Living a Eucharistic Life: A Sermon for Thanksgiving Sunday

May only truth be spoken and truth heard. Amen.

 

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. Maybe some of us will be celebrating with family, eating way too much food, perhaps football will be on the television. But, following up on last week’s discussion on truth and reconciliation, as well as the Truth About Cowichan event on September 30, there is a dark history to Thanksgiving in Canada.

 

Celebrating the harvest was always an important event for Indigenous people. It was a time to give thanks to nature’s bounty and for the health of the community. First Nations across Turtle Island have traditions of thanksgiving for surviving winter and for receiving crops and game as a reward for their hard work.

These traditions may include feasting, prayer, dance, potlatch, and other ceremonies, depending on the community.

 

When European settlers began coming to Turtle Island, Indigenous people saved them from starvation by sharing their food and their knowledge of survival on the vast lands of trees, water, and wild weather. Without having learned skills in planting, hunting, and fishing, the colonialists would have surely died. In return, the following year those same colonialists burned and murdered the Indigenous people. Not a great way to say thank you.

 

It's easy to see why many people feel a little ambivalent to this holiday. Don’t get me wrong. I like a good turkey dinner with all the fixings just as much as the next guy. But it sure is hard to be thankful around a table full of food when you know the history of the holiday and you consider what’s happening all around the world, and especially in our own backyards.

 

Wouldn’t lament be more appropriate? Or a cry for justice? Or a call to action?

 

Certainly, these are also possibilities and have their time and place. But for just this moment, and given today’s reading, I am reminded that of all of our responses to events, blessed or challenging, great or small, one of the most powerful is that of thanksgiving.

 

In the passage of Luke before us we have one of many stories of Jesus healing people with whom he has no business interacting. Ten men approach him, unclean and outcast, pleading with Jesus to heal them. Which, of course, he did. All these men would have been quite surprised to find themselves healed. Perhaps some were overjoyed. Perhaps some celebrated. Perhaps others ran to tell their family and friends. Perhaps a few even took it for granted. We don’t know what happened to nine of the men, but we know that only one returned to thank Jesus for curing him. Only one decided to actually express his gratitude to Jesus and to God.

 

Were all ten lepers healed? Yes. Were they all saved? Yes, in the sense that they were rescued from their disease. But not in the sense of drawing close to God in thankfulness and appreciation. The nine were saved physically but not spiritually.

 

Our natural response here would be to rebuke those nine men who ran off without even a slight word of thanks. But consider this. The other nine did nothing wrong. In fact, they did exactly as they were told and presumably also enjoyed being healed. Again, they didn’t do anything wrong and received the blessing promised them. So, what does the man who returned receive? Certainly, the blessing of healing, as did the other nine. But also the blessing that comes from recognizing blessing and giving thanks — the blessings, that is, of wholeness and even salvation.

 

Returning to God and giving thanks and praise is central to our faith. When we read this account of the ten lepers, we can’t help but be drawn to our central liturgical eucharistic prayer. “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise. It is indeed right, our duty and our joy, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks and praise to you, almighty and merciful God.” This Eucharistic prayer is like our weekly dose of gratitude. The words of the prayer are meant to characterize every part of our Christian living – our mundane, trivial, ordinary, everyday life. It’s our duty to show ourselves grateful to God with our whole life. The words of the Great Thanksgiving calls us to live Eucharistic lives.

 

But what does it mean to live a Eucharistic life? It means loving others. After hearing stories of how Jesus showed love to others, we try to show God’s love to everyone we meet. It is easy to show love to the people who are nice to us, but it is very hard to be nice to the people who we find hard to love. This is exactly what Jesus asks us to do!

 

It means looking after creation. God has made so many beautiful things for us that we need to make sure we look after them. God wants us to look after the people, the animals, the plants, and everything else in creation. It means caring for those in need. Jesus taught us to care for others who have less than we do. We can do this through prayer and through giving to places like the local food bank.

 

It means announcing the Gospel. God wants us to be evangelists! At the end of each service, we are sent out into the world to take what we have learned through the readings and prayers and live like Jesus and show God’s love to people in our daily lives. It means to do your best. Even when it was really hard, Jesus always did his best to do what he knew God wanted. He often prayed to God to give him the strength he needed to do what was right.

 

It means to help, share, and show kindness. Through his life, Jesus was always aware of people who needed his help. We too, need to always be ready to help others. Another way of showing God’s love to others is by sharing. There were many times when Jesus shared with others. And we can show kindness to other people, especially people who others are not kind to.

 

This world is full of blessing and challenges. Which will we focus on? Truth be told, there is a time for lament and cries for justice and activism. But given that we live in a culture filled with blame and accusation and almost devoid of thanksgiving, maybe on this day, and remembering the tenth leper, we can go forth to be heralds of blessing and bearers of powerful words of gratitude and to live the Eucharistic life to which we are called.

 

Amen.

A Lesson From St Francis: A Sermon for the Blessing of the Animals Service

We praise and bless you, Lord, and we give thanks to you. Amen.

 

Our Season of Creation is winding down, but it's a season we should always lift up! And what a great way to end the season! Having God’s wonderful creatures join us for worship and to receive a blessing, today we celebrate our four-footed and two-winged family members. October 4 is designated as the day to celebrate the feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology. This 13th-century Italian friar is often remembered for his deep humility, his simple life of prayer, and as someone who loved creatures and creation.

 

You will often see St Francis depicted surrounded by birds and animals, as he is this morning up here at our altar. Francis had a special connection with all of God’s creatures. I read a story about how he preached a sermon to 100 birds about being thankful to God for their wonderful clothes, for their independence, and for God's care. The story said that the birds stood still as he walked among him, only flying off when he said they could leave!

 

I think my favorite part of our creation story is that God created the animals and the birds first. “God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Gen 1:25) It was only once God saw that creation needed caretakers did God create humans. (And honestly, they probably would have be fine without us!)

 

We humans think that we’re the top of the power pyramid, but if it weren’t for the animals, birds, and fish, we’d be nothing. We’d have no purpose. We’d have no source of food or income. Genesis 1:28 states “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” We often mistake this verse to mean that we have been given divine power to control and dominate everything on the earth, that we can use the earth’s resources in anyway we deem fit.

 

But in that verse, God is giving us a creation mandate. We are told to procreate and grow the population. We are told to spread ourselves all over the earth. And we are told to be stewards of the earth, called to protect animal life and care for the planet with the justice and protection of a righteous caretaker, not through cruel exploitation. We are meant to safeguard creation, not manage it.

 

St Francis’ example of selfless love inspired others to follow him and together they preached the love of God to all and sought “to follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps”. For St Francis, the teachings of the gospel extended to all of God’s creatures, not just those who walk upright on two feet. Francis was in awe of the swallow and cricket and rabbit and saw sacredness even in the smallest bug. His teaching to us is that the world of nature and the world of God are one. When Jesus calls on us to love our neighbour, that includes every living thing in creation. St Francis reminds us that we are a part of our environment and are called to love and protect it.

 

As we head into the blessing of our beloved pets, I leave you with this prayer from Sacred Pauses:

Blessed are you, Lord God,

maker of all living creatures.

You called forth fish in the sea,

birds in the air

and animals on the land.

You inspired St. Francis to call all of them his brothers and sisters.

We ask you to bless this pet.

By the power of your love,

enable it to live according to your plan.

May we always praise you for all your beauty in creation.

Blessed are you,

Lord our God,

in all your creatures!

 

Amen

Resources:

franciscanfriars.co.uk

catholic.org

franciscanmedia.org

re:worship.blogspot.com

We are the Latecomers: A Sermon for the 17th Sunday After Pentecost

Give us ears to hear and hearts to listen. Amen. 

The Gospel story today is often called the Labourers in the Vineyard. It begins and revolves around two kinds of people. The first is a landowner or, more specifically, the owner of a vineyard. As is true today, if you own a vineyard, you’re probably doing pretty well in life. The other characters are the day laborers, and they live at pretty much the other end of the economic ladder. Day laborers are people who don’t have a regular job. People who go into the town each morning hoping they’ll find work so they can feed their family. They’re not beggars, they’re not destitute, but they pretty much live right on the edge of poverty.

 

When the parable starts, the owner of a vineyard needs some help. It’s likely harvest time and the work is plentiful, so he goes into town at dawn to hire some additional workers, agreeing with them on a wage of one denarius for a 12-hour day, about the amount it takes to feed a family for a day. As the day goes on, it turns out that the landowner needs more help, so he goes out again at 9 in the morning and tells some more laborers that if they work, he’ll pay them what is right. No amount is named, just a promise that he will do right by them. He goes out again at noon, and once more at 3 in the afternoon, and finally one last time at 5 p.m., which is kind of a head-scratcher, because there’s only one hour left in the twelve-hour workday. But he hires them too and sends them into the vineyard.

 

At 6 in the evening, he tells his manager to settle accounts, and the folks who came last and worked only one hour are paid first. When they show up, they are likely astounded that they received a full day’s wage. You heard that right. They’ve worked just one hour – about 8 ½ % of the workday, but they’re getting a 100% of a full day’s wage. Which means they’re likely not just surprised but probably overjoyed. Maybe the only people happier than those hired at the last hour are those hired at the first. Think about it. They worked twelve hours and just saw the guys who only worked one hour get a full day’s wage. So, it’s not hard to imagine that they’re expecting to get more, maybe a lot more. But when they show up to be paid, they also get a single denarius. That doesn’t seem fair. I mean, they worked for twelve hours, enduring, as they understandably grumble, the scorch of the sun all day long. They feel they deserve more.

 

It’s all too easy for us to dismiss these laborers as ungrateful or selfish or, to borrow a biblical phrase, hard of heart. But their reaction is pretty much what most of us would have felt had we been in their shoes. What happens to them simply does not add up and so doesn’t seem fair. Never mind it’s what was contracted – if those who worked an hour received a day’s wage, then those who worked so much longer deserve more. Right?

 

In an act of generosity, the owner of the vineyard throws aside normal practices for payment. Rather, he gives the laborers what is “right.” While it seems terribly wrong to the diligent folks who have worked all day, it is right in the owner’s eyes that everyone goes home with enough pay to buy food for their families. But these workers want fairness; who can blame them. They feel cheated because they calculated their wages in accord with what the manger paid the latecomers. The manager responds that he has acted not with fairness in mind but rather with love expressed through generosity.

 

If you’re someone who works in the financial industry, this parable goes against pretty much every business practice. But we can’t get bogged down in the economics of this story. If we do, we will miss the whole point. The parable was not told to teach about money; it was told to teach about grace. Let’s take a look back at the verses that come right before today’s gospel reading:

 

“Then Peter said in reply, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

 

Peter is saying, “look Jesus, we were your first choice, we’ve been around since the beginning, following you around, what do we get out of it?” and Jesus goes, “Pete, stop worrying so much about who’s first and who’s last. In the end, everyone gets into the Kingdom of God.”

 

There is this belief that the longer you’ve been doing God’s work, the longer that you’ve been following Christ, the bigger your reward should be in the afterlife. And that the stronger your faith, the more you’ve earned your spot in heaven. But the thing is, God is a terrible bookkeeper. God doesn’t keep a tally of all the things you’ve done in your life, as if ticking your way to the front of the line at Heaven’s Gates.

 

The landowner in our story pays every laborer the same because that’s the way God operates. God does not show partiality. God does not require payment for love. In this parable, Matthew is reminding us of the wonder of God’s grace and that God’s love for us, for everyone, is unconditional. Imagine a world in which preferences are not shown to some, where all people are welcomed and treated the same. Such a world could really become a priesthood of all believers. The God we discover in Jesus is the God who looks at us in love and overlooks all those places we fall short and chooses to treat us with unmerited grace, mercy, and generosity.

 

We are the latecomers to the vineyard, those who had no good reason to expect such lavish generosity. Instead of worrying about getting what we deserve, we need to see the world through the lens of the Kingdom of God. What would happen if everyone got their “daily bread”? Who are we neglecting or pushing to the margins, instead of making sure they are being see as equal and worthy?

 

The labourers in this story thought they weren’t getting what they deserved even though it was exactly what they agreed to. This is a good time to remind ourselves of the overwhelming gospel message: Justice is getting what we deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve.

 

We don’t deserve God’s mercy. We didn’t earn God’s love. And yet, here we are. Receiving our “daily bread” from God – peace, love, mercy, and grace. Perhaps only those who think they don’t measure up are ready to receive God’s grace. To have faith is to embrace this possibility and to discover grace as hope and vindication for our lives. Even those coming to this faith late in life will have a spot in heaven. They too will receive their “daily bread”.

 

And that is good news indeed.

 

Amen

25 Years Later

Photo from abc7.com

25 years ago, almost 3,000 lives were lost when planes crashed into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon, and a farmer’s field killing thousands of people. Nothing has been the same since. It was a moment that changed the world.

I remember visiting my grandparents in Boissevain, MB and we would drive down to Lake Metigoshe in North Dakota for dinner. It was a real treat! Crossing the boarder was easy, with no more than a conversation. No IDs were checked. No mini-interrogation about why you're crossing the boarder. Nail clippers never used to be considered a dangerous weapon on an airplane, either.

Everything changed on September 11, 2001 and, 25 years later, it's all still the same.

10 years ago, as I was starting out in my theology degree, I wrote a paper about the September 11 attacks. It was probably one of my best papers and every once and a while I read through it, wondering if I could or should something more with it.

As we approached the 25th anniversary of these horrible events, I broke the paper out again. Reading through it, I shake my head because the world hasn't changed much over the last 2 decades. Everybody's at war with somebody. Fear is at an all-time high. And nail clippers are still consider a dangerous weapon on airplanes. Here is an excerpt from the paper:

"The attack on the World Trade Centre was a culmination of years of terrorism and war, disgustingly poor human rights policies, and some extremely faulty foreign policy within the US government with regards to counterinsurgency training and inconsistencies on who qualifies for US aid. On the surface it would appear that the attack was unprovoked and came out of nowhere. But as you begin to unravel the past, you can see a pattern in how the US deals with foreign nations and that it is quite likely that a group of people finally had enough and took justice into their own hands. Through mass and social media we have been essentially forced to accept the US as innocent bystanders who were seemingly attacked for no reason. But if you start delving into some history you will find that the US government was a far cry from an innocent or a bystander. From ignoring blatant human rights issues to taking both sides of a civil war it appears that the US has brought it on to themselves the fact that they are the target of multiple terrorist groups."

What I tried to do in my paper is attempt to show that it was the US government’s own inconsistent foreign policy that resulted in the destruction of the World Trade Centre and the death of 3,000 people. More than 3,000 as we are now aware of the deaths that were caused by health issues from the dust and chemicals that were in the air that day, and the days following.

Discussing such things as the Cold War, the Truman Doctrine, the Kennedy Doctrine, the Nixon doctrine, the Somalia Syndrome, the Rwanda Genocide, the Persian Gulf War, and Bin Ladin and al Qaeda, I feel like I was able to explain how the US became a targeted superpower. It was a fascinating bit of research and certainly made me realize how the events of September 11 were not isolated, nor did they come out of nowhere.

On September 11, the world was changed forever. With the aftermath leading to a two-decade-long war is Afghanistan, and Islamophobia rates skyrocketing to numbers that really haven't come down much since then, we are still feeling the effects of those horrible events, even 25 years later.

Will I break out this paper again in 5 years? 10 years? Only time will tell. But I sure hope things start turning around soon. How long can one country remain at war with the rest of the world?

We Are Not the Judge: A Sermon for the 16th Sunday After Pentecost

Give us ears to hear and hearts to listen. Amen.

 

Of all the letters believed to be truly written by Paul, the letter to the community in Rome is the only one not written to a church he had founded and knew well. Paul wrote to the Romans as an introduction and to prepare them for his arrival in their city. A bit like an agenda with reports and material sent around before a parish council meeting. Paul is most concerned about telling the Romans about the issues of justification and salvation and that one of the consequences of our justification and salvation in and through Christ is that we will be transformed. Not only physically on the day of resurrection, but in our hearts, minds, and spirits as well.

 

Up to this point, some of the things Paul has talked about are what it means to believe in God, what it means to have faith, the practicalities of living in community, and the redemption through Jesus Christ that can be accessed through faith and action. And today it’s all about pitting meat eaters against vegetarians! No, wait. That doesn’t sound right. That’s what it reads like though, doesn’t it? “The weak eat only vegetables”. That’s what it says. After all of Paul’s talk about family, community, being welcoming to the stranger, loving the neighbour, forgiving the enemy…he’s got something against those who choose not to eat meat? Not really. Paul is talking about the culture of eating meat, or more accurately, eating food that is unclean, not kosher.

 

Jewish religious laws around food were pretty sticky and as Paul tries to bring more people towards conversion to Christianity, one of his points is that having faith in Jesus is more than just following a bunch of rules. It means caring about people more than caring about the food you put in your mouth. That said, I don’t think the people who created the lectionary wanted us to start a debate between being a carnivore and being a vegetarian. There has to be more meat in this reading!

 

This passage is more than just about eating meat or vegetables. It’s about division and differences. This is about a Roman community that was both Jewish and Christian and they were struggling to figure out who was right, who was more faithful. For example, should they honour the last day, Saturday, as the sabbath, or the Lord’s Day, Sunday? What Paul was trying to say here is that these divisions that were both frustrating and meaningful shouldn't divide us fully. The community is what matters, and we should hold together in love. It’s love that binds us together.

 

We can dispute and we can argue but that's not the point. Paul said to not just tolerate those who are weak in faith, but to show hospitality, to go the extra mile and make the weak feel welcomed. And he isn’t trying to say that some people have better faith or more faith than others. But he is saying that we should be welcoming to all people, even those with whom you disagree. Jesus didn't come to die and live so that we could argue over how to baptize or whether to eat meat or on what day we should celebrate. Jesus came so that we might have life, so that he might be the Lord of the living and the dead. And yet we judge one another, and we divide one another, sometimes even saying these divisions are done in God’s name. It is tough to praise God if you are busy passing judgment on other people. And yet, that’s often what we do.

 

While we might not be arguing about all the same things as Paul’s audience anymore, there are still plenty of divisions within our churches. Will we sing praise music, or traditional hymns? Should we read from the NRSV, or the NIV (or the KJV or the CEB)? Will we have an open communion table, or will we deny certain people receiving the feast? We also remain divided over things like the inclusion, acceptance, ordination, and blessing of women, people of colour, and 2SLGBTQIA+ persons. For every place that is truly affirming, there is a place that is not.

 

And just when you think progress is being made, society slides backwards in the conversation. Love the sinner, hate the sin. Right? That statement assumes that being a woman, a person of colour, a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community is a choice, and a sinful choice at that. None of these unique characteristics are a choice, but they are the way in which we are beautifully and wonderfully made by God. None of them are a sin. White supremacy, hate speech, hate actions, racism - these are choices and sins. These are actions that need to be called out and exposed for the destructive lies they are, and those who continue to espouse them must be held accountable.

 

I understand Paul's call that we are to love, that love is ultimate, that love is everything. Easy enough for some, but what about those being rejected by society, by family, by community? That’s the hard part. It’s not about “anything goes”. Loving everyone doesn’t mean “everything goes”. This could too easily be interpreted as a sit back and, for the sake of the community, love everybody and don't rock the boat. I doubt Paul would be telling us not to rock the boat. Jesus was a great boat rocker and Paul was repeatedly thrown into prison. Rocking the boat is exactly what we need to do in order to bring justice to those on the margins. When a group of people want to cause harm to another group of people, we need to stand up and rock the boat.

 

Very few challenges in the Christian life can compare with the challenge of really loving one another despite how different we all are. However, at our core we are all children of God, created in God's image. God is the God of all people and God calls us to love and pray for our enemies and those who hate and persecute us. To us, the enemies, the persecutors, and the haters are the people who are weak of faith. And we are called to welcome them to our table, just as Christ welcomed all sinners to his table.

 

Paul acknowledges that devout people can have radically different convictions and still be good and faithful people. It is too easy to judge each other, especially when society constantly barrages us with the idea that people are “less than” simply because of race, gender, sexual orientation, or religious background. But we need to resist demonizing each other and remember that we mere mortals have no right to judge. Verse 12 in todays reading, “so then, each of us will be accountable to God.” There is only one judge, and it isn’t me, and it isn’t us. If, in the end, I am wrong about who God intended for me to include, then I will answer to the Almighty on my final day. Until then, all are truly welcome to my table because I believe that God calls us to live as a community that embraces all and sees all as equal, so that together our knees will bow before God.

 

We are all people called by grace and by God not to judge but to worship and to serve.

 

Amen.

Let Love Be Genuine: A Sermon for the 14th Sunday After Pentecost

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew in me a right spirit, that genuine love might flow in and through me and your church for the healing and wholeness of our world. Amen.

Last week, we heard Paul reminding his readers that they are more than individuals. They are individuals who are members of one another, with differing gifts that contribute to the whole. Paul declared that we are one body in Christ with many members, and that each of us brings unique gifts into the community. In the Catechism found in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, we acknowledge Paul’s statement, declaring that “according to the gifts we have been given” we are to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world, here and now, where we are and while we are here. And Paul acknowledged that we will not all do this the same way. We do not have to all march in step together, but rather we are to exercise the unique gifts we have each been given in our own unique ways. Not everyone has the same gifts. Not everyone has to follow Jesus in just the same way as the next person. The best news of all being, of course, that no one is expected to do anything that God has not already equipped us to do. I labelled it as “Team Church” – all working together, using our unique gifts, to be a community called church, a community called to be a living sacrifice in the name of Jesus.

 

The reading from Romans today could be considered a group covenant for Christians, a list of core values on which the activities and ministries of church are built, a reminder about how we are meant to live in the days between worship services. Paul’s words are a description and an invitation to Christian community.

 

So, what it is that he calls us to do? Let’s see if I can set it up in “Ten Commandments style”:

1.         Love genuinely

2.         Overcome evil with good

3.         Love one another

4.         Show honour to one another

5.         Be fervent in spirit

6.         Rejoice in hope

7.         Be patient in suffering

8.         Be constant in prayer

9.         Show hospitality

10.       Bless those who persecute you

11.       Be sympathetic

12.       Live in harmony with one another

13.       Do not repay evil with evil

14.       Live peaceably

15.       Do not avenge yourselves

 

Ok so that was way more than ten. Paul has a lot to say about what it means to serve Christ! But there is one common theme: Love. Love is the overarching paradigm for the whole of Romans chapter 12, the first half about loving God and the second half about loving each other. Paul echoes Jesus in calling attention to love as the key moral norm for God’s people. Jesus had said that all the law and the prophets hang on two commands: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Love finds its full expression in community, where people share life together with its joys, its pains and wrongs, its sorrows.

 

At the beginning of our reading today, Paul assumes that his audience knows that they are to love, and he presses them to make their love for each other genuine. Genuine love is more than just being nice to people. Genuine love has a moral orientation toward the good. When we show love toward someone, we are moving them toward God’s goodness. To love someone is not simply to cater to specific likes and dislikes of that person. It is rather to act toward them in ways that help them experience more of God’s goodness.

 

And while we don’t always like to talk about good and evil as if they are polar opposite absolutes from each other, there are evils in the world that we do need to fight against. There is so much hate, oppression, injustice, deception, manipulation, and violence in the world. We really can’t just sit back and ignore what is going on if we truly believe in justice and peace and freedom.

 

Jesus calls us to follow a pattern of responding to evil not by retaliating, but by embracing those who do evil with mercy, kindness, and forgiveness. Responding to the world’s evil with genuine love is how we will begin to see real change in the world. Paul reinforces Jesus’ call, telling us that we are not to repay evil with evil. When we oppose those who do evil in our world with anger, we are more likely to perpetuate the evil they do. So how then do we respond to evil?

 

In the same way Jesus did. Jesus knew that only the willingness to respond to hostility with peace, to respond to hatred with forgiveness, can redeem evil. We need to respond with love, genuine love. Love which does not reject evil is not genuine. Genuine love must reject the systemic evils in our culture and society. This does not mean rejecting the individual, rather rejecting hateful ideology, language, and actions that deny the humanity and prevents others from living fully and freely as God intended.

 

This is what Jesus meant when he said that those who want to follow him will have to take up the cross. He was calling us all to follow his pattern of responding to evil by not retaliating, but by embracing those who do evil with mercy and kindness and forgiveness. Only when we can embrace those who do evil in our world with genuine love can we hope to respond to what they do in a way that will bring real change – responding to violence with forgiveness, responding to hatred with compassion, responding to hostility with peace. When we do, we have the chance to change not only what they do but more importantly who they are. As we embrace those who do evil, we have the chance to make a change that can create peace and justice and freedom.

 

The Gospel of Christ has always been counter-cultural, but for centuries “Christendom” masked this reality, in an assumption that we lived in a “Christian society”.  As a result, we have become stagnant, making assumptions that the world was made for Christians, erasing the memory that Christians are meant to go against the grain, to toss the tables, and to defend the oppressed. As Christians, we need to make a conscious choice, not just once but over and over again, about whom we are going to follow. To discern how to be in the world but not of the world. Making the decision to take up Jesus’ cross and respond to the world’s evil with genuine love so that we can create real change in the world.

 

As Christians, we are called to live by a different standard in all parts of life. It is easy to attend worship each week and leave it all at the door on your way out. To live according to Paul’s core values that I listed before is a daily commitment. So why don’t we make that commitment to ourselves and to each other right now? Repeat after me:

 

I promise to show hospitality toward others.

I promise to live in peace and harmony with others.

I promise to be sympathetic and compassionate to those around me.

I promise to do good and let God be the judge.

I promise to bless those who persecute me, and to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

I promise to overcome evil with good.

I promise to rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, and be constant in prayer.

I promise to have real and genuine love for others.

By making these promises to each other, we have committed ourselves to our calling of being a living sacrifice in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Resources:

workingpreacher.org

pulpitfiction.com

thewakingdreamer.blogspot.com

"Feasting on the Word" edited by David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor

One Person, One Body, One Team: A Sermon for the 13th Sunday After Pentecost

Photo Credit: Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

 

I’m a pretty big Winnipeg Jets and Blue Bombers fan. I used to watch as many hockey games as possible on TV and we’re Bomber season ticket holders. When I was a kid, we would go to my uncle’s house every Saturday to watch Hockey Night in Canada. Football is still on every week, but while I don’t watch much hockey anymore, when it comes to playoff season, I’ll try to find a way to fit a few into my schedule.

 

One of my favorite parts was watching the interviews, especially after big wins like the Stanley Cup or the Grey Cup. Everyone was so excited and happy. And almost every person interviewed would praise their teammates. Even when the reporter would ask about a goal or catch or touchdown that the player got, it was always “I couldn’t have done it without my teammates”, or “we won this game as a team”, or “it was a team effort.” In my opinion, the best teams are the ones who are there for each other. The teams where when one player is struggling, another one picks up their play. The teams where each person has their unique gift, is supported by their teammates, and are missed when they aren’t there. The other thing that makes a team great is when they are involved in their community. We often hear stories of athletes being involved in their community. Whether it’s visiting children’s hospitals, donating money to military veterans, or having a pickup game with neighbour kids.

 

Paul says that this is what the church is supposed to be like. The book of Romans can be divided into two parts: a theological explanation of the gospel for the first 11 chapters and a series of ethical exhortations for the rest of the letter. At the end of chapter 11, Paul reflects on God’s mysterious, fixed purpose and great mercies for all people. In response, he broke into doxology, expressing his praise to God. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.” (11:36) But the letter doesn’t end there. Paul introduces new content as he brings the story of Christ’s redemption to bear on the life of the believer in tangible and practical ways.

 

As we head into chapter 12, Paul calls his audience to respond to God’s great mercies not simply in doxology, but with a living sacrifice. Pulling on the language that giving a sacrifice to God was a typical piece of worship during Paul’s time, he is telling us that we are now to be that sacrifice. Not by offering ourselves in death at the altar, but by giving ourselves fully and wholly to God. More than just spiritual worship, Paul is calling us to bodily worship. Paul exhorts his audience to present their bodies and reminds them that they are one body in Christ with many members.

 

In the last part of today’s reading, Paul emphasizes that while we are one body with many members, not all members have the same function. We are all individuals with unique attributes and gifts that, when put together, become the amazing body of Christ. We might be teachers or prophets or caregivers or leaders or followers. No matter our gift, we are all an important piece of the puzzle, important cogs in the machine that we call “church”.

 

We are a team. We are “Team Church”. Like in the CFL, we meet once a week to do the thing we do. We gather in one spot. We read some lessons. We hear a sermon. We sing some music. We receive a blessing. And then we go home. And there is nothing wrong with that! I have always called Sunday worship a resetting for the week. It is powerful and meaningful. All of the things we do each week is meant to be a communal reminder, a re-orientation, and a loving accountability which brings us back to the way of Jesus. But then what? Is this full-bodied worship? Is that being the body of Christ?

 

We call the body of Christ “church” but that doesn’t mean the individual buildings. Talking about church as the body of Christ is talking about the people, the believers, who collectively form the church. Being the body of Christ means to be united under his name, unified members working together to keep being what Jesus called us to be from the very beginning – God’s beloved people.

 

For Paul, this full-bodied worship is not an activity but a way of being, a way of living in full relationship to God and each other through the way of Jesus Christ. This full-bodied worship happens in the community as we live out our faith by serving one another to build up the body of Christ. The quality of our worship is not measured by what happens on Sunday mornings, but by what happens when we are out in our community from Monday through Saturday. Paul’s worship of Christ wasn’t confined to a building, so why should ours be?

 

The western church has long enjoyed a privileged place as an institution. However, the church was never meant to be just an institution. It was meant to be a community of forgiveness and love and generosity. Almost across the board, church buildings are starting to empty. Where people used to walk to church in droves, they are now driving in small groups. The meaning of being in the building is fading away. But that doesn’t mean the team is breaking up! It just means things look differently than they did before. The church is being reborn into what was always meant to be – a group of people doing things that puts us outside the norms of behaviour for our society.

 

We are being called to change, to discern what this new body of Christ will look like. We need to wrap our minds around what we do day to day in our lives that expresses God’s will. Now, more than ever, we will need to lean on each other, help each other discern our gifts, and find new ways to serve God as a living sacrifice.

 

So, what did Paul mean when he spoke about full-bodied worship? It means worship as acts of service for others done in the name of Christ. It means moving beyond the sanctuary into the streets. It means acts of kindness extended to others. It means helping those in need rise above the barriers of the education system or health system. It means giving resources to help improve the quality of life for someone.

 

None of us are perfect but we all are part of one body and one team. We are team church! The church that is a group of people and communities gathered by the grace and mercy of God who loves us freely and ferociously. The church that is meant to be a body giving Christ a face and voice and hands and feet to the world. The church that truly offers ourselves for service to others in the name of Christ.

 

Amen.