the Pharoah so that we would have food in a time of hunger. But now, many
generations later, there is a new Pharoah in Egypt… one who is scared of us…
and he has made all of our people to be slaves.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This new
Pharoah, because he is afraid of us, he treats us poorly. Our men and our women
have to spend their days working in the fields and building the city. If we
ever do anything that displeases an Egyptian, we are punished for it. And
sometimes the punishment is doled out for no reason. It is a scary existence
for us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I work with
my sister Puah. I call her my sister, even though we have no blood
relationship, and yet we have the kinship of the work that we share. The two of
us are busy, as it seems as though every day there are many women delivering
their babies. We have trained apprentices who work with us, but Puah and I are
the lead midwives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We are
respected by the Egyptians more than the other Israelites. I think that they
recognize the universality of birth – that they are only alive today because a
midwife attended their birth. We are generally free to move around the
community unmolested, attending to our business day and night.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Last year
though… last year Puah and I were summoned to appear before Pharoah. Normally
we are confident as we move about the world, but I have to confess that my
knees were trembling that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had no
idea what he wanted from us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I told you
that he was afraid of us, and his fear usually came out as cruelty. That day,
he told us that any time we, or any of the other midwives, delivered a boy
child, we were to kill it at the moment of birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We knew in that moment that we wouldn’t be
able to carry out these orders. As midwives, we are bringers of life, not
bringers of death.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We had to
wait until we were safely away from the palace to discuss what we would do
next, but later that night, Puah and I were able to talk in private.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We knew that disobeying the Pharoah would
likely bring us death, but we also knew that we couldn’t be the ones to bring
death to an innocent baby.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The next
night we called together all of our apprentice midwives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We told them what Pharoah had ordered. And
then we told them to disobey this order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Any midwives who weren’t comfortable disobeying Pharoah were free to
stop midwifing, but those of us who brought life were not permitted to bring
death as well.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Our God is a
god of life, and we serve our God by bringing life. And so we continued in our
work.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Six months
later, the Pharoah noticed that there continued to be baby boys around our
community, and we were summoned to appear before him again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, my knees trembled as we went – surely
he was going to know that we disobeyed him, and I didn’t expect to be able to
leave the palace alive.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This brought
us to our next risk:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we lied to the
Pharoah. We told a lie to the person who had the power to have us killed on the
spot, and we told him that the Israelite women were stronger than the Egyptian
women, and that they had stopped calling the midwife to attend their labour. We
told Pharoah that we were willing to carry out his orders, but that we no
longer had the opportunity to do so.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And he
believed us. He must not have believed that our women were fully human; he must
not have believed that our women felt pain and fear as they laboured and as
they delivered; he must have thought that our women dropped their babies in the
field, like a horse or a cow. He didn’t believe that our women needed the
support of a midwife.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And so we
were free to go, but instead, Pharoah ordered his soldiers to kill all of the
male babies of our people. His reign of fear continues.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Three months
ago though, I delivered a beautiful baby boy to Jochebed of the tribe of Levi.
She already had two beautiful children – Miriam was 9 and Aaron was just 6. Now
Jochebed is determined to keep her newest baby alive. She has hidden him away
in her house, and she nurses him any time he threatens to make a fuss. He is
growing well, but now it is getting harder for her to keep him hidden away.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">She has made
a basket for him, and has made it waterproof, and she tells me that she is
going to float him in his basket down the river. He may be eaten by a
crocodile, but the uncertainty of that end is better than the certain death her
baby will face if he is discovered.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">People say
that I am courageous, to disobey Pharoah the way that I have; but me, I look to
Jochebed when I need hope. She trusts that this baby of hers has a future, and
because she trusts in his future, she is willing to take these risks. We may be
slaves now, but Jochebed trusts that one day we won’t be; and she is going to
do everything that she can to keep Miriam and Aaron, and now wee baby Moses
alive so that they can witness the birth of this future; so that maybe they can
be midwives of this future that will be theirs.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">May God give
us all the hope of Jochebed. And may we be midwives too, bringing life to this
future that is ours. Amen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAdgRPmgum7uy9JEJlCvy22u3frSAEP7m8Fyb9kf6FOydwHqcFDt03H4y8aFrwD7GAS2MtMozeqx8ygZWH0nqP3X0y_fDi-1NKlkXSRoi6Dv1hjyiWraReaJ9m_KfY1GumEr2c5r22FNBUx4jAHpzhXkp70nldH8Daxiz3HxQyinv-efrCSBVbAcuQ6uNk/s1024/Dura_Europos672722-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="1024" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAdgRPmgum7uy9JEJlCvy22u3frSAEP7m8Fyb9kf6FOydwHqcFDt03H4y8aFrwD7GAS2MtMozeqx8ygZWH0nqP3X0y_fDi-1NKlkXSRoi6Dv1hjyiWraReaJ9m_KfY1GumEr2c5r22FNBUx4jAHpzhXkp70nldH8Daxiz3HxQyinv-efrCSBVbAcuQ6uNk/w400-h249/Dura_Europos672722-large.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Shiphrah, Puah, Jocheved, Miriam,</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pharoah’s Daughter, and the Infant
Moses”</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Mural from the Dura-Europos Synagogue,
ca. 245</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><a href=" https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55961" target="_blank">Used with Permission.</a></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-65085557271161965542023-11-19T15:16:00.000-04:002023-11-19T15:16:14.132-04:00"Still, We Hope" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />Sunday November 19, 2023 (Reign of
Christ)<br />Scripture:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+25%3A31-46&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Matthew 25:31-46</a></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As I mentioned earlier, the Christmas
letter is at the back of the church for you to pick up on your way out if you
haven’t picked it up already. I wrote this letter back in October, because
Elaine needed to print it for me to sign before I went on vacation. (I told
this story to the Official Board on Wednesday night, so my apologies to you if
you have heard it before.) So I wrote the letter and sent it off to Elaine, but
then the next time we were both at the church at the same time, she summoned me
into her office. She sat me down and gave me my letter to read. A couple of
minutes later she asked if I was done yet, and I said “almost.” She asked how I
was feeling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Fine…” Apparently I wasn’t
fine, and that first letter I had written was far too gloomy to be sent out as
a Christmas letter.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Because I trust Elaine’s judgement, I
re-wrote the Christmas letter the next day; with thanks to the Summerville
quilters who offered to be my test audience – they approved version 2, which I was
then able to send to Elaine who also approved version 2 and printed it so that
I could sign 300 copies of it before going on vacation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The challenge with writing the
Christmas letter this year is that the world feels so full of doom and gloom at
the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I was writing that first
version of the letter, the fighting in Gaza was intense… well, I guess it’s
still pretty intense… it was the day that the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine
had happened; Covid infection rates were surging; and my list could go on and
on and on. Poverty is increasing as inflation increases. This time of year
brings longer nights and shorter days.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With all of this going on, it was
really hard to write a cheerful Christmas letter this year!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Don’t get me wrong – the underlying
message of that first letter was exactly the same as the message of the one
that was printed, but apparently I spent too long in the first draft expanding
on the woes of the world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The message of both drafts of this
year’s letter is that we, as the church, are in the “Business of Hope.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We, as the church, trust that the grief and
the pain and the fear of the right now isn’t the end of the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We trust that God dreams of a world that is
radically transformed, so that all of the grief has become love, so that all of
the pain has become joy, so that all of the fear has become peace.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And we trust that this dream, that this
vision of God will one day be the <b><i>only</i></b> reality.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which brings us to today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today is the day when we celebrate the Reign
of Christ, or Christ the King Sunday. It is the last Sunday of the church year
– next week when we enter the season of Advent, we will begin a new year. As we
move through the church year, we travel through Jesus’s life story – from the
anticipation of his birth, to the birth itself, stories of his teachings and
his actions, the story of the last week of his life, his crucifixion and death,
and his resurrection. We read stories about the very early church, from its
origins at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to the disciples in force.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And today – this last Sunday of the church
year – this is a day dedicated to looking forward in time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today we look forward to that time that will
come when God’s dream for the world will be complete, will be fulfilled, will
be perfected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we trust that this
transformed world is going to come some day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As we said in our Prayer of Awareness
today, we tend to want the “not yet” to be the “right now.” We want all wars to
end right now. We want all poverty to end right now. We want all grief and
suffering to end right now. We want the transformation of the world that began
with the birth of Jesus to reach completion right now. It’s hard to be patient.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But because we trust that this
transformation has begun, that the transformation began when God took on flesh
and blood in the person of Jesus; and because we trust that the transformation
of the world will some day reach completion, we can keep going, one step at a
time.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I heard an <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-63-the-current/clip/16023145-peace-activists-remember-vivian-silver" target="_blank">interview earlier this week on CBC radio</a> with two women, one Palestinian and one Israeli, both actively
working towards peace by building relationships, one person at a time. When the
interviewer asked how they avoided becoming despondent, one of them replied,
“we have to hope.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We have to cling to hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without hope, we would be paralyzed by
despair. But because we have hope, we keep on going, one step at a time, one
loving act at a time.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In today’s bible reading, we heard
Jesus’s very last public teaching before his crucifixion. He has some private
teaching time with his disciples after this, but this is his last public
teaching. And in this teaching, what does he say?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says, in a fairly direct way (and we all
know how Jesus can sometimes talk in circles, but this time his instructions
are pretty concrete):<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>feed anyone who is
hungry; give water to anyone who is thirsty; welcome strangers; give clothing
to anyone who needs it; care for anyone who is sick; and visit people in
prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And why should we do all of
this? Because whenever we do this to another person, we are doing it to Jesus
himself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If Jesus were giving us concrete
instructions in 2023, what might he say to us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“For I was being bombed, and you cried out for peace. For I was a
transgender student and you advocated for my rights and gave me a safe space.
For I was a child in a refugee camp, and <a href="https://united-church.ca/stories/kindergarten-refugee-camp" target="_blank">you supported my schooling by donating
to Mission & Service</a>. Truly I tell you, just as you have done it for one of
the least of these siblings of mine, you have done it for me.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sometimes when we read stories from the
bible, a good question to ask ourselves is “where to I see myself in this
story?” but with this story, an even better question might be to ask, “where do
I see Jesus in this story?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus is the one sitting on the seat of
judgement, separating the sheep from the lambs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus is also present in anyone who is hungry, in anyone who is thirsty,
in anyone without clothing, in anyone who is sick, in anyone who is in prison.
In other words, Jesus is present in anyone who is vulnerable or marginalized.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But I also think that Jesus is present
in the helpers in the story as well – Jesus is present in the ones giving food
and water and clothing, Jesus is present in people who care for the sick and
visit the incarcerated. Because when we, as the church, do these things, we are
able to do them because we are the Body of Christ, carrying out God’s mission
in the world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which brings us back to where we
started.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We serve the vulnerable people
in the world because the Holy Spirit is transforming us into the Body of
Christ. And we keep on serving, even in the pain of this world, because we know
that the world as it is right now isn’t the world that God dreams of. And we
keep on serving, without falling into despair and despondency, because we have
hope, because we trust, because we are confident that the world will eventually
change.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We as the church – we are in the
business of hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything that we do
as the church should proclaim this hope to the world, especially in times like
right now.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And when my hope falters, I know that
your hope will carry me through. And if your hope falters, I pray that my hope
might carry you through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And together we
hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, we hope.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Amen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIltk5EvlGOgvL81nFbyJQX5cUhBmJj3McvUnH3YSJtQbSkFmCGP0Z-TmlIS0CGRLEbnLz_E1cwxNUZmzmWEbGSs7T_Ir6Nx6ysuZZuqGwdil5aZQTjOht9OlMIgko6m2J3XaqYnoJdoj_E1GIk-N4i-WNaEvepMHWAhsBLiR-uChuStysMuT88t-dEjDB/s3024/20231101_161741.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIltk5EvlGOgvL81nFbyJQX5cUhBmJj3McvUnH3YSJtQbSkFmCGP0Z-TmlIS0CGRLEbnLz_E1cwxNUZmzmWEbGSs7T_Ir6Nx6ysuZZuqGwdil5aZQTjOht9OlMIgko6m2J3XaqYnoJdoj_E1GIk-N4i-WNaEvepMHWAhsBLiR-uChuStysMuT88t-dEjDB/w400-h400/20231101_161741.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Signing Those (Revised) Christmas Letters</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(With Help from my Favourite Christmas Movie)</span></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-52667509819337819762023-11-05T13:26:00.000-04:002023-11-05T13:26:16.550-04:00"Outer Practices for Inner Chage" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday November 5, 2023<br />
Scripture:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2023%3A1-12&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Matthew 23:1-12</a><br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
Reading this part of Jesus’s story, it’s tempting to paint it as a battle
between good and evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re in the last
week of Jesus’s life, and Jesus is in the temple debating with the Pharisees.
Tensions are running high as they engage in this battle of the wits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus has been telling pointed parables
trying to reform the religious systems of his time and place, and then the Pharisees,
Sadducees, and Herodians ask Jesus a series of trick questions trying to trap
him with heresy but Jesus manages to answer back to all of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then we come to what we heard today –
Jesus calling out the Pharisees for hypocrisy – for not practicing what they
preach, for accepting the honour that their position brings them, for making
showy displays of faith without any substance or actions to back it up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is very tempting to paint Jesus as the
triumphant hero over the evil Pharisees.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And yet instead of a battle between
opposing forces, this story might be better understood as an inter-religious
dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus and the Pharisees have a
different way of living out their faith, but they hold that faith in
common.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An analogy might be to gather a
Roman Catholic with a rosary, a United Church person with a cross pendant, an
Anglican with a communion chalice, and an Evangelical with a bible – all of
them sharing why these symbols help them to live out their faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all have different practices, even as we
share our faith.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus isn’t calling out the Pharisees
for their practices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is nothing
wrong with their practices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
phylacteries are a little box containing a tiny scroll of scripture that is
bound to their forehead, reminding them that God is always present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fringes on their shawls remind them to
pray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are both good things.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What Jesus is calling them out for is
when the symbols or the actions are empty – that they aren’t backed up by inner
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus wants our whole hearts to
be transformed for God… the practices that we use to get there are less
important.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And there are lots of different
practices that we can use to get there. For some people, it is prayer. For
other people, it is studying the bible. For some people, it is quiet meditation
or contemplation. For some people it is through music. There are probably as
many different paths to be in relationship with God as there are people seeking
that relationship!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I do think that we need both practices
to work on our relationship with God as well as an inner re-orientation of our
hearts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>External practices without that
changed heart… well, that’s what Jesus is calling out in today’s reading, with
the group of religious leaders who seem pious on the outside but who lack a
heart for God and for their neighbours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And yet expecting a changed heart to happen out of the blue without
seeking it… that may not happen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We need to seek for a balance – seeking
an internal transformation through our external practices.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m reminded here of one of my
favourite bits from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians when he
writes:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both
to will and to work for his good pleasure.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It may seem like a contradiction – are we the ones working on our
transformation, or is it God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I see
it as a both/and situation. We seek relationship with God, and it is God, by
the Holy Spirit, working in us. And then as we are transformed, we long more
deeply for God, and God deepens our transformation. And so it goes on and on.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So is Jesus telling the Pharisees to
ditch their phylacteries and prayer shawls? No! We need practices to help us
connect with God, and sometimes those practices involve physical objects. But I
think that Jesus is telling them that they need to open themselves up to God’s
transforming power, rather than using these objects to appear more holy than
their neighbour. That’s the hypocrisy that he's calling out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so I invite you to ponder… what
practices do you have in your life that help bring you closer to God? What
practices do you have in your life that empower you to love your neighbours
more deeply? And do you have practices in your life that are “empty” practices
– things that don’t nurture your spiritual life at this time that you can prune
from your life?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And may the Holy Spirit be at work in
all of us, every day, empowering us to love God with all our being, and to love
our neighbours as ourselves. Amen!<br /><br /><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFqaWEXgbof0zxkaxtvQZ4QGuBFX0Ohnk1J30RMiAhQTQesuYsWiHwBRjXE5uTBLGt9VERuwnfDuXAYl3s5g15AlXyi-9gBDXZWOMk2MwneY4Qz93p_bsbFby1zul58b54TnkX1BT_s_SXVT4ku1gJrlBKLJwt8rqKr0DQYjCKtOC6OBksqOW5JJc1n5D7/s2592/2338601656_466c0cf7a6_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1944" data-original-width="2592" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFqaWEXgbof0zxkaxtvQZ4QGuBFX0Ohnk1J30RMiAhQTQesuYsWiHwBRjXE5uTBLGt9VERuwnfDuXAYl3s5g15AlXyi-9gBDXZWOMk2MwneY4Qz93p_bsbFby1zul58b54TnkX1BT_s_SXVT4ku1gJrlBKLJwt8rqKr0DQYjCKtOC6OBksqOW5JJc1n5D7/s320/2338601656_466c0cf7a6_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What practices nurture your relationship with God?<br />
Image Credit:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bartb_pt on Flickr<br />
<a href="https://flic.kr/p/4yDWNd" target="_blank">Used with Permission.</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-46148289744155962182023-10-29T15:30:00.000-03:002023-10-29T15:30:28.991-03:00"Clothed with Christ" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday October 29, 2023<br />
Scripture:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2022%3A34-46&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Matthew 22:34-46</a><br />
<br />
<br />
</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(In our Story for All Ages, we talked
about <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+3%3A27&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Galatians 3:27</a>, and how we are called to “clothe ourselves with Christ” – not like a
Hallowe’en costume for one day but for every day.)</span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I said to a couple of people this week,
that this sermon is one of the harder ones I’ve had to write… not because the
reading from the bible is challenging, but for the opposite reason. This
teaching of Jesus is so core to my beliefs, so central to how I try to live out
my faith, that there really isn’t much more I can say about it. A lawyer asks
Jesus, “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?” and Jesus
replies, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
being, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And
the second is like it: You must love your neighbour as you love yourself. All
the Law and the prophets depend on these two commands.”<b></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Love God. Love your neighbours. Love
yourself. That’s it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I really don’t have
that much more to say about this teaching.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the overall story of Jesus’s life,
this teaching happens almost right at the very end of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re in the middle of Holy Week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple of days ago, Jesus and his disciples
entered Jerusalem in the parade that we remember each year on Palm Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you skip ahead, Matthew tells us that we
are currently two days away from Passover, so this would make it the Tuesday of
Holy Week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are two days away from
Jesus’s arrest, and three days away from Jesus’s death.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tensions are running high.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus has been saying some very pointed
things at the authorities – secular authorities, yes, as they were living under
the oppression of the Roman Empire, but especially pointed towards the
religious authorities who were interpreting God’s laws in less-than generous
ways. That’s why Matthew tells us that the Pharisees were testing Jesus with
this question – maybe they will be able to catch him out on heresy and be able
to punish him on those grounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
alas, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy with the commandment to love God with our
whole selves, and then he quotes from Leviticus with the commandment to love
our neighbours as ourselves – a fairly orthodox answer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I rather suspect that Jesus knew that
the end of his life was drawing closer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He knew that he was provoking the authorities with his teachings, and he
seems pretty determined not to back down, no matter the consequences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so I wonder if he seized this opportunity
to sum up all of his teachings into a small, easy-to-remember package, almost
like a sound bite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Love God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love your neighbour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if you don’t remember anything else I’ve
said, or anything else that I’ve done, remember this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>love God; love your neighbour; love
yourself.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Like I said, this passage is the
foundation of our faith, but it’s a hard one to preach about, since Jesus is
summarizing everything else that he has taught and everything else that he has
done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To expand on this, I would almost
have to go backwards and start re-telling Jesus’s other teachings and telling
the stories about the things that he has done. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d have to go back and repeat Jesus’s
teachings about forgiveness; I’d have to re-tell the stories about the times
Jesus fed a crowd of thousands of hungry people; I’d have to repeat Jesus’s
teachings about sharing generously the things that we have; I’d have to re-tell
the stories about the times that Jesus healed people who were sick and raised
the dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of these things can be
summarized by “love God with your whole being; and love your neighbour as
yourself.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I wonder if I can go back even further
than Jesus’s life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was a Jewish
man living almost 2000 years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
seems to have been very observant of his faith, even when he had a more
generous interpretation of the scriptures than some of the other religious
leaders of his time and place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And these
scriptures that Jesus was steeped in – they would have been what we call the
Old Testament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our Old Testament is the
Jewish bible, which makes it Jesus’s bible as he was Jewish.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And Jesus tells us that all of the law
and all of the prophets – essentially, all of the bible – can be summarized by
“love God with your whole being, and love your neighbour as yourself.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of the laws in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers
and Deuteronomy – they can be summarized here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You find laws about having no other gods other than God, laws about how
to worship God… these are all of the details about how to love God with your
whole being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You find laws about how to
care for orphans and widows and foreigners living your land, laws about how to
provide food for people who are hungry, laws about how business people are to
conduct their business fairly… these are all of the details about how to love
your neighbours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then you have laws
like keeping the Sabbath which I think straddle loving God, loving your
neighbours, and loving yourself all at once.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then when you flip past the books of
the law into the prophets of the Old Testament, what is the eternal cry of the
prophets?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Look at where you’ve strayed
away from God! Look at how you are causing harm to God’s children! Turn back to
God by keeping God’s commands, and by doing justice and kindness to the most
vulnerable among you!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again – love God
and love your neighbours resounds in the voice of the prophets.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So I think that the whole of our bible
today – all of the teachings of the Old Testament which was Jesus’s bible, and
all of the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament – the whole of our bible
today can be summed up in these words of Jesus – love God; love your
neighbours; love yourself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Those of you who attend bible study
know that one of the things that we wrestle with as we read the bible is what
to do when passages seem to contradict each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God says do not kill; God says enter the land
and kill the people you find there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God
says that the people of Moab are evil and shouldn’t be allowed into the temple
for 50 generations; God says, well, maybe I’ll make the great-grandmother of
the person who built the temple come from the land of Moab.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Along a similar vein, we also struggle
when we realize that a story can be interpreted in multiple ways, depending on
the perspective that you bring to a story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What is the right way to interpret the bible?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">These are the sorts of things that we
all have to wrestle with in our faith lives, as we read the stories in the
bible, and as we talk about our faith with others… people who might question us
along the lines of “how can you be a part of a church when the bible says
<insert horrific teaching or story here>.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which brings us back to why this
teaching of Jesus is so important to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are always interpreting the bible as we read it. There is no such
thing as truly neutral reading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
always choosing which teachings to emphasize and which teachings to give less
importance to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are always making
decisions about how we are going to understand the stories… both the stories we
like and the stories that challenge us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are always interpreting the bible as we read it; and it can be very
powerful to recognize the lens or the framework that we are interpreting it
through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for me, when I read the
bible and all of the stories you find in it, I am interpreting it through the
lens of these words of Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. This
is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You must love
your neighbour as you love yourself.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When I come across any other passage –
especially the passages and the stories that challenge me; especially the
teachings that I find off-putting – I ask myself, how can I interpret this
story in a way that loves God and/or loves my neighbour as myself?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For me, this is the lens that I try to
read the bible through; and it’s also the lens that I try to live my life
through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I move through the world, I
try to remember to ask myself, “how is this thing that I’m doing or this thing
that I’m saying love God, love my neighbour, or love myself?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I don’t always succeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I don’t know if I ever succeed very
well at this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I also know that God
forgives me when I stumble, and that I will always be given another chance to
try again, maybe in the very next minute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And I also trust that I’m not doing it alone – I trust that the Holy
Spirit is working in me, working in all of us, transforming us slowly over time
more and more into the image of Christ, so that the work of Christ can be done
through us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And really – isn’t this what it means
to be a Christian?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To follow the path
that Jesus shows to us… to follow the path of loving God with our whole being,
and loving our neighbour as ourselves; while letting the Holy Spirit gradually
transform us into who God created us to be, so that we can more perfectly
reflect the image of Christ to the world around us. To “clothe ourselves with Christ” or “dress
up like Christ” by loving authentically and whole-heartedly, and showing the world the face of Christ.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And may this be so in all of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje1H0zidTy2qs3IGs73HyzvRHO4Sj0TBMXgkfpPunn5tbs_oRHldRgfeUOHOvFybJ3iCuVfrWvmQ83963z1KP3SWvK8bxeQrcv3rn_NVKeWpa64YchC5gO4C7t_qNdpI766vHg_bMFsbqPjAfgBHokwrerYm869OdZdDuwKVE9WRpq78iUFkXLh9QU2W0t/s3024/20231029_143538.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje1H0zidTy2qs3IGs73HyzvRHO4Sj0TBMXgkfpPunn5tbs_oRHldRgfeUOHOvFybJ3iCuVfrWvmQ83963z1KP3SWvK8bxeQrcv3rn_NVKeWpa64YchC5gO4C7t_qNdpI766vHg_bMFsbqPjAfgBHokwrerYm869OdZdDuwKVE9WRpq78iUFkXLh9QU2W0t/w400-h400/20231029_143538.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today was the first of our “Sock it To Me” Sundays,<br />
collecting new warm socks for the clients of the<br />
Romero Van. Each church donated ~100 pairs of new warm<br />
socks. In the Story for All Ages, when I asked what “clothing<br /> ourselves with Christ” or “dressing up like Jesus” might look like,<br />
someone suggested that it looked like collecting socks<br />
to Romero Van.</span></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-57713747159786630502023-10-22T14:40:00.004-03:002023-10-22T14:40:59.496-03:00"What Would You Do with a Million Dollars?" (sermon)<p><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />October 22, 2023 (21st Sunday after Pentecost)<br />Scripture: Luke 22:15-22</b><br /><br /><br /><i>In our "Story for All Ages" times this fall, we have been doing different things with some chocolate coins. Today we pretended that each coin was worth $1Million (or $2Million for the coins shaped like toonies). I asked who wanted a million dollars, and gave the coins out to the congregation; then I asked a couple of questions:<br />- What are you going to do with your million dollars?<br />- What do you think that Jesus would do if he had a coin worth a million dollars?<br />In the church, we say that we are the "Body of Christ" - we have the opportunity to be like Jesus when we decide what we are going to do with the things that we have.<br /></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /><br />This seems like a pretty
straight-forward story, and I could probably make a pretty straight-forward
sermon out of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Give to the Emperor
the things that are the Emperor’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus almost preaches a mini-sermon there for us at
the end of this story.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But did you notice that he doesn’t
really explain what he means by this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
he saying that yes, you should pay your taxes to the Emperor, because taxes are
paid using coins with the Emperor’s image on them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That meaning would make him pretty popular
with half of his questioners, the Herodians, the people who supported King
Herod who was essentially the Emperor’s puppet king in the region; but this
answer wouldn’t make him very popular with the other half of his questioners,
the Pharisees who believed that our full allegiance must belong to God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Or instead, is Jesus saying that we
should pay our taxes because the Emperor is only able to govern because God
ordained the Emperor to govern?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, a
popular answer for his Herodian questioners, and maybe a bit more acceptable to
his Pharisee questioners, because this meaning to Jesus’s answer gives God the
ultimate authority.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Or, instead, is Jesus saying that we
shouldn’t pay our taxes because everything belongs to God including our
coins?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This interpretation would be
popular with the Pharisees, and probably all of the people in the land – no
taxes! – but it is the wrong explanation in the eyes of the Herodians, and an
answer seen as treason and deserving of immediate arrest.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus never clarifies what he means
here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Give to the Emperor the things
that are the Emperor’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it a split allegiance between God and the
earthly ruler with the things of the earth belonging to the Emperor and the
spiritual things belonging to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or is
it all things belonging to God, and the Emperor acting on God’s behalf?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or is it all things belonging to God, full
stop?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus doesn’t clarify.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We are told that this answer amazed his
questioners and they left him alone after that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Were they amazed at his ability to give an answer so ambiguous that all
sides were happy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or were they ashamed
at being called out for possessing a Roman coin in the temple where,
technically, they should only have been carrying temple currency?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Maybe this story isn’t so simple after
all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For me, the interpretation angle that I
tend to fall into is that everything belongs to God, full stop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the coin in the story – it is made of
metal that came from the earth that God created, so the metal in the coin
belongs to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the coin bears the
image of the Emperor, who, in turn, is an image bearer of God; meaning that the
coin bears the image of God on it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Give to God the things that are
God’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What belongs to God? Everything
belongs to God!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of my possessions
come from God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of my skills and my
talents are given to me by God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The air
that I breathe, the water that I drink, the words that I speak, the love that I
experience – all of these come from God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So here comes simple sermon number
2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give to God the things that are
God’s; and since everything comes from God, we owe everything to God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How does that thought make you
feel?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The thought that everything that
you are and everything that you have belongs to God?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To say “All things belong to God” may
be a simple answer; but it is anything but simple when it comes to practicing
it!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To me, it comes back to what we were
talking about in the Story for All Ages this week – how would God want us to
use the gifts that we have been given?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How can we use our gifts in ways that honour God?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All of us, as Canadians, have a certain
amount of material possessions, especially when we look around the world for
comparison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus summarizes all of
God’s commandments into love God with your whole being and love your neighbour
as yourself; and so how can we use our material possessions in a way that loves
God and loves our neighbour?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the greatest gifts we are given
is time – how do we use the time we are given in ways that love God, love our
neighbours, and love ourselves?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The same goes for the talents that all
of us possess (especially evident after our Time and Talent auction on Friday
night!). Same question here – how can we use our talents, whether those talents
be musical or culinary or public speaking or prayer or healing – how can we use
our talents in ways that love God with our whole being, and that love our
neighbours as ourselves?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We all have a certain amount of
societal power, whether that power comes from the colour of our skin, or our
nationality, or our gender, or our sexual orientation, or our class, or the
language we speak, or from who we know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How can we use this power in a way that loves God and that loves our
neighbour?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This question is especially
fresh on my mind this week, having spent some time learning how to use my voice
and my power as a Canadian voter to advocate for change so that there is no
more hunger in the world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What belongs to God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All that we have, and all that we are belongs
to God; and I think that God cares about how we use these things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when we use them in ways that love God and
that love our neighbour… then I think that God is pleased.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Author C. S. Lewis tells a story in his
book <i>Mere Christianity</i> in response to a question about why God could
possibly care about what we do with the resources that we’ve been given – after
all, God is all-powerful, and the Creator of all, while we are merely human.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lewis compares God to a parent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a child comes to their parent and asks for
sixpence in order to buy a gift for that parent, the parent is going to give
them the sixpence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Lewis was British –
maybe we would say that the child asks for a $20 bill to buy the parent a
gift!) The parent is going to give the child the sixpence; and when the child
gives the gift to the parent, is the parent going to say, “Well, that isn’t
much of a gift since it was purchased with my sixpence to begin with”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No – the parent is going to unwrap the gift
with great anticipation, and be delighted with what their child has given to
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everybody knows that the parent is
sixpence none the richer for the exchange, but everyone also knows that the
parent is delighted with what their child has done.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so it is with us and with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we use our material resources; when we
use our time, when we use our skills, when we use our voices in ways that love
God and that love our neighbours, God is delighted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For then we are truly giving to God the
things that are God’s.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And may this be so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.<br /><br /><br /></span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(Note:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I did clarify later in the service that I didn’t want people to go away
with the impression that I don’t think that we should pay taxes. I think that
things like health care and education and foreign aid are things that make God
happy!)</span></i></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiimga4GPeu_f0C5NQ9cv61loewNjx7OOZWWGl0eFxbIoJZvV-eCclMV05csjI5CeJDQNWB5YFzC_mdtim3kBxVvz8UFcMrSEqXEdvjibvVgXvsdOnL8e9jMnPHHsIH4cIaXZG35oer0VXFNox81HX0BU4mLBNut9IJ3636DR9MFKd4tYYVoc_HycHUz40x/s3024/20231022_143059.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiimga4GPeu_f0C5NQ9cv61loewNjx7OOZWWGl0eFxbIoJZvV-eCclMV05csjI5CeJDQNWB5YFzC_mdtim3kBxVvz8UFcMrSEqXEdvjibvVgXvsdOnL8e9jMnPHHsIH4cIaXZG35oer0VXFNox81HX0BU4mLBNut9IJ3636DR9MFKd4tYYVoc_HycHUz40x/w400-h400/20231022_143059.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our $1Million and $2Million coins</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">from the Story for All Ages</span></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-57501902177314171332023-10-08T15:41:00.002-03:002023-10-08T15:41:39.616-03:00"An Outpouring of Gratitude" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday October 8, 2023 – Thanksgiving Weekend<br />
Scripture:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+17%3A11-19&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Luke 17:11-19</a><br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(In the story for all ages earlier in
the service, I invited everyone to imagine themselves into the scripture story,
walking through a guided mediation. I invited everyone to consider how it felt
to be exiled from their families and communities for so long, how it felt to be
healed, and then what the first thing that they wanted to do after being healed
would be.)</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This week, we have a story about Jesus
healing 10 people – I think that this story is assigned to Thanksgiving weekend
because of the 10 people who were healed, only one of them returns back to say
thank you to Jesus, while the other 9 go on their way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On the surface, it seems like a pretty
straightforward story – be like the one who came back to say thank you; don’t
be like the other 9. A simple story with a simple message.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But simple stories are boring, (and simple stories make for boring sermons,) and
there are a couple of details in this story that have me asking questions, and
that have me wondering if there is more to this story than just what’s on the
surface.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I wonder about the other 9.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was going on in their minds or in their
lives so that they didn’t come back to say thank you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Were they so eager to see their families and
loved ones after years of being exiled due to their illness; in so much of a
rush of excitement that they couldn’t take the time to come back to say thank
you to the healer?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or were they
resentful – resentful of the society that they lived in that had insisted on
their exile for so many years? And did resentment for the lost years prevent
them from feeling any gratitude for their healing?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A common assumption is that if someone
doesn’t say thank you, it is because they didn’t appreciate the gift; but in
this story, the profound implications of what Jesus did for the 10 people would
make that an unlikely explanation for why 9 of them didn’t come back.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I wonder about those other 9.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The other curious detail in this story
that, at least for me, adds depth to the story, is the very last line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Earlier in the story, Jesus cures all 10 of
the people in the group. He says to them, “Go and show yourselves to the
priests” – this would have been so that they could get confirmation that they
were now ritually cleansed to be allowed back into regular society – and we’re
told that “as they went, they were made clean.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All 10 of them have been cured from the disease that separated them from
their communities.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But after the one comes back to praise
God and say “thank you,” Jesus tells him, “Get up and go on your way; your
faith has made you well.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s almost as
if he has been healed twice – once with the other 9, and now this extra layer
of healing added on at the end.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Most of you know that I worked in
health care for many years as a physiotherapist; and those of us who work in
health care learn that there is a difference between curing and healing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes a person will experience both, but
you can also have one without another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Healing tends to refer to a wholeness, body, mind, and spirit well and
in harmony with each other. Curing refers to the disease process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone might be cured from the injuries
sustained in a car accident, but still carry the emotional and spiritual trauma
of the accident, so still have some distance to travel in terms of
healing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or the other way around – a
person may have a condition for which there is no cure, yet can experience
healing in terms of being at peace with themselves, with their family, and with
God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I’m left wondering – did the other
9 experience a curing of their disease process without the healing that would
make them fully whole?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Jesus told
the 10<sup>th</sup> person – the one who came back to offer thanks and praise –
that their faith had made them well, did that one alone experience the fullness
of healing that Jesus was able to offer?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I do think that this story goes deeper
than it might appear on the surface.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I also think that this story invites us
to ask ourselves some questions as well.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What if we imagine ourselves into the
sandals of one of those people who approached Jesus on his way to Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you were to come face-to-face with Jesus,
crying out, “Jesus, have mercy on us!” what would be the substance of your
request?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What needs or requests would
you bring to the feet of Jesus? Fortunately, leprosy is no longer a big concern
in our time and our place, and even in places in the world where it occurs, it
is easily treatable these days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But all
of us carry needs and longings in our hearts that we bring to Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And then this story invites us to dig a
little bit deeper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you go into the
very core of your being, what is those deepest needs, those deepest longings
that are maybe even too tender to put into words?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is the thing that Jesus can give to you
that will bring the deep healing that goes beyond a simple cure that was
offered to the 10<sup>th</sup> person in our story?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I also think that the story invites us
to think about gratitude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I invite you
to imagine yourself back into the story the way that we did during the story
for all ages, and if it’s easier for you to close your eyes again, I invite you
to close your eyes. This time the circumstances are different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time, you don’t have leprosy, but you
are simply yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are yourself at
your most authentic – this is Jesus, and you don’t need to hold anything
back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is looking at you with deep,
deep love in his eyes, and you hear him saying your name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He reaches out and puts his hand on your
shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He tells you that your faith
has made you well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you return Jesus’s
gaze, let yourself feel the love that is radiating from him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What things are you thankful for in this
moment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What gratitude is welling up in
your heart?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let this gratitude move from
your heart to your voice? What words do you use to say thank you to Jesus?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What actions to do you do to express your
gratitude?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thanks be to the God of life and of
healing and of love!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ecTUO8wQcTczO5TEf1rZEa1JsNdQvegWJecLt1g1P2_uGPMd5Ewc0dkVrhRSBgKyBBPgJSvqP0IIYBJkqUKn0Z2KVsxY3RgVzywAqdC2P5ZG1dqMGTakOm3c-ZpTgboQ33OJdj5Im6z98poNs2XMD9StTeAf1ic-byhKA7haWRjw9fn2gp1qmLhBQppH/s1762/Mafa026-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1150" data-original-width="1762" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ecTUO8wQcTczO5TEf1rZEa1JsNdQvegWJecLt1g1P2_uGPMd5Ewc0dkVrhRSBgKyBBPgJSvqP0IIYBJkqUKn0Z2KVsxY3RgVzywAqdC2P5ZG1dqMGTakOm3c-ZpTgboQ33OJdj5Im6z98poNs2XMD9StTeAf1ic-byhKA7haWRjw9fn2gp1qmLhBQppH/w400-h261/Mafa026-large.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Healing of the Ten Lepers”<br />
JESUS MAFA<br />
<a href=" https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48295" target="_blank">Used with Permission.</a></span></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-5087995946410950802023-10-01T15:35:00.000-03:002023-10-01T15:35:39.326-03:00"Transformed By and For God" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday October 1 (Worldwide Communion Sunday)<br />
Scripture: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%202%3A1-13&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Philippians 2:1-13</a><br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<i>(Note: This sermon builds on what we have been discussing the past two weeks
– I’ve tried to link through to those reflections and readings in case you
missed them the first time around!)<br />
</i><br />
<br />
I’ve warned you the past couple of weeks that Jesus spends a lot of time
talking about money this fall, but we get a couple of weeks’ break from talking
about money – this week for worldwide communion, and next week for
Thanksgiving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I do think that there
might be a connection between what the Apostle Paul is saying to the church in
Philippi and what we were talking about last weekend!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Last Sunday, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+20%3A1-16&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">we read a story that Jesus told</a> – a story about farm workers, where every worker was given a full day’s
salary, regardless of whether they had worked all day or just for the last hour
of the day. We talked about how Jesus presents us with an alternate economic
system to the systems of the world we are living in – Jesus shows us a way of
being where things are given rather than needing to be earned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus gives us an example of an economy of
grace, where grace is any unearned gift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus tells us that this is what the kingdom of heaven will be like – the
world isn’t like this yet, but our faith tells us that some day it will be like
this.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I also suggested both <a href="https://katesnextgreatadventure.blogspot.com/2023/09/an-alternative-economic-system-sermon.html" target="_blank">last week</a> and the
<a href="https://katesnextgreatadventure.blogspot.com/2023/09/whats-catch-sermon.html" target="_blank">week before</a> that here in the church, we can start to live, in a small way, the
kingdom of heaven right now, even before the whole world is like this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A good example is Ida’s Cupboard, where food
is given based solely on need, no strings attached. The kingdom of heaven can
break in to our every-day lives, and we can begin to live in and by this grace
that Jesus teaches us about.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After last Sunday, a couple of people shared
their thoughts with me about this economy that is grounded in grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even though their specific words were
different, the underlying concern was the same – “But this would never work in
the real world.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And this is where I see the connection
with this week’s reading!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I agree, that this economy of grace
would never work in this so-called real world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We, as humans, are flawed, and so every human-created system is going to
be a flawed system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can’t swap out one
human-created system for another human-created system and expect it to be
perfect, because humans aren’t perfect.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But what if there was a world that was
even more real than our real world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
real-er world?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Humans aren’t perfect… except for one,
and he was God in human form. And that human, the one named Jesus, is teaching
us not about a human-created system, but a God created system.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And Paul, writing to the very early
church in the city of Philippi – he writes to them, “Let the same mind be in
you that was in Jesus Christ.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are to
be Christ-like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are to have the same
heart and the same mind that Jesus had – we, as the church, are to have the
heart and the mind of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so we will
be able to live in a God-visioned system of grace, because we will be able to
set our flawed human nature aside.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hearing myself say that, I’m now going
to start arguing with myself over this sermon – I’ll take over the job of
telling myself that what I’m saying is impossible!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We’ll never be able to do everything
that Paul suggests that we should be doing – to never do anything out of selfish
ambition, to always be looking out for the best interest of others rather than
to our own interests, to be perfectly obedient to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are human after all; we aren’t Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But then if you turn right to the end
of the passage, Paul answers this conundrum for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The very last verse in the reading that
______ shared with us goes, “for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you
both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We don’t have to do this perfectly because
it is God working in us that allows us to do all of these things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The name that we give to God working in the
world is the Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Holy
Spirit is working in us, transforming us so that our hearts and minds can be
more and more like the heart and mind of Christ.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Holy Spirit is always working in
us, but there are certain moments that infuse us with the Holy Spirit, moments
that give us an extra little boost of Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, one of these moments is
communion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know how God works,
but I know that God works through the bread and through the cup that we share.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the things that communion does for us
is to transform us to be closer to who God created us to be.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God is working in us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I agree with everyone who told me last week
that God’s economy of grace would never work in the “real world,” but God’s
economy isn’t of this world – it is of that real-er world that is the kingdom
of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is God working in us –
the Holy Spirit – who transforms us so that we, as the church, can participate
in this radically transformed way of being.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today especially, on Worldwide Communion
Sunday – think about all of the faithful people in all of the churches, large
and small around the world who are sharing the bread and the cup.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of people of different languages and
different creeds, different ages and different skin colours, different gender
identities and different sexual orientations, all coming together to share the
bread and the cup <b><i>right now</i></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Think of God’s transforming power at work in the world right now, at
this very moment, at all of the communion tables around the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of God’s world, the kingdom of heaven,
breaking into our right-now world all around the globe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This isn’t our forever way of being yet, but
it can be real in small ways as we wait.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Let the same mind be in you that was
in Christ Jesus; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will
and to work for God’s good pleasure.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Amen, and amen!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7_H5I4O4dQa7PNdbrP_c64YbnM4CPGfCkQed75Ii57KtEKTjnZSDv3YtLoVFPa6s6PYgcdJJVWXOLdg5dWPiFq-juGxUus8LOzhfS6KDqNTOdGgDGH2YPmYRbbaQh93by3XQs-KiGgBAX8P7PGAADaDE129atnAMn4TKQQDdoOlsw3SebmuZQkPylYsg/s4032/4991570635_f50ca1e797_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7_H5I4O4dQa7PNdbrP_c64YbnM4CPGfCkQed75Ii57KtEKTjnZSDv3YtLoVFPa6s6PYgcdJJVWXOLdg5dWPiFq-juGxUus8LOzhfS6KDqNTOdGgDGH2YPmYRbbaQh93by3XQs-KiGgBAX8P7PGAADaDE129atnAMn4TKQQDdoOlsw3SebmuZQkPylYsg/w400-h300/4991570635_f50ca1e797_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A Transformative Meal<br />Photo Credit: Torrenegra on flickr</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://flic.kr/p/8B673F" target="_blank">Used with permission.</a></span></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-16675808623071497982023-09-25T10:29:00.000-03:002023-09-25T10:29:03.646-03:00"An Alternative Economic System?" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday September 24, 2023<br />
Scripture:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2020%3A1-16&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Matthew 20:1-16</a><br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
If you were in worship <a href="https://katesnextgreatadventure.blogspot.com/2023/09/whats-catch-sermon.html" target="_blank">last Sunday</a>, I warned you that Jesus spends a lot of
time talking about money in the readings assigned to this fall. If you had been at
the Board of Stewards meeting on Tuesday night, I also warned the Stewards that
Jesus doesn’t always talk about money in the way that the Stewards and
treasurers might want him to talk about money!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have to confess, I’m not an
economist. I don’t have a deep understanding about how money works – when I do
need to understand how money works, there are people I can hire to understand
it for me! But even I can recognize that what the landowner does in the story
that Jesus tells doesn’t make any sense at all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We live in a society that runs on
capitalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The goal of capitalism is to
earn as much money as possible and to spend as little money as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a capitalist version of this story, the
landowner would pay the workers who had worked all day a denarius – the day’s
salary for a labourer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then the
landowner should have pro-rated the salary for the workers who only worked part
of the day. Remember that capitalism says that you want to spend as little
money as possible to keep as much as possible for yourself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In an extreme capitalist version of
this story, the landowner probably could have even set up an employment bidding
war – put out a RFP (a Request for Proposals) and the labourers willing to work
for the lowest salary would have been hired on for the day. There seems to be a
surplus of workers – more workers than jobs – and so the law of supply and
demand says that the landowner could have saved even more money that way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But this isn’t the story that Jesus
tells.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus tells us a story about a
landowner who pays the workers who worked all day the going wage, a
denarius.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then the landowner goes on
to pay the workers who only worked part of the day the same wage, a denarius.
Even the workers who only worked for the last hour of the day received a full
day’s salary.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From the perspective of capitalism,
this parable makes no sense at all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And if we were to take the perspective
of the workers who worked all day long, through the hot hours of midday,
through to the exhausting hours of late afternoon… to see these
johnny-come-latelies receive the same salary… well, this seems to be downright
unfair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why are you getting a higher
hourly wage than we are, when we’re the ones who did all of the hot and
backbreaking work?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the downsides of capitalism is
that it puts all of us in competition with each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I work hard so that I can get ahead. Ahead of
who, you might ask.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ahead of all of my
neighbours so that I can have the biggest house and the newest car and the most
exclusive vacations.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But Jesus tells us a different
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus seems to present us with a
different economic system than capitalism.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The thing about a denarius is that it
was a subsistence wage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You would be
able to pay your rent and feed your family for a denarius, but you wouldn’t be
able to put any money aside for a rainy day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It would keep you alive, but no more than that.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And those workers who weren’t hired
first thing in the morning… their need for subsistence wasn’t any less than the
workers who were hired on first thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They still needed to pay their rent and feed their families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so that is what the landowner gives them
– a denarius – a day’s wage.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It's almost as if Jesus is presenting
us with an alternate economic system to capitalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An economic system where needs are met
without any need to “earn the right” to be fed and housed and clothed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An economic system that respects the dignity
of people over the need of the wealthy to make more money.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And just as he did in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2018%3A21-35&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">parable we read last week</a>, Jesus begins this one with, “For the kingdom of heaven is
like…” Jesus is painting a picture of what God’s world is like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A world where everyone has enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A world that is governed by generosity rather
than by greed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A world where nobody
needs to be afraid of scarcity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A world
where the right to subsistence is given rather than earned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A radically different economic system than
the one we are living in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An economic
system where there are no winners and losers, but only winners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An economic system that is determined by
grace.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is what God’s kingdom is like.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And just as I said last week, I truly
believe that we in the church are called to be a microcosm of this sort of
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kingdom of heaven hasn’t yet
been realized across the whole world… some day it will, but not yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But while we are waiting, within the church
we can start practicing living with this sort of grace.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That is why I think that something like
Ida’s Cupboard is such a fabulous initiative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When we are able, we put some extra food in the cupboard; and then when
someone is in need of food, they can come and take it, no questions asked, no
need to prove their need to anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is operating on God’s economy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Or something like Mission &
Service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We give our money to Mission
& Service each year, or each month, or each week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may never know who that money goes to
help, we will likely never meet them, but we hear stories each week about how
what we give is giving a leg up to another person or another community so that
they can build a better life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Or there is the push for GLI or a
Guaranteed Livable Income, that so many United Church people are advocating for
in Canada.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is exactly in line with
this parable – every person receiving an income that will allow them to live
with dignity, simply because they are human and not because they have crossed
some arbitrary “finish line” of having done enough to earn it. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is what grace looks like in
action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what God’s economy is
like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the kingdom of heaven
beginning to break into our every-day life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let me finish with one more story, this
one coming to us from Lewis Carroll and his fantastical book, <i>Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know
that I’ve shared this part of the story with you before, but a good story is
always worth re-telling!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You might remember that Alice falls
down a rabbit hole, and ends up in Wonderland, a place where anything might
happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right away, she ends up growing
to more than 9 feet tall, and then shrinking down to just a few inches high,
back and forth a couple of times; and then she ends up tiny but swimming in a
sea of tears that she cried when she was tall, along with a bunch of other
small animals and birds.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When they all make it to shore, and are
quite wet, they try to figure out how to get dry; and after a few false starts,
the Dodo suggests a Caucus Race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
now, in the words of Lewis Carroll, this is what happened next:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“First it marked out a race-course, in
a sort of circle, (‘the exact shape doesn’t matter,’ it said,) and then all the
party were placed along the course, here and there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was no “one, two, three, and away,’ but
they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it
was not easy to know when the race was over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite
dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out “The race is over!’ and they all
crowded round it, panting, and asking, ‘But who has won?’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“This question the Dodo could not
answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one
finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see
Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At last the Dodo said, ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everybody</i> has won, and all must have prizes.’”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so I would summarize the parable of
Jesus that we read today in the words of the Dodo and say, “The kingdom of
heaven is like a Caucus Race – everybody wins, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> will have prizes.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG58PdoycdEcHCNXIvwbHJgkXEuEeUfEGCioa9I3zol3ZRHlK9f8WV2F8Z7BrFaLIznuf44Q_Z3xAmDWZ-1azLxrLyFC837XCK1pfiHJKcCNb0Buwj3watdLe6stQdUYatEGkA2ifiyTEHHlp-YUn6WZ4fmk7aJ7Wi1ZpQr3rMlb_hqy2w3KvyKMYgDvxj/s3024/20221116_093944.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG58PdoycdEcHCNXIvwbHJgkXEuEeUfEGCioa9I3zol3ZRHlK9f8WV2F8Z7BrFaLIznuf44Q_Z3xAmDWZ-1azLxrLyFC837XCK1pfiHJKcCNb0Buwj3watdLe6stQdUYatEGkA2ifiyTEHHlp-YUn6WZ4fmk7aJ7Wi1ZpQr3rMlb_hqy2w3KvyKMYgDvxj/w400-h400/20221116_093944.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">An Economy of Grace:</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Take what you need; leave what you can.”</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ida’s Cupboard, Westfield United Church</span></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-17859606423246377882023-09-17T15:51:00.000-03:002023-09-17T15:51:09.704-03:00"What's the Catch?" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday September 17, 2023<br />
Scripture Reading:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2018%3A21-35&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Matthew 18:21-35</a><br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away – let’s call it Canada – there lived
a single mother who worked at the local Tim Hortons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was paid minimum wage but she worked hard
and she usually got full-time hours, so most months she was able pay her rent
and her bills; and even though she had to sometimes go to the food bank or the
local little free food pantry, she and her daughter had never gone hungry.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But then one day, this woman got a
letter from the bank telling her that she owed the bank 6 billion, 6 hundred
million dollars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woman didn’t know
what to do with this letter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She knew
that money had been tight, but she had absolutely no idea how she could have
ever accumulated such an enormous debt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She was terrified that she and her daughter were going to lose their
apartment; and without a home, she was worried that her daughter was going to
be taken away from her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She decided that
she had to go in to the bank to try to negotiate the terms of her debt.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She went into her local bank branch and
asked to see the manager.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she got
into his office, she fell on to her knees and started crying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She begged the bank manager to look at the
terms of her debt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was no way that
she could even begin to pay just the interest on a debt that big, no matter how
small the interest rate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She begged the
bank manager to give her a 0% interest rate, and to let her pay off just a
little bit of the principal each month.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The bank manager looked at the woman in
his office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew her – their children
were in the same class at school – and he knew how hard she worked to make ends
meet each month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so he made a couple
of phone calls, and within a couple of minutes he was able to tell the woman
that the entire debt had been cancelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She didn’t have to worry about it any more.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The woman left the bank feeling as
though a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her steps were light and she was almost
dancing down the sidewalk as she went to the school to pick up her daughter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though she was going to still have to
work hard just to make ends meet each month, the weight of the 6 billion, 600
million dollar debt had been lifted from her.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But on her way to the school, the woman
met an acquaintance that she had known years ago when they were in high school
together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This woman remembered that
years ago, she had loaned this acquaintance $11,000 to keep her from being
evicted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She thought that maybe if she
could get that money back, it could help her to get ahead instead of living
paycheque – to – paycheque.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe this
was the step up that could lift her and her daughter out of the constant fear
that she lived in.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so she walked up to this
acquaintance, gave her a shove, and said to her, “You still owe me that
money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pay it back now, or I’ll see you
in court!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The acquaintance said, “I
don’t have it with me now – give me a couple of weeks and I promise I’ll get it
to you!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the woman didn’t accept
that offer and said, “Not good enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>See you in court.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some people had witnessed this
encounter, and knowing that the woman had just come from the bank, went there
and told the bank manager what they had seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The bank manager called the woman back and told her, “We are going to
have to take another look at that 6 billion, 600 million dollars that you owe
to us…”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So… you’ve probably guessed that what
I’ve just done is to translate the parable that Jesus told his disciples into a
contemporary context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It really is a
shocking story that Jesus tells, but the shock value is easily lost without
understanding the context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The slaves in
Jesus’ story would have very little or no control over her own life, just as
the woman in the story that I told had little control over her life
circumstances – the cost of living, the low salary that she earned on minimum
wage, trying to support her daughter as a single mother.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And the amount of the two debts I
calculated based on a minimum wage job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A denarius was the amount that a day labourer – a minimum-wage earner,
if you will – could earn in a day’s work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>With the current New Brunswick minimum wage, on full-time employment you
can make about $110 per day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The amount
of the second debt – 100 denarii – then would be $11,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s still a big debt – almost half a year’s
salary – but it’s nothing in comparison to the first debt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That first debt in the story is a bit more
complicated to calculate – one talent was equal to 6000 denarii, or $660,000
using my math, or about 24 years’ worth of labour. It’s unlikely that a slave
would have ever possessed a single talent, let alone had access to 10,000
talents! By my calculations, the 10,000-talent debt would be equivalent to 6
billion, 600 million dollars in our time and place.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One other thing that adds a layer of
complexity to this story is that in the language and culture that Jesus was
speaking to, 10,000 was the largest possible number, and a talent was the
largest amount of money that could be imagined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So that first debt of 10,000 talents represents the biggest possible
debt that could exist – a debt beyond imagining.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have so many questions about this
story that Jesus tells. How on earth did a slave… or anyone, for that matter…
manage to accumulate such a large debt?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And then why on earth would the king… or bank manager… cancel out such a
large debt?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And finally, after having
had such a large debt forgiven, why on earth did that first slave withhold debt
forgiveness on a much smaller scale from someone else?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It's that last question that intrigues
me the most.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That first slave… or our
single parent in the contemporary version I told… they have been living under
the weight of debt for so long, they have been living with the intense fear of
scarcity for so long, that when the weight is lifted from them, when they no
longer need to be afraid of scarcity, they can’t quite let it go right away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are still so afraid of scarcity, that
when an opportunity presents to acquire a sum of money, they leap at it, even though
it means hurting another person.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I don’t think that Jesus told this
story as an example of good behaviour. We aren’t all supposed to go out and
treat others in the same way that the slave did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are supposed to be shocked at how the
slave behaved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember that Jesus
teaches us to pray: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass
against us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we were Presbyterian, we
would pray slightly different and even more explicit words:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One key to reading the parables of
Jesus is that whoever has the most power in the story is usually supposed to
represent God, and in this story, that person is a king.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Or a bank manager in the modern telling of
it!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the king in this story isn’t an
unjust, tyrannical ruler like you might expect in an ordinary fairy tale with a
similar beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead the king in
this story is generous, with an abundance that is almost impossible to imagine.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which makes this a parable that teaches
us both about human nature – it is hard to receive undeserved forgiveness or
grace; it is hard to let go of our fear of scarcity; it is hard to forgive
others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is also a parable that
teaches us about God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is not only
all-powerful like the king in this story, but God is also good and generous
beyond our ability to imagine or comprehend.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus begins this parable by
saying:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The kingdom of heaven may be
compared to a king who wished to settle his accounts.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can you imagine a world that is governed the
way that this king governs his kingdom?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A world of abundance and generosity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A world where debts are forgiven, no questions asked, no catch, no
strings attached.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A world where the
right to existence doesn’t have to be earned, but is a given.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The kingdom of heaven may be compared
to a king who wished to settle his accounts.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I think that we, as the church, we
are called to model this sort of world to the world around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are called to be a microcosm of this
kingdom of God that is coming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
called, not to be like the slave who refused to forgive his neighbour’s debt,
but instead to be like the king who offers grace and generosity and
forgiveness.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It's not easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it were easy, Jesus wouldn’t have needed
to teach us about it!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following the way
of Jesus is really, really hard at times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it is also beautiful and joyful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And we don’t have to do it alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We travel this path together; and it is the Holy Spirit working in us
that allows us to do the hard things.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God loves you, and God forgives you,
just as the king loves and forgives the slave in the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are always surrounded by this abundance
of love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And my prayer for all of us –
myself included – is that we might be able to trust in this abundant love, that
we might be able to let go of the hurts that have been done to us, and that we
might be people who offer abundance to the world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">May it be so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTG3bZRjBwQly02bsx35kWvXHeY1Of7O7cCWkr1PzRWcfgwRW4NRlk6iM6RGot1tKt2Ir-g7L6YLru_v_mR_5uAl2osdgxQy4oclvteQuNuxLIvzhnc8_Cx41nsLFraPbm3Evxt6Gi0DzBM45nAoHvl7p9OwZJSPv5pRYznCCe9wnMHhMoC-qHaB6BJ-2B/s4004/5556417111_88ab812205_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4004" data-original-width="2503" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTG3bZRjBwQly02bsx35kWvXHeY1Of7O7cCWkr1PzRWcfgwRW4NRlk6iM6RGot1tKt2Ir-g7L6YLru_v_mR_5uAl2osdgxQy4oclvteQuNuxLIvzhnc8_Cx41nsLFraPbm3Evxt6Gi0DzBM45nAoHvl7p9OwZJSPv5pRYznCCe9wnMHhMoC-qHaB6BJ-2B/w250-h400/5556417111_88ab812205_o.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“open” by Molly Sabourin on flickr</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://flic.kr/p/9t16e2" target="_blank">Used with Permission</a></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-62555007450275078412023-09-10T16:00:00.000-03:002023-09-10T16:00:16.876-03:00"Breaking Bread Together" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />September 10, 2023 (Church Picnic)<br />Scripture:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2018%3A15-20&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Matthew 18:15-20</a></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve been thinking a lot about food
this week, and what an appropriate week to be thinking about food, with the
best potluck of the year happening today!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve been thinking about all of the
meals that Jesus shared with people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We’ve got the Last Supper which happened on the night before he died –
an intimate meal with his closest friends, when Jesus offered them his body and
his blood in the form of bread and wine.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus accepted dinner invitations from
anyone who invited him, so we also read about him eating with the elite of his
time and place, as well as with people who were despised like Zacchaeus, the
tax collector.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We also have stories about Jesus
feeding a crowd of thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and a
couple of fish – a miracle of abundance in a place of scarcity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It seems as though Jesus is always
eating with people!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At that last supper that he shared with
his disciples, as Jesus takes the bread, blesses the bread, breaks the bread,
and gives the bread to his friends, he says to them, “Do this in remembrance of
me.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Whenever we celebrate communion,
whenever we share the bread and the cup as a sacrament, we are doing it in
remembrance of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet I wonder
if we can interpret this more broadly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
wonder if it is possible to remember Jesus, if it is possible to re-enact this
particular breaking of bread every time we break bread together?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which means that we will be remembering
Jesus in the breaking of bread twice in this gathering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we share the communion bread and cup, we
will remember Jesus; and when we share all of the food that we have brought to
this lunch, we will continue to do this in remembrance of Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which brings us to the teaching of
Jesus that Cindy read for us this morning – the reading that ends with Jesus’s
well-known words, “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among
them.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is with us when we gather
to worship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is with us when we
break bread together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is with us
when one member of the church offers to pray for another member of the church.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I know a pastor who used to joke on a
Sunday with low attendance, that Jesus said where two or three were gathered he
would be there, and it’s a good thing that Jesus set the bar so low!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I think that this saying of Jesus holds a
deeper meaning than this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is all
about community.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We, as the church, are a
community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are a communal
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We celebrate with each
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We mourn together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We share with one another and lend a helping
hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do all of this together so that
nobody has to be alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And where two or
three are present, where two or three are in community with one another, then
Christ is right there in the center of the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This saying about where two or three are
gathered is all about being present to one another.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which is why I think that this teaching
follows immediately after instructions for how a community can be reconciled to
one another after the relationship has been broken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being in community means being open to forgiving
another member of the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being
in community means being open to changing our hearts and lives when we have
been the one to harm another.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But when it happens, it is a beautiful
thing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we are a community that
gathers around the breaking of bread, with Christ at the heart of who we are
and what we do, then I don’t think that there is anything more beautiful than
church, celebrating Christ’s presence among us, and reflecting Christ’s
presence to the world around us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And may we, the people of Two Rivers
Pastoral Charge, be just such a church – not just today, but always!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4YmifSkdA1Qm8GO4L59ifpzdHS5DsPtyavxpwX00zV8MJNsQad-wT7OECtucD7KXWHn3KHmpeLa138ZOiDO8Pw0W_dLN82fu88mf4iWaKWvuUrax3lifKUrzEAPgYA81xhdVuIVyQt3-7wggLjzjaAOyHI-VZ7jT-zOXnoom60jQI2BmZrAOIVAYsA6aV/s2048/377243813_10160639134345342_8818699968638069500_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4YmifSkdA1Qm8GO4L59ifpzdHS5DsPtyavxpwX00zV8MJNsQad-wT7OECtucD7KXWHn3KHmpeLa138ZOiDO8Pw0W_dLN82fu88mf4iWaKWvuUrax3lifKUrzEAPgYA81xhdVuIVyQt3-7wggLjzjaAOyHI-VZ7jT-zOXnoom60jQI2BmZrAOIVAYsA6aV/w400-h400/377243813_10160639134345342_8818699968638069500_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Part 1 of our Gathering: Worship</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(Part 2 was the potluck lunch)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Photo Credit: Margaret Stackhouse <br /></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-9874117650521066122023-09-03T16:07:00.001-03:002023-09-03T16:07:43.043-03:00"For Such a Time as THIS" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />Sunday September 3, 2023<br />Scripture: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther%204%3A1-14&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Esther 4:1-14</a></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(During the Story for All Ages, I read
the full story of Esther from a Children’s Bible so that we could hear the full
story. If you aren’t familiar with the story, <a href="https://youtu.be/JydNSlufRIs?si=TTYpEdsO_dJvWimp" target="_blank">The Bible Project</a> gives a fairly
good summary of it.)</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The story of Esther isn’t very well
known, unless you have a reason to know it. It is often overlooked when people
talk about the overall story of the bible – I was watching a series of
Instagram Reels this week where the creator was attaching a theme song to each
book in the bible, and she skipped right over Esther, going from Nehemiah right
on to Job. (And I have to confess that I only caught the omission because I’ve
been spending a lot of time in the book of Esther this week – before this week,
off the top of my head I wouldn’t have been able to tell you where in the bible
you could find Esther.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is also the only book in the bible
that doesn’t mention God by name. The story implies God’s presence, but God
isn’t named.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Esther and Mordecai are
ethnically Jewish, descended from a family that was taken into exile in Babylon
but then decided not to return to Jerusalem when they are allowed; but even
though they are Jewish, there is no mention of them being particularly
observant in keeping the laws of the Torah.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And yet despite all of this, the book
of Esther is part of the bible. Its inclusion in the bible isn’t even contested
or debated the way that some other books in the bible are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has a place in the story of God working in
God’s people.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the part of the story that ______
read for us this morning, we heard what might be the most well-known line in
Esther. As Esther and Mordecai are trying to figure out how they can save all
of the Jewish people in Persia from Haman’s plan, Mordecai says to Esther:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for
just such a time as this.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Could it be that God has been working
behind the scenes, unacknowledged, working to put Esther into a position where
she would be able to speak to the king and prevent the massacre of God’s
children?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you saw my Theology
Thursday post on Facebook this week, I made the connection between the story of
Esther and our God Sightings that we share every Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is always present; God is always at work
in the world; but sometimes we need to intentionally open ourselves up to
noticing God’s presence.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so can it be that God has been
quietly working behind the scenes to put Esther into a position where she can
speak to the king?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Esther, as a regular
member of a minority religious group in the city would never have dared to
approach the king, just as Mordecai, despite saving the king’s life earlier,
isn’t in a position to approach the king.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But Esther as the queen is in a position to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has power because of her rank, and it is
up to her to choose how to use her power.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That’s not to say that it didn’t take a
great deal of courage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just look at
Esther’s predecessor, Queen Vashti.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both
of them had power based on their position and based on their beauty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And both of them were courageous enough to
stand up for what they knew was right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Vashti refused to let the king parade her in front of his drinking
buddies like an object.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Esther spoke
up to the king to save all of the vulnerable Jewish people in the land.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Esther took a risk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>King Ahasuerus is painted as quite an
impulsive and volatile character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
end of Esther’s story could have just as easily mirrored the end of Vashti’s
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it doesn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The king is able to hear what Esther is
saying, and the story has an unhappy ending for Haman, but a happy ending for
Esther and Mordecai and the rest of the Jewish people.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Circling back to how God is still
present, even when we don’t take the time to pause and notice. God is still
working in the world even when we don’t take time to pause and name God’s
presence. How might our situation be similar to Esther’s?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where has God placed us – either as
individuals or as the church – for such a time as this?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We don’t have to look very far to see
what seems like the world collapsing around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We aren’t facing imminent genocide the way that Esther and Mordecai
were, but we are daily faced with other disasters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cost of living is rising exponentially,
leading to so many hungry people in our neighbourhood and in our world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The climate emergency is causing floods and
fires right at our doorstep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
hard-won rights of LGBTQ+ people are being rolled back, here in New Brunswick
and elsewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are increasing
incidents of violence related to racism and homophobia and transphobia and
Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We may not be exactly in Esther’s
shoes, but there is no shortage of vulnerable people and groups in our world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so where has God placed us – as
individuals and as the church – for such a time as this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may not be a queen, but looking around
this space, we do have other sorts of influence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of us have influence related to our skin
colour and our economic status and our education level and by who we know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of these things give us a certain amount
of power in the world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so, like Queen Esther and like
Queen Vashti, the question becomes, do we have the courage to use our power for
good?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we have the courage to use our
position and our influence to stand up for what we know is right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we have the courage to stand up for people
who are oppressed?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we have the
courage to create a space where the voiceless can have a voice?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even when it is risky, do we have the courage
to speak the truth to those who can change the world?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For when we do have the courage to do
this – courage that is given to us by the Holy Spirit – then we become part of
the group of people who are changing the world for the good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we have the courage to do this, then God
is working through us by the Holy Spirit, and we are acting as the Body of
Christ – participating in the work of God in the world around us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And may God give us all the courage to
do so, in such a time as this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJF8YdaZZnCO5P7AxbbGZMAHHSLU3yNjpZl1AvULBExRRXyBbOVZ7pjHA9loStbTERRODrPMXm-HaD6Bn85TDGH7OToBMlVReR8sGgs1mXHIbSqmY8eAalBl_9zcmiB_zZqkN2zuso9JLb8H5nyULabDem9trpGdmxp3fY5_SRacTjpDFXJtQTmlqj4db/s673/25731237347_caf7281094_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="673" data-original-width="664" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJF8YdaZZnCO5P7AxbbGZMAHHSLU3yNjpZl1AvULBExRRXyBbOVZ7pjHA9loStbTERRODrPMXm-HaD6Bn85TDGH7OToBMlVReR8sGgs1mXHIbSqmY8eAalBl_9zcmiB_zZqkN2zuso9JLb8H5nyULabDem9trpGdmxp3fY5_SRacTjpDFXJtQTmlqj4db/w395-h400/25731237347_caf7281094_o.jpg" width="395" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Watercolour by Kimothy Joy.</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Uploaded to flickr with permission by Vince Reinhart.</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">An example of speaking truth to power, this time using the</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">power of art to speak on the issue of gun violence.</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(Click the link below to learn more about this image.)</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://flic.kr/p/FcMjpe" target="_blank">Used with permission.</a></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3632915240994105085.post-35244117313148721492023-08-27T14:41:00.001-03:002023-08-27T14:41:11.928-03:00"Who Do You Not See?" (sermon)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Rivers Pastoral Charge<br />
Sunday August 27, 2023<br />
Scripture Reading:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+13%3A10-17&version=NRSVUE" target="_blank">Luke 13:10-17</a><br />
<br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oh. Hi.<b></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You don’t know me. In fact, before
today, you probably didn’t think about me very much. You don’t even know my
name.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I used to be even more bent over than
this. I don’t know why it happened. I don’t know how it happened. But 18 years
ago, my back started to ache some bad like you wouldn’t believe, and I just
couldn’t straighten up. It got worse and worse, and more and more painful.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Eventually it got so bad that I
couldn’t look people in the face. I couldn’t see the sky. I couldn’t cook to
feed myself. I couldn’t wash myself. I could barely hobble around with my
stick.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">People told me that evil spirits had
taken over my body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That evil spirits
were making my spine bend like that. People started to be afraid of me. They
called me unclean. If they touched me, they risked becoming unclean too.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nobody had touched me in 18 years,
afraid of becoming unclean. Do you know what it is like, not to be touched by
another human for 18 years?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some people offered to heal me. There
are so many people out there, peddling miracles, willing to take my money in
exchange for the promise of a cure. And I went to all of them. Some of them
gave me a cream to rub on my back. Some of them told me that I needed to pray
special prayers. Some of them told me to travel to a distant land to bathe in
the holy waters there. They all had two things in common:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they were willing to take my money, and none
of their cures worked.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Every day I would drag my body outside,
and sit with my begging bowl by the gates to the town. Some days I would set up
beside the place to worship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I usually
got more money sitting by the town gates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The holy people going to pray were usually in too much of a hurry to
stop to give me a few coins.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">People would drop a coin in my bowl and
rush onwards. Nobody would look me in the eye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nobody would stop to talk to me. Eighteen years without being touched.
Eighteen years without speaking with anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eighteen years without being seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eighteen years with no name.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sometimes on a Sabbath I would drag my
poor body into the synagogue to listen to the prayers and the teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would sit in the corner thinking that
maybe, just maybe, even though the people around me couldn’t see me, maybe God
could see me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe God knew how much I
was suffering.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Really, this wasn’t living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was merely existing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn’t able to take care of myself. Nobody
cared for me. I couldn’t understand why God didn’t take the rest of my life
too. Maybe God couldn’t see me either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
was angry with this God who would let me suffer so much.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One Sabbath I went to the synagogue and
there was a huge crowd there – so many people I had never seen there
before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I heard a whisper that the one
who was teaching that day was the son of a carpenter up in Galilee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was on his way to Jerusalem, and he had
such a crowd of people following him – women and men from all sorts of
different backgrounds. The whispers said that not only was he a good teacher,
but that he was also doing miracles along the way as he was travelling.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well, I’d had it up to here with
so-called miracles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ones who claimed
to do miracles usually just performed the miracle of making my money
disappear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I didn’t hold out any
great hopes for this miracle-worker. I just settled into my usual back corner
of the synagogue to listen to the teaching and pray that God might hear me
today.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But no sooner had I settled in then
this teacher glanced at me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then he
stopped and looked me in the eye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he
called me over to the place he was teaching from. I struggled to get up from
the floor, grumbling a little bit. Why couldn’t he come over to me? Couldn’t he
see how much of a struggle it was for me to get up? But because he had looked
at me, because he had seen me, because he had spoken to me, I went over to
where he was.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And when I had made my way to the
front, this teacher, he reached out and he touched me. For the first time in
eighteen years, I felt the touch of another human. He put his hand on my
shoulder, and he told me that I was set free from my bondage.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And when he had done that, I was slowly
able to straighten out, and look him in the eye. And I turned, and I was able
to see the faces of all of the other people in the synagogue. And I rushed over
to the door and looked up, and I saw the blue sky above me for the first time
in 18 years. And I threw my arms up in the air and started to sing praises to
God. For God had seen me in my suffering, and had healed me. How could I keep
from singing?!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now the leaders of the synagogue
weren’t too impressed. They told this Jesus that he shouldn’t have been doing
the work of healing on the Sabbath. He should have waited until the next day to
heal me. Then they chastised me They told me that I shouldn’t have asked for
healing on the Sabbath. I should have come on another day of the week to look
for healing instead.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What hypocrites. I had been living in
this place for my whole life. I had known these people since they were born.
They knew that I was crippled, even if they chose not to see me. And for 18
years, they hadn’t glanced my way, let alone offered to heal me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But this Jesus, he knew the law so well
that he could out-argue all of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew
that Sabbath was more than just a rest from work. He also knew that the scroll
of Deuteronomy also says that Sabbath is in remembrance of our delivery from
slavery in Egypt. And if Sabbath honours our people’s deliverance from slavery,
then it is right that I should be delivered from my bondage of illness.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And he also knew that the law allows
for people to untie their animals on the Sabbath in order to give them
life-giving water. And he argued that I was more valuable than any farm animal,
and therefore could be untied from my illness in order to be given life-giving
healing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Can you imagine it? Someone saying that
I was valuable! Someone affirming that I am a daughter of Sarah and Abraham.
Someone affirming that I am a beloved child of God. For so many years, I was a
nobody. Unseen, untouched, unacknowledged. And yet here I was, in front of the
synagogue, valuable in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the people.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And all of the people in the synagogue
that day were rejoicing. Rejoicing that I had been healed. Rejoicing at the
wisdom of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rejoicing that God was
even more powerful than they had ever imagined.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Something has changed in me since I was
healed. I think that before I became sick, I was like all of the other people
in this town. If I had seen someone bent over like me, I wouldn’t have given
them a second glance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would have
brushed right on past them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But now that I have been in their
shoes, my eyes have been opened. Now, when I pass through the town, I notice
all sorts of people that the rest of society doesn’t see. Those who are bent
over like I used to be. Those who don’t have a home to go to. Those who sit
with their begging bowls every day. Those who have been abandoned by their
families and sit alone in empty houses. Those who have moved here from other
lands and don’t speak our language yet. Nobody sees them. But I do.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so I beg you. As you go about your
busy life this week, think of me. Remember me. And when you remember me, look
around you for the unseen people in your world. Open your eyes and notice them,
in the same way that Jesus, this man that you follow, had his eyes open; so
that you can see the people like me that Jesus saw. And like this man that you
follow, find a way to give them back their humanity. Remind them that they are
beloved child of God. Remind them that they are precious in God’s sight, and in
your sight too.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Remember me. And look for other people
like me. Open your eyes and see the people like me who are unseen. And then
love them into wholeness.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yrqQi7zb2XUQA6b3MrM37QK4JwdDoJIysPDjh8DQsENeI9ciawMwHsEEgoi8MJQgnaepcgOHU2pX7mbLQB78ct5RqleksZjlTzAhlrc4vIF2IUjEvrSJYGpGYDtGt-fkMJgG1EwAN4QrM48_zKQj9XH-5BTRnqp62-WVzxuFMUQHmEqJxoaknj2AMKbA/s2891/Barlach_Tanzende_Alte3278t-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2891" data-original-width="2017" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yrqQi7zb2XUQA6b3MrM37QK4JwdDoJIysPDjh8DQsENeI9ciawMwHsEEgoi8MJQgnaepcgOHU2pX7mbLQB78ct5RqleksZjlTzAhlrc4vIF2IUjEvrSJYGpGYDtGt-fkMJgG1EwAN4QrM48_zKQj9XH-5BTRnqp62-WVzxuFMUQHmEqJxoaknj2AMKbA/w279-h400/Barlach_Tanzende_Alte3278t-large.jpg" width="279" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Old Woman Dancing”</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ernst Barlach (1920)</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Gill Sans MT",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57032" target="_blank">Used with permission</a></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12390357169573998035noreply@blogger.com0