A Review of the Book "Persistence is Futile" by S. V. Moroz

Title: Persistence is Futile

Author: S. V. Moroz

Publisher: Self-published

Year; 2017

108 pages

From the Back: In this minimalist self-help guide, personal coach and counsellor Moroz warns about the dangers of persistence and the importance of taking pause, breaks, and quitting.

Personal Thoughts: Two things got me to read this book. The title reminded me of the Borg from Star Trek - "resistance is futile" - and the subtitle "how taking a break can move you forward" captured my attention. I have to admit, though, that I am not a fan of the content. The main principle is that sometimes it's ok to quit what you're doing rather than forcing yourself to persist. In principle, I can see where the author was trying to go. Staring at a blank screen waiting for inspiration gets you no where. Forcing yourself to work extended days to finish a project can lead to poor workmanship and exhaustion. But encouraging someone to quit their job because they don't like it doesn't sit well with me.

    I was intrigued by the Pomodoro Technique of taking regular breaks in order to increase productivity, as well as the author's insistence that we should be sure to know that we are persisting for the right reasons. Points such as these were useful.

    However, overall, I wouldn't recommend spending time reading this book. For me, it didn't feel worth my time.

Good Times. Bad Times. Blessings. Curses.: A Sermon for All Saints' Sunday

May only truth be spoken and may only truth be heard. Amen.

 

While originally of pagan origin, the Hallowtide Triduum has become a Chrisitan tradition of a three-day observance that includes All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day. All Hallows' Eve is celebrated on October 31 and is the first day of the triduum. It is a time for preparation and reflection on death, often including services and visits to cemeteries to prepare graves for All Saints' and All Souls' days. All Saints' Day is celebrated on November 1 and is a day to celebrate and honor all saints, martyrs, and the faithful departed who have lived holy lives. It is a time to celebrate the "mystical body of Christ" and the "company of all faithful people". All Souls' Day on November 2 is the final day of the triduum. It is a solemn observance for remembering and praying for all the faithful departed, especially relatives and loved ones. Traditions include visiting graves, lighting candles, and giving "soul cakes" to the poor in exchange for prayers for the dead.

 

From an Anglican perspective, the Hallowtide Triduum is a significant part of the Anglican liturgical calendar, often observed with specific services and a focus on the communion of saints. As with other traditions, it is seen as a time to reflect on the victory of Christ over sin and death and to contemplate our own mortality and eternal life. The commemoration of all faithful departed on November 2 is a key element, reinforcing the Anglican belief in the communion of saints and the church, both living and dead.

 

If you’re asking yourself why we are celebrating All Saints’ Day today then, when it’s November 2, well, it’s a complicated liturgical scheduling question that I’d be happy to answer to anyone interested at another time. Over time, as people stopped going to church on a daily basis, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day have been merged into a single Sunday service that focuses on remembering those in the church who have died in the previous year while also celebrating the saints and martyrs of the church. It is an important occasion for remembering and celebrating the blessed of the church’s story, both ancient and contemporary, those known to us only by legend and history, as well as those known to us in this life.

 

The Gospel reading for today lays out the characteristics of the blessed alongside the characteristics of the lost. Good times. Bad times. Blessings. Curses. We feel and experience them all. It is with these images that we approach the gospel of Luke and his account of Jesus’ beatitudes for today. We usually deal with the beatitudes from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5 when we hear Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Luke’s version is slightly different in that it is shorter, and it is delivered on the plains. It is possible that this is the same sermon with Matthew and Luke remembering it or writing it differently. But it is more likely that Jesus gave this sermon more than once and in more than one place. The beatitudes are, after all, the foundation of a Christian’s baptismal life, so is it hard to imagine that Jesus told them over and over again?

 

Luke’s version of the beatitudes is quite a bit more literal than Matthew, less spiritual. In Luke, Jesus declares that the poor, the hungry, the lamenting, the hated, the excluded, and the defamed are to rejoice, for their suffering will be reversed and turned into plenty and joy. By contrast, the rich, the privileged, the prominent, and the comfortable will find themselves outside of the realm of God. On the surface, this passage seems quite controversial. If you are poor, you are blessed and if you are rich, you are cursed? If you’re hungry, crying, hated, reviled, you are blessed? Full, happy, loved – cursed? You can see why this might be seen as controversial.

 

When reading the Gospel, you must consider Jesus’ audience. To whom is he speaking? Sometimes we must guess or do some historic digging to figure it out. But if you back up a little to verse 17, Luke tells us straight-up who the audience is – his disciples and a great multitude of people. In Matthew, Jesus delivers his beatitudes from on top of a hill or mountain. In Luke, he comes down to eye level, to equal ground, with his disciples and gives them his blessings and curses, his owes and woes.

 

Jesus is not saying, as we are often tempted to read into this passage, that to be poor is to be blessed. He is not saying that to be hungry is to be blessed, or weeping, or hated. Jesus is speaking to his disciples who happen to be poor, who happen to be hungry, who happen to be weeping, who happen to be hated. He is speaking to his disciples and helping them to figure out how to feel about being in this situation. He says, in verse 23, to rejoice in that day and to leap for joy. Jesus is telling his disciples that despite the fact that they are poor, hungry, sad, hated, reviled, because they have faith in God, they will be blessed with the rewards of heaven.

 

The reward promised to the first blessing is “yours is the Kingdom of God”. Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the Kingdom of God. What's the counterpart to that? “Woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation.” Jesus says woe to you who are rich now because that's what you get. In your poverty, you are the beneficiaries of the Kingdom. Jesus is your king, and you are rightful heirs of all that the Kingdom of God is. All that the king can do for you, he is doing for you and for your good, right now, even in the midst of poverty and weeping and slander. So when Jesus says “woe to you who are rich”, he means what is your portion right now? Rich is you wanted, you got it, then in the end, that's it that’s all. You have received your consolation, this is what you get, and that will be the end of it.

 

So what's my point here? The point is not that poverty and hunger and weeping and being hated are the way you become blessed, the means of blessing, the qualification you meet in order to get the blessing. That's not the point here. Jesus is not saying that if you want to be blessed, you better be poor. He is not saying if you want to be blessed, you better not have any food. He is not saying if you want to be blessed, you better be a weeper and not have any joy. He is not saying if you want to be blessed you better get yourself hated.

 

No, the point is many disciples are in fact poor, so how should you think about it? That yours is the Kingdom. Many disciples are in fact hungry, so how should you think about it? That you will someday get the reward of satisfaction. Many disciples are now weeping, and in all kinds of difficulties and pressures and afflictions. So how should you think about it? That day is coming when that's all going to pass, and you will laugh again.

 

And so, the point of this text is not to give us qualifications for how to receive the blessing of God. The point is that Jesus said “you are my disciples and therefore you are blessed. You are following me, and you are trusting me. Therefore, whether you’re poor, whether you're hungry, whether you're weeping, whether you're hated, you are blessed for all these reasons.”

 

By all worldly standards, I am rich, full, and well-spoken of. I have a home, food in the cupboards, and people who care about me and love me. As I have listened to Christ and experienced God’s love for all, I have learned that to be rich while others are poor is to not live in the promise of the kingdom of God. The consolation of self-contained riches is real but very limited, shallow, and fleeting. We all live in the house of God’s love and grace. Our response to the “Woe” should not be paralyzing guilt but receiving the gift of being put on a new path. What a great adventure of grace to discover ways we can live in the promise of sharing God’s abundance and knowing that God is always declaring “Blessed are you.”

 

As I’ve previously said, there is nothing inherently wrong with living in abundance. It’s what we do with that abundance that shows how we are blessed, and how we are living out God’s kingdom today. Our reading today ends with a call to love our enemies, to “do to others as you would have them do to you.” By sharing in our blessedness, we are living out God’s command to love one another, including the radical call to love even our enemies. Today, on All Saints Sunday, we remember those saints across the centuries who have dared to love enemies, even at great personal cost.

 

Today as we remember the saints who have lived and heard the challenge to live like saints, the words of the Apostles’ Creed ring true: we believe “in the communion of the saints.” As the church of Christ, we have a purpose in this world to live for others with Christ-like love. Through God, we have inherited a promise to be reunited with our loved ones in death. As the body of Christ, we are called to seek Christ in everyone we meet. May God help us follow the example of Christ as we strive to live in unity and love through the power of the Spirit. Amen.

Resources

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

workingpreacher.org

pulpitfiction.com

A Review of the Book "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson

Title: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Author: Barbara Robinson

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Year: 1972

108 pages

From the Back: The Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, smoke cigars, swear, and hit little kids. So no one is prepared when this outlaw family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant.

    None of the Herdmans has ever heard the Christmas story before. Their interpretation of the tale - the Wise Men are a bunch of dirty spies and Herod needs a good beating - has a lot of people up in arms. But it will make this year's pageant the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever.

Personal Thoughts: I'm not ashamed to say that sometimes I read children and teen books. There are times when nice, easy reads are required to allow the brain to rest a little. Even better are the books that end up with an amazing lesson within the pages. This little book is about more than just a Christmas pageant. It's about not judging other people, about caring for our neighbours, and about realizing that not everyone has heard the good news of Jesus Christ. In a multicultural and ecumenical world, we ca no longer assume that the majority of the people around us are Christian. Also, if you are going to talk about your faith, you can no longer assume the person in front of you has read a bible. This cute story is a lesson in humilty, and an understanding that if you're going to talk to someone about Jesus, you just might need to start from the beginning. And bring refreshments!

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 40

Chapter 40 – The Good Eye

 

As we get into the final few weeks of our exploration of the Sermon of the Mount, we begin to delve into some of the more difficult verses. Matthew 6:22-23 talks about eyes and lamps, darkness and light. Quite a curious pair of verses.

 

If your eyes are working properly, they will take in the light of the room and allow you to see. If they aren’t working, you will be in darkness. This same description is used in Luke 11. Timothy Keller links both metaphors to money, materialism, and greed. He declares that “Jesus says … this darkens your eye spiritually.” (p. 254)

 

According to Keller, the darkness comes from not wanting to talk about greed, not wanting to admit that we are quite likely greedy, we just don’t realize it. We compare ourselves to someone richer than us, and there’s probably always someone richer than us, and decide that because rich people exist, we aren’t greedy. But just because someone might be more extravagant than you, doesn’t mean your greed is non-existent. Did you choose your job because of enjoyment or money? Or are you turning a blind eye to the damage your employer is causing to the environment?

 

The darkness of materialism is everywhere in our society. Perhaps it’s time for us to reassess how we spend out money. Even just by focusing on buying Canadian and/or local, we are letting our eyes see the reality of where our money goes after it leaves our hands.

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 39

Chapter 39 – Lasting Treasures

 

Not only is humanity full of selfishness and greed, but it also seems to be incapable of letting go of things and stuff. It’s as if the accumulation of “stuff” is the most important thing to many people. And the richer you are, the less likely you’re willing to let go of anything, especially money. Basil the Great states, “if everyone took for himself enough to meet his immediate needs and released the rest for those in need of it, there would be no rich and no poor.” (p. 249)

 

I took economics in school, and I still couldn’t tell you what’s happening in today’s economy. Pries are skyrocketing, especially when it comes to food and other necessities. And how about the salaries for professional athletes? Why do they need all of that money? Probably just to buy more stuff. It’s hard to comprehend why the few richest people feel like they need more when so many people have nothing, can’t even buy food to feed their family.

 

And it’s not like you can take it with you when you die. All these earthly treasures that are being accumulate will just be left behind once you’re gone, so why not spread the wealth while you’re around to see the joy on someone else’s face? As Clement of Alexandria says, “In the end it is not the one who keeps, but the one who gives away, who is rich.” (p. 251)

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 38

Chapter 38 – Deliver Us

 

…but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:13)

Now that we’ve asked God not to lead us into temptation, or to save us from the time of trial, our next request is to be delivered from evil, or the evil one. But what is this evil, or who is this evil one? Our minds automatically go to Satan. Makes sense that we’d ask God to deliver us from Satan and his evil ways. This feels too simple, though.

Romana Guardini says, “The evil I have to contend with is a distillation from past evil that comes from others or myself.” (p. 240) The evil we come across in our lives is not Satan, but humanity. The selfishness and greediness of God’s creation have done more harm in this world than Satan ever has. Guardini continues, “Wars are not started by the force of nature, but by selfishness everywhere.”

Repeatedly we hear how humanity is destroying the planet, and how if we were to take better care of our resources, there would be enough for everyone. And yet, the world is run by a select few with millions barely able to get their hands on a loaf of bread because “the real evil does not stem from nature, but from the coldness and hardness of selfishness, the negligence of the indolent, the thoughtlessness of the superficial and pleasure-loving.” (p. 240)

The good news is that God can deliver us from this evil, if only we would put our faith into God and follow God’s lead. Jesus has given us the roadmap to deliverance, now it’s up to us to listen.

A Review of the Book "The Fire Sermon" by Francesca Haig

Title: The Fire Sermon

Author: Francesca Haig

Publisher: Gallery Books

Year: 2015

370 pages

From the Back: Four hundred years after a nuclear apocalypse, the Alphas have inherited the earth - or what's left of it. All humans are born in pairs, the deformed Omegas getting split from their flawless twins and exiled to bleak farming villages while the Alphas exploit and oppress them almost unto death. But despite their claims of superiority, the Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: whenever one twin dies, so does the other.

    Cass is a rare Omega whose mutation is psychic foresight - not that she needs it to know that as her powerful twin, Zach, ascends the ranks of the ruling Alpha Council, she's in grave danger. Zach has a devastating plan for Omega annihilation. Cass has visions of an island where a bloody Omega resistance promises a life of freedom. But her real dream is to discover a middle way, one that would bring together the sundered halves of humanity. And that means both the Council and the resistance have her in their sights.

Personal Thoughts: This was a very entertaining book! The story was engaging, the characters enthralling, and you couldn't help but compare events to what's happening in our society. As with most dystopian science-fiction, the story doesn't fall far from reality. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

"Anything You Can Do": A Sermon for the 20th Sunday After Pentecost

May only truth be spoken and may only truth be heard. Amen.

 

Sometimes life feels like a giant competition. We are always trying to one-up the other person – better job, bigger house, faster car, cuter child, larger bank account. Social media hasn’t helped one bit. We are constantly in a state of comparison and vying for the most likes and shares. With people posting pictures of their lives, we only ever see the best parts and the good days but none of the struggles or bad days. The perfect family photo – but no sign of how long it took to get everyone ready and looking at the camera. With digital photography, you know right away if you need to keep taking more pictures until you have the perfect one for social media posting. So, when you look at your friends’ Facebook post and see perfect, smiling people, you can’t help but compare your life to theirs and wonder why yours looks so different.

 

Today’s parable also seems like a competition – the Pharisee against the tax collector, each vying for God’s affection. These are two characters that couldn’t be more opposite. The Pharisee was a highly religious man who knew all of the laws that would have needed to be followed in order to be considered properly pious. Based on what we read here, he was a good man. He isn’t a thief or an adulterer. He fasted and he tithed more than what was required. He peeks over and sees the tax collector, off in the corner with his eyes to the ground. The Pharisee prays to God, which is what he was there to do, but he does so in such a way to show people how good of a person he is. “Look at me,” he says, “I’m so glad I’m not a tax collector. Look at all the good things I’ve done.” It’s almost as if rather than giving thanks to God for all that he has in his life, the Pharisee is giving God a run-down of his resume as proof of having earned his position in heaven.

 

And then we have the tax collector. A real scumbag. He harasses his fellow Jewish community for money on behalf of the Roman empire and then skims a little off the top for himself. He’s as dishonest as you can get and cruel to his fellow countrymen. Compared to the Pharisee, a tax collector would never have been considered good or pious. And yet, he also finds himself in temple each week, praying to God with a simple declaration, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”, as his beats his chest while keeping his eyes on the floor. This tax collector knows that he’s a sinner and all he asks is that God forgives him. According to Jesus, this tax collector would have been more justified than the Pharisee. In Paul’s vernacular, this would have been justification by works versus justification by faith.

 

And the justification championship goes to – the tax collector! Hardly seems fair, though, does it? The tax collector who does everything wrong during the week that he possibly could receives God’s justification over the Pharisee who does everything right by the law. There should have been no comparison. But as with social media posts having more behind them than meets the eye, so does the comparison between the Pharisee and the tax collector. God isn’t looking for the one who is perfectly pious. God is looking for the one who is truly penitent. The new standard is no longer the code of the law the Pharisee is following so closely, it’s the love of God on which the tax collector threw himself.

 

The Pharisee is showing off to God and to anyone in earshot, listing off all the ways he is perfectly following the letter of the law which should put him closer to God. The tax collector knows who he is and asks for God’s forgiveness, week in and week out, casting himself onto the mercy of God. And week in and week out, he gets the mercy and forgiveness he seeks. That’s called grace. Robert Farrar Capon tells it this way. The Pharisee is like the perfect church member. He does everything by the book. He gives everything he has to the church. He gives thanks to God for everything that he has (or at least makes it seem like he is). The Pharisee is the perfect candidate for vestry, and any church would be lucky to have him on their parish list. But what about the guy who takes a twenty from the plate as it passes by? The guy who spends Monday through Saturday crossing off every deadly sin as if it were a checklist? The guy who comes in every Sunday morning, staring down at his feet, and saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner?” Probably not the first one you’d ask to join the vestry or any other church committee, for that matter.

 

Between the Pharisee and the tax collector, we can all admit to ourselves who we’d be more likely to welcome through our door. But God does things differently. To God, the Pharisee is no better off than the tax collector. In fact, the Pharisee is worse off because at least the other guy can admit that he is a sinner. According to Capon, “The fact is that they are both equally dead and therefore both alike receivers of the gift of resurrection.”

 

And this is good news for us! How many of us can claim that we had the perfect week? A week where we committed no sin, or error, or mistake? We can’t! The good news is that we can come here every Sunday, give everything we’ve done over to God, admit that we are sinners, and start over. Why? Because Jesus died for our sins on the cross so that we can have eternal life with God alongside the resurrected Jesus.

 

As church people, we aren’t supposed to have it all together. We are human beings who fail daily at perfection. And that’s okay because God doesn’t expect perfection. God’s justification is based on love, faith, and trust, not perfection, pride, or piousness. God expects us to love God, to love ourselves, and to love one another. God expects us to have faith in God’s plans for us. And God expects us to trust that God knows what God is doing.

 

The point of today’s parable is not to see who the best is at praying to God. It’s not about creating competition amongst the people of God to see who deserves the most justification. It’s not about who has scored the most points with God in order to get closer to heaven. God doesn’t keep score of our deeds, good or bad. God doesn’t monitor to make sure you’re praying properly. The point of today’s parable is a lesson in trusting in God’s grace and mercy, for if a tax collector can find mercy before God, then who could possibly be excluded?

 

God’s greatest act of mercy is found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. All people are drawn into the mystery of redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, at the foot of the cross, we can make the tax collector’s cry for mercy our own: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” In Luke’s Gospel, we see this enacted in the penitent thief who says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus replies, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

 

Amen.

Resources

"New Collegeville Bible Commentary" New Testament" edited by Daniel Durken

"Luke for Everyone" by N T Wright

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

"The Parables of Jesus" by Neal F Fisher

"The Parables of Grace" by Robert Farrar Capon

pulpitfiction.com

episcopalchurch.org

Be Persistent for Change: A Sermon for the 19th Week After Pentecost

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O God. Amen.

In the Parable of the Unjust Judge, Jesus selects a widow as the model for discipleship. This widow, as any other widow in Jesus’ time, had no one to intercede for her in the decisions of the judge. The widow, as a woman alone in the first century, was vulnerable to being taken advantage of in any number of ways. She was easy prey to those who would take advantage of her dire financial straits and her physical vulnerability. She was probably up against a wealthy opponent and his bribes, but she was so poor that she had no money by which to bribe the judge for herself.

 

The question of bribery is not out of question for this parable, for this judge was one who had “no fear of God and no respect for anyone.” The person who would have heard these words while listening to Jesus speak would understand that the lack of fear for God naturally entailed lack of respect for human beings, since the two were closely related throughout the Hebrew Bible. A judge in Israel was not only expected to be an unbiased umpire, but a defender for those who had no defender, the champion of the oppressed – the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the foreigner. Because God was the one who cared especially for the victims of persecution, it was necessary for any judge to see that the rights of the powerless were heard.

 

The judge in the story today did not fear God and therefore considered himself under no mandate to be a defender to the defenseless. The widow came to the judge asking him to secure her rights, but the judge refused to act on her behalf. There is no indication of what her cause is, who has wronged her, or what she wants. And no details about the judge’s reluctance to do so. We don't know what the opponent she wants justice from has done to her, but whatever it is, she is not going to stand for it. The woman persisted in her demands for justice.

 

Finally, the judge succumbed to her persistence and said to himself:

“Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,

yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice,

so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”

 

The translation that she will “wear him out” has been diluted over time. A more literal translation of the judge's grievance is that the woman "is giving me a black eye." Like all black eyes, the one the widow's complaints threaten to inflict have a double effect, representing both physical and social distress. That is, the judge complains that the widow's relentless badgering may not only cause him physical harm but also risks publicly embarrassing him. For this reason, he says – perhaps justifying his actions to his wounded sense of self – that he relents not because he has changed his mind but simply to shut up this dangerous widow.

 

After the judge grants the woman’s request, Jesus proceeds to put the questions to the hearer: “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?” Here, Jesus is not holding up the conduct of an unjust judge for commendation. He is saying that if even an unrighteous judge will grant justice out of fear and self-interest, will not God, who is the champion of the poor and the oppressed, grant them the justice that they pray for and seek day and night?

 

The reign of God is vindication of the oppressed. It is glimpsed when the oppressed get justice, even when they have to take it from an unwilling and an unjust judge. It is glimpsed when we see one who is powerless demand and obtain for herself the justice that is hers.

 

Luke’s point with this parable seems to be that we need to be persistent. Where has the persistent widow showed up in your life? Or, maybe better, who has been the persistent widow in your life? Perhaps it was an advocate for 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion, motivated by the love of a gay son, lesbian daughter, or transgender child, pushing for rights in school, government, and church. Perhaps it’s the mother of a child in a wheelchair demanding better accessibility at school. Perhaps it’s people you know on either side of the climate change debate, one passionate about care of creation and the other against the economic cost of proposed climate protections. Perhaps it was you, fighting for something you believe in even if no one else was on your side.

 

Persistence is important when encouraging ourselves and those suffering injustice to continue complaints and demands for justice. Persistence is needed for not only continual demands for justice, but also for change in the systems that are doing the oppressing in the first place. Jesus calls on us to “pray always and not to lose heart,” reminding us that faith is not a passive undertaking. The things we toss and turn with in the night call out for our attention, advocacy, and justice. To fulfill this call, we must be willing to be persistent. We must be willing to bring our prayers to God unceasingly, trusting that our petitions will be heard. God, the Bible has persistently insisted, gives special attention to those who are most vulnerable; therefore, we should persist in our complaints, even to the point of embarrassing the powers that be in order to induce change.

 

But as you fight alongside God for the widow, the orphan, the poor, the foreigner, and anyone else who has been oppressed, remember this one word…Empathy. Empathy for the person on the other side of the conversation. Empathy for the widow or judge or someone in between. Empathy for each other and for ourselves. For while we are fighting to right an injustice, we must remember that we are all human beings who deserve to be respected and who crave the mercy, care, and justice of the God we know in Christ.

 

Amen.

Resources

pulpitfiction.com

workingpreacher.com

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 37

Chapter 37 – Temptation

 

And lead us not into temptation…. (Matthew 6:13)

 

Do we really think that God is leading us into temptation? “How easy is it to blame someone else when we’re tempted to sin. It’s “his” fault, “her” fault, or when all else fails, it’s God’s fault.” (Bad Girls of the Bible, p. 57)

 

God does not lead us into temptation. That’s ridiculous. This is not something God would ever do. Leading us to temptation is Satan’s work. That’s why Pope Francis called for this particular line of The Lord’s Prayer be changed. In 2019, Pope Francis called for the traditional translation “Lead us not into temptation” be changed to “Do not let us fall into temptation”. Francis explained, “I am the one who falls; it’s not him pushing me into temptation to then see how I have fallen.” (www.desiringgod.org/articles/reading-the-bible-upside-down)

On page 234, N T Wright says that there are three levels of meaning in the verse “lead us not into temptation”:

1.      “Let us escape the tribulation”

2.      “Do not let us be led into temptation that we will be unable to bear”

3.      “Enable us to pass safely through the testing of our faith”

In the more modern Lord’s Prayer, it states, “Save us from the time of trial.”

There are so many ways we can look at this verse without thinking that God is leading us towards temptation. It is more likely that God wants to walk with us through temptation, helping us to get through whatever trouble we find ourselves in.

A Bit of Bread Goes a Long Way: A Sermon for the 18th Week After Pentecost

May only truth be spoken and truth received. Amen.

 

“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” What a powerful final verse to our reading today, the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, a time where many of us will gather with family, eating to our hearts content. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, pie, and, of course, bread.

 

For thousands of years, bread has been the symbol of necessary food and the sustenance of life. It is easy to understand why. It is nutritious, providing carbohydrates, starch, and protein to the body. Bread is essential and it’s more than just nutrition. It’s comfort. The texture, the weight, the taste, all combine to make bread both the staff of life and the number one comfort food. And yet, so many people lack access even to a small amount of bread. A little bit of bread could be everything to someone who is hungry. It’s a staple in most households, and yet we take it for granted that that loaf of bread will always be available to us.

 

Based on data from the 2023 Statistics Canada’s Canadian Income Survey, 10 million Canadians, including about 2 million children, live in food-insecure homes. That’s about 25% of our population wondering where their next loaf of bread will come from. Those numbers have doubled in two years, and I fear that they aren’t getting any better.

 

The Bible is unambiguous about our duty as Christians to feed the hungry. In the Hebrew Bible, God provides manna from heaven to feed the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 16). The prophet Isaiah exhorts his listeners to respond to God’s abundance with acts of justice and compassion, including sharing our food with all who hunger and dismantling systems that produce hunger in the first place (58:7). Perhaps most significant of all is Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 25 that how we treat people suffering from hunger, thirst, and other vulnerable situations is how we treat Christ himself (31-46). As we sit down to our dinners over the weekend, let us remember those who won’t have that same opportunity and ponder what we, as Christians, can do to live up to our duty to protect our neighbour.

 

Let us ponder once again that final gospel verse, “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

 

Every culture has bread in one or many forms. There’s white bread, wheat bread, pumpernickel, French, Italian, pita, tortilla, sour dough, and the list goes on and on. Say the word “bread” and chances are some good image, or taste, or smell, or texture is bound to pop up in our heads. All of those breads will grow stale and inedible in a relatively short period of time. Even the manna from heaven that fed the Hebrews in the wilderness was temporary.

 

But Jesus came offering a new kind of bread, one that doesn’t go bad, one that isn’t temporary, one that nourishes perpetually and lasts forever, one that sustains relationships and bolsters hope. Jesus is pure love and compassion for all people on the earth. Jesus is the source of life, the source of eternal life, the source of the values of our daily lives, the pattern of love for our daily lives. Jesus is never just regular old bread. Jesus is the bread of life.

 

As we consume physical bread, it gives us nourishment and energy for our physical lives. As we consume Jesus into our lives, his indwelling presence becomes the source for compassionate energy without our lives. He becomes the nourishment and energy for our spiritual, emotional, and moral lives. When we absorb Christ into our daily lives, we take in the mind and heart of God who loves all people as God's children. That is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, what it means to have the Spirit of Jesus living inside of you. It means to have the heart and mind of God living inside of you. Jesus is the Bread of life and whoever eats of Christ will never hunger again. When we eat and absorb Jesus’ words, spirit, and love into our lives, Jesus lives in us, and we will never die.

 

The basic food staple of the world is bread, and Jesus is the basic spiritual staple of the world. There is a shortage of physical bread in this world of ours, but there will never be a shortage of spiritual bread. God's nourishment is not the old bread of life which fed some, but the new bread of life who feeds all. The true bread is the bread of God that has now come down from Heaven in the person of Jesus.

 

Jesus points to bread beyond bread, to that gift from God which not only comes to the world through Jesus but is in fact Jesus himself. The bread which endures to eternal life is this relationship which has been made possible by the incarnation of the Son. In fact, the bread which endures is the Son himself, whom God gives for the world. As we absorb the spirit of Jesus Christ and his love, justice, and compassion, these qualities live more fully in us.

 

While we celebrate this weekend, let us not muddle our understand of thanks as praising God for material possessions. Jesus’ greatest gift to us is not the clothing, cars, computers, all the other physical gifts we earn or receive that are temporary. As wonderful as all of that is, it is Him, His teachings, His example, and His undying love that leads to eternal life…that is the greatest gift.

 

If we want eternal life, we must eat the food only God can give. We must believe that Jesus was the One sent down from heaven, by God, to show us the way to eternal life. This good news of Jesus’ life and teachings is enacted in the Lord’s Supper – where bread and wine become our way of connecting again and again with Christ, the Son of God. We are to then go live out that example and that connection, and to be grateful for the gifts of nature and neighbour. So, we are invited to come to Him, to study His word, follow His teaching, and put our trust in Him.

 

We are hungry for so many things in life. We are impatient in our hunger and want to satisfy our perceived needs as quickly as we can. Yet so much of what we hunger for doesn't last. When we eat food, we are hungry again. As we turn toward Jesus in our hunger for life, we find forgiveness, we find hope, and we find love. We are fed something that doesn't perish but rather something that flourishes – if we nurture it. In our everyday lives, we have seen it: the gift of bread, of mercy, of beauty, of healing. What can we possibly say, except thank you? For all that is, for all that has been, for all that still will be, O God our God, be above all and in all and through all, we give thanks for providing us with the bread of life, your Son, Jesus Christ.

 

Amen.

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 36

Chapter 36 – As We Forgive

 

…as we also have forgiven our debtors… For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:12, 14-15)

 

Forgiveness is one of the hardest things we will ever have to do. When someone has wronged us, when someone has hurt us, the last thing in the world we likely want to do is forgive them. Because to forgive means we must forget, right? To forgive means we accept what that person has done to us as insignificant, right? Not exactly.

 

Forgiveness “does not wipe out the consequence of sin.” (p. 228) Even if forgiveness is given, it doesn’t cancel out what was done, and there should still be consequences. A child breaks a dish. They might still have a punishment – cleaning it up, maybe some time in their room – but it is unlikely that the parent will not forgive the child for breaking the dish.

 

“Forgiveness is the re-establishment of right relationship.” (p. 228) To give forgiveness means that you want to repair the relationship that has been damaged by the sin. It’s not forgetting what happened but acknowledging the harm the event has caused and deciding to move past it in order to work on the relationship. Now, if forgiveness is given but no change in behaviour occurs, then perhaps right relationship will not be restorable. Only the parties affected can make that decision.

 

What happens if there is no opportunity to forgive the person directly? If the harm occurred many years in the past and the two people are no longer in contact, can forgiveness be given? Doesn’t it even matter at that point? That would depend on the person looking to give forgiveness, but it certainly can still have an effect on that person. By forgiving the sinner, even from afar and with no current relationship, it can still relieve the burden that is being carried. Forgiving someone longer parted from your life can be a way of letting go of the shadow that might be hanging over your head because of the event in question. Even if you can’t right the relationship, or don’t want to for whatever reason, relieving yourself of the burden can be very liberating. In that case, you’d be re-establishing right relationship with yourself, your own heart, and your own soul.

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 35

Chapter 35 – Forgive Us

 

And forgive us our debts… (Matthew 6:12)

 

“It is a basic Christian doctrine that we are all sinners.” (p. 218) This is something we learn right from the start of Sunday school. We are all sinners. As humans, we will never be perfect. It’s impossible to be perfect. We are all sinners. What we get as Christians, though, is the knowledge that God knows we aren’t perfect. God’s level of expectation of creation is pretty low. As equally as we know that we are all sinners, we know that God will always forgive us.

 

An important piece of this doctrine of sin is remembering that “all” means “all”. It doesn’t mean “everyone else but me.” As M Scott Peck states, “Housecleaning, like charity, should begin at home, and we usually have quite enough to do being our own watchdog without having to be anyone else’s.” (p. 218) It is important that we self-reflect on our own sinfulness and ask for God’s forgiveness and not worry about anyone else’s sins. We can only control what happens within ourselves.

 

And what does forgiveness mean? It means to “let go without a sense of guilt, obligation, or punishment.” (p.220) In the petition found in Matthew 6:12, we are asking for God to wipe the slate clean and allow us to start again. We acknowledge what we did today was wrong and we are asking for a new beginning tomorrow.

 

And you know what? That’s exactly what God gives us – a new beginning with a clean slate.