St. Andrew's sermon archive

February 28, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:43:00 +0000

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35

When I began to read and reflect on today�s scripture texts early in the week, the theme that sprang to mind for me was �heaven�. I read the line from Paul�s letter to the Philippians: �our citizenship is in heaven� and I remembered that twice in the last year, members of the congregation have specifically asked me to preach about heaven.

I remember thinking at the time that I don�t know anything about heaven. What could I possibly say about heaven that would not be a product of my own imagination or someone�s wishful thinking about what the afterlife will be like? As much as I believe in life after death, and that God has something special prepared for us after our lives in this world are over, I don�t feel like I know anything concrete about heaven. And when I was asked, I couldn�t really imagine what I would say in a sermon on heaven.

Of course, many of you have heard me mention heaven from this pulpit before� but most often, the context for my mentioning it has been within a funeral sermon. Whenever I preach for a funeral, I check to see if the person who died had selected scripture texts for the service, and I preach on those texts. And if not, I invite the family to select their favourite passages or texts from the bible that they would like to include in the service.

Many of the favourite passages that get chosen point towards the hope of a heavenly reality where the faithful will live on in peace and joy, and in the presence of a loving God:

The psalmist declares his faith and trust in the Shepherd God who guides him through life and beyond: �� and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.�

The apostle Paul speaks of an amazing transformation when �the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable��

And Jesus, in John�s Gospel, assures his followers that even though he will soon be killed, that he is �going ahead to prepare a place for us�.

Of course, there�s no mention of the word �heaven� in any of these passages. And yet, each one seems to hint at something beyond this life � a continuation, a transformation, a culmination in which the faithful rest in the loving, surrounding, comforting presence of God. They don�t give us any details about the afterlife, but they do give us the sense that it will be good, and that we will somehow finally be in the full presence of God where there is no more sorrow or suffering.

When I think about it, I realize that Jesus didn�t spend much time talking about heaven or worrying about whether his followers would get there or not. He was much more focused on teaching people how to live faithfully in the world� how to love one another. And he kept pretty busy during his ministry � showing them how to live and love one another too� healing people and casting out demons, spending time with the least and the outcast of society, and demonstrating God�s amazing love for them.

In our Gospel reading today, some Pharisees come to warn Jesus that he�s starting to get himself in trouble with the authorities. They tell him that he should be careful � that he should get out of town � because Herod wants to kill him. We�ve already seen that Herod is willing to have people killed. He ordered John the Baptist�s head on a platter to appease his wife and daughter. One can only imagine what he might do to Jesus if he decided he wanted to get rid of him!

But Jesus doesn�t seem at all worried or scared off by the Pharisees� warning. He replies: �Go and tell Herod� Go and tell that fox for me, �Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.�� It�s an interesting response: �Leave me alone, Herod. I�ve got things to do, and I don�t have time to be distracted by your threats. I have people to heal and negative energy to get rid of. And on the third day I finish my work.�

Long-time Christians may hear an echo in that language of a very central story in our faith. �On the third day, I finish my work.� Friday was the first day. On Friday Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. The second day was the Sabbath, and everyone rested. And then on the third day, some women went to Jesus� tomb bringing spices to anoint his body. And they discovered that he was raised. He was alive!

Jesus had given himself fully to God�s work in the world. Strong forces had opposed him, and many people had turned against him, but he did not give up. Though they arrested him, and hurt him, and hung him on a cross to die, he stood firm to the end, dedicated to his loving purpose in the world. And those forces did not win out in the end� because �on the third day� Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to many people, and then he ascended into heaven where he lives in the presence of God forever.

There it is again� heaven� in the Gospels and in the Creeds of the Church� Jesus ascended into heaven. He is alive and in God�s presence forever. We can hardly imagine what that is like, but it does sound wonderful� being raised up beyond the struggles and difficulties of life in this world. No more stress. No more fear. No more worries� but only peace and joy and the fullness of God�s loving presence.

The Philippian Christians, to whom Paul was writing a letter from his jail cell in the mid-first century, would have probably found great comfort in looking forward to life in heaven with God. If we think our lives are difficult and stressful, we might at least be thankful that we no longer have to deal with the challenges that first century Christians endured. The Philippians would have been particularly upset and worried, having heard that their leader, Paul, was in prison because of his preaching. They imagined that the same thing could happen to any one of them, and it had them frightened.

And so, the general tone of the letter is one of encouragement. Stand firm, Paul tells them. Even though there are threats all around you, stay faithful, and you will make it through. It reminds me of Jesus� response to the warning of the Pharisees. They said: �You better stop preaching like you�re someone with authority! King Herod is starting to get angry, and he says he�s going to kill you!� But Jesus can�t be put off that easily. Even if he is scared of what Herod might do, he doesn�t show it. He stands firm, and continues his work.

Not too long ago, I heard about a minister who had just arrived in his new congregation, and he wanted to get to know the people and see where they were at spiritually. So this minister circulated a short questionnaire for the members to fill in. And the first question was this: �If you were to die today, would you know for sure that you would go to heaven?�

I was taken aback when I saw the question because I never would have thought of asking that question. I�m not even sure how I would answer it if someone asked me. I might say something like this: �Well, I love God. Not always very well or consistently. And I�m fairly sure that God loves me� not because I�ve earned that love, but just because of God�s amazing grace. I�m not worried about what will happen to me when I die. I guess I can trust God and wait for whatever that experience will be like. I have the feeling that it may be quite wonderful� the thing people call �heaven�. I don�t really know� but I�m pretty comfortable with letting that be a mystery for now.�

Sometimes I hear people reflecting on the state of the world that we live in as if there is absolutely no hope for us and for this world. �People have lost all sense of morality,� they say. �The world is going to hell in a hand basket!� And then I often get the impression that they�re just trying to hang on until this life is over and they finally get to go to heaven (which will be amazing!) Sometimes our Christian religion is presented as if it has nothing to do with our lives today in this world� but its simple purpose is to make sure that as many people as possible get �saved� so that when they die, they will get to go to heaven.

I wonder about the purpose of a survey question that asks if people are �sure� that they�re going to heaven. If some of the people said, �No, they�re not sure whether they will go to heaven� then I suppose the minister would plan to work on getting them all saved. And if they all said, �Yes, we�re sure� then perhaps he would rally them all together to go out and get more people saved.

As you can tell, I don�t think it�s the right question to ask, because I think that the Christian faith has so much more to it. Our faith has more to do with how we live in relationship with God and our neighbours today, and not so much to do with getting an insurance policy for what happens to us when we die.

When Paul wrote to the Philippians to encourage them, he didn�t just tell them to hang on a little longer because when they died, they would get to go to heaven. He told them to �stand firm� and to join in imitating him, even as he worked to imitate Christ himself. He did not tell them to wait because one day they would live in heaven with God. No, he told them that they were already citizens of heaven.

A citizen is not a visitor, or a tourist, or a guest. A citizen is someone who belongs to a particular country, and Paul knew that Christians belong in the presence of God, in the kingdom of God� We are already citizens of heaven.

Though Jesus didn�t say much about heaven, his teaching was full of talk about the kingdom of God. The kingdom wasn�t something reserved for the next life, and Jesus proclaimed both that the kingdom had arrived, and that it was growing. It was growing all around through Jesus� ministry and through the love and care and service of those who followed Jesus� way.

When we get all worried about our own lives, about our own salvation� I think it becomes a distraction that takes our attention away from working on our true purpose as God�s followers in the world � the purpose of helping God�s kingdom of love and justice and peace to grow in our world today.

I find the words of the psalmist today very encouraging. Even in the midst of difficulties, he stands firm: �I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.� God�s goodness is not reserved for after we die, but it is available for us today, as we participate in making God�s kingdom here on earth. Think of those familiar words that we pray together every Sunday: �your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.�

In our Christian lives, may we follow the advice of Paul, and stand firm in the Lord, remembering that we are already citizens of heaven. Let us know that we are surrounded, even now, by God�s presence. And let us join in Jesus� work of healing and helping and serving today and tomorrow. Let us trust that on the third day, Christ will finish the work. Amen.

February 21, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:58:00 +0000

Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13

Today�s Gospel reading is the classic one for the first Sunday in the season of Lent. As we begin 40 days of Lenten prayer and preparation before the celebration of Easter, we hear about the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting and praying in the wilderness before he began his ministry. Luke�s version of the story is by far the most interesting, as he gives details of the temptations that Jesus might have experienced, and how he managed to overcome those temptations by focussing on God�s Word.

Three times, the devil appears, leading Jesus into temptation. And three times, Jesus avoids being led astray. Since Jesus is so hungry, he is first tempted to turn the stones into bread. But he reminds himself of God�s word: �One does not live by bread alone,� and the temptation passes.

Next, he is tempted to use his power to become the ruler of the whole world. If he bows down to worship the devil, the evil one claims that Jesus can have it all. But Jesus knows another relevant verse: �Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.� He refuses to worship anyone or anything other than God.

The third and final temptation is for Jesus to test God and God�s love for him. The evil one can quote scripture too, and he challenges Jesus to throw himself down from the very top of the temple, in order to see if God will save him. He quotes from today�s psalm: �God will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,� and �on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.�

Not surprisingly, Jesus does not succumb to the third temptation either, even with the scriptural warrant attached to it. Instead, he quotes his own verse from God�s word as he overcomes this final temptation: �Do not put the Lord your God to the test.� And the devil, with his temptations, disappears� at least for the time being.

I find it really interesting how the Gospel writer has Jesus quoting scripture in order to avoid temptation and stay on the path of faithfulness to God. How many of us quote scripture to ourselves when we�re feeling tempted? When you�re tempted to swear at the guy next door when his dog digs under your fence again� Are you saying to yourself, �love your neighbour as yourself� love your neighbour as yourself��

Or when you walk past the Salvation Army kettle again, and go on to a store in the mall where you�re about to spend a pile of money on some luxury that you don�t really need, does a scripture verse pop into your head? �� just as you did it to one of the least of these� you did it to me�?

Or when you�re being tempted by rich food (as so many of us are) is your extra snack interrupted by the memory of something you once read in the bible? �Something about your body being a temple of the Holy Spirit? And is that thought enough to get you up off the couch to get some exercise instead?

As interesting as it might be to try to come up with a scripture verse to help us with every temptation that we might face, it�s probably not the best use of our time. And I have a feeling that knowing a bunch of relevant scripture verses won�t actually help us to be better people. It�ll probably just make us feel more guilty when we give in to our temptations. And it�s not necessarily a particularly meaningful or reliable way of knowing what�s right or wrong anyway. We just saw how the devil could quote scripture too� even as he was tempting Jesus to do something wrong.

I think we need to avoid the kind of proof-texting that assumes that the bible is a straight-forward, easy-to-understand book of answers to all of life�s questions. We can�t work on the presumption that if we have a question, or a situation, or a temptation, that the bible has a nice clear answer for us� if only we can find the right verse. Because the bible is not that kind of book. It�s much more complicated than that.

The bible is an amazing collection of writings from different times and places and circumstances. It includes letters and laws, poetry and songs, stories and parables, myths and proverbs, genealogies, histories, dreams, and visions. It often raises more questions than it answers, and it provides different answers to the same questions, depending on where you�re reading.

Last month our Christian Education Committee invited us to participate in a bible reading challenge, and many of us got out our bibles and started reading. We read some inspiring words and some interesting stories. We encountered some obscure commandments, and made our way through some strange and sometimes disturbing texts. It was a risky thing for the committee to do, actually, because we invited you to spend time reading some really strange and perhaps unappealing texts. And we hoped that at the end of it, you�d still want to keep reading the bible.

The thing about the bible is that it�s the stories of God�s relationship with God�s people. It�s told in many different voices and from many different perspectives. It�s not just a �how to� book about living in relationship with God, but it�s an adventure book that includes all the ups and downs, the failures and the victories, and a lot of reflection along the way. It is both God�s Word to us, and the word of the human individuals and communities that lived these stories, that shared and wrote them down, that collected and edited and preserved them for their children and for all who came after them.

As we begin the season of Lent together, we may or may not find that the scriptures can help us with our particular struggles and temptations. But I think today�s readings point to a source of encouragement and strength for our journey through Lent. The reading from Deuteronomy shares the experience of God caring for, encouraging, and helping God�s people. Jewish people still remember and celebrate God�s powerful presence with their ancestors. They remember how God led their people out of slavery in Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the promised land. Though the journey was long and difficult, the stories they tell about it witness to their experience of God�s provision, help, and guidance along the way. Perhaps we can look for God�s encouraging presence in our lives today� especially when we are going through challenges.

The psalmist who wrote Psalm 91 sang about a similar experience of God�s powerful help. He encouraged his listeners to trust God even when they were going through difficulties. �Make God your refuge, and you will survive,� he assured them, �Call out to God for help, and God will be with you.�

Of course, the Gospel story of Jesus in the wilderness is encouraging too. It reminds us that Jesus understands what it�s like to be tempted� that he knows the challenges that we face in trying to live holy lives. And again, the story tells us that God does not abandon us in those difficult times. Even when we feel the most vulnerable and alone, God can help us through.

Whether or not we can quote chapter and verse from the bible to overcome our temptations or our adversaries, Paul�s letter to the Roman Christians reminds us that �the word is very near� to us. It�s not a matter of knowing all the answers or of being perfect. But it�s a simple matter of deciding to live in relationship with God. It�s a matter of acknowledging the truth that the bible witnesses to over and over again in story, in song, and in parable� that we are not alone in this world� that God is right here with us� loving us, and ready to guide and direct and help us on our way through life. Just call on the name of the Lord, and be saved, Paul tells us. Say: �Hey God! I need you!� and receive God�s forgiveness and help and strength for your journey.

As we begin this season together, we have the opportunity to acknowledge our need to God, to turn to God once again� admitting our sin, confessing our mistakes, and calling on God to forgive us, to help us, to strengthen us to live more and more in God�s loving ways. As we come to the table of the Lord today, may these be our prayers. And as we receive the bread and juice, as we welcome Jesus into our lives and hearts again, may we receive the strength of God for our Lenten journey. Amen.

February 9, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:06:00 +0000

The following sermon was preached by the Rev. Amanda Currie at a chapel service at St. Andrew's College in Saskatoon on Tuesday, February 9, 2010. Amanda had been invited to share a sermon on "a difficult text" during the annual "Winter Refresher" at the college.

1 Corinthians 14:26-40

Hi! I�m a Presbyterian. Some of you United Church folk may be slightly familiar with Presbyterians. After all, you still have a little Presbyterian-ness within your own church structure and polity. The Presbyterian system of church government is one of the things that makes Presbyterians Presbyterian, but we�re also known for our emphasis on scripture study and preaching. Some of you may be wondering if a Presbyterian preacher will be capable of staying within the short time frame given for this chapel service� We�ll see.

Anyway, Presbyterians generally take scripture pretty seriously. We read and preach on both the New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures, and we are hesitant to dismiss a passage or a book just because its content makes us uncomfortable.

If you�ve hung around with any Presbyterians, you may know that there is a long-standing joke that the unofficial motto of the Presbyterian Church is �Let all things be done decently and in order,� and so you�d think that this text about decent and orderly worship would be a standard passage for regular preaching and reflection.

But amazingly, I�ve never preached on it before. I can�t say that I�ve been specifically avoiding it, but I normally preach the lectionary, and the lectionary avoids it. It goes straight from the topic of �LOVE� in 1 Corinthians 13 to the topic of �Resurrection� in chapter 15, and totally ignores Paul�s teaching on �orderly worship" in chapter 14.

Probably like most mainline churches, Presbyterians usually worship in a fairly organized and ordered way. Whether we�re in a big city downtown church, or in a small rural congregation with 15 close friends and family, we know who�s going to preach on Sunday, who will pray, and who will lead the singing of the hymns. It�s all planned out (hopefully with the Spirit�s guidance) and we follow whatever gets printed in the bulletin.

We shudder at the thought of someone standing up to respond to the sermon, to lead an impromptu praise chorus, or to pray extemporaneously for God knows who or what. Just imagining the free-flowing, semi-chaotic worship that Paul was commenting on in Corinth may cause us to sigh with relief that we don�t have those kinds of problems to deal with. We agree� our �God is a God not of disorder but of peace,� and our worship is certainly peaceful� even if it is sometimes rather boring and predictable.

The first part of today�s text is just fine. We�re good at keeping our worship orderly and peaceful. Everything is under control, so there�s nothing to worry about� until we get to verse 34: �Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.�

Well, shall I sit down? Perhaps one of the men present would like to take over and explain how we might understand this text and interpret it for today�

Though I do, as a Presbyterian, take the scriptures seriously, I was also born eight years AFTER the Presbyterian Church in Canada began ordaining women to the roles of ministers and elders in the church. I�ve grown up in a church that no longer takes �women should be silent in the churches� literally.

I suppose one might just say that verses 34-36 are an aberration. Paul couldn�t get EVERYTHING right. He was a product of his time and culture, and perhaps he couldn�t yet imagine women as preachers and teachers, on an equal footing with their male counterparts. Maybe we can just set these verses aside.

In fact, that�s almost exactly what many commentators do today. Well, they don�t just say �I don�t like that bit, so I think I�ll just ignore it.� Instead, they look carefully at the text and conclude that Paul probably didn�t write verses 34-36. Someone else likely added the section later, as the letters were being gathered and distributed at the turn of the 1st to 2nd centuries.

You see, most biblical scholars agree that the letters in our bibles today are not in their original form. Where we have 2 Corinthians, they guess there were probably 5 different letters to Corinth that were spliced together into a relatively coherent whole. And the same would be true for 1 Corinthians. So perhaps, these verses were added later, during the process of gathering and editing the letters into the 1 Corinthians that we know today.

There�s good reason to consider the possibility that Paul didn�t write these verses. Many point out that this section�s rejection of women�s leadership in worship directly contradicts what Paul says elsewhere about women in the church. They argue that these verses don�t come from Paul at all. The New Interpreter�s Bible Commentary puts it this way: �This harsh passage, urging women�s silence in church and subordination to their husbands, with an unspecified reference to �the law� as support, is probably an insertion by an editor who subsequently took this Pauline letter and brought it into conformity with the practices regarding women in his own subsequent-to-Paul time.�

It�s obvious from chapter 11, that women ARE praying and prophesying at the church in Corinth, and Paul not only makes no effort to stop it, but he seems to assume that it is quite proper. We can�t forget that this is the apostle who wrote to the Galatian Church: �there is neither male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus� � And who, throughout his writings recognizes and commends many women for their leadership in the churches: Phoebe, Euodia, Apphia, Prisca, and others.

In the six undisputed letters apart from 1 Corinthians, no passage suggests any limitation on the roles or functions of women in the Pauline churches. Now, Ephesians, Colossians, and the Pastoral Epistles (which are not likely Paul�s work, and which were written later)� these are less positive towards women.

Many speculate that the church�s stance on women changed over time, and not for the better. As Paul�s assurance of the immanent end of the ages failed to materialize, his followers felt increasing pressure to re-accommodate to the social structures and practices of their unbelieving neighbours.

And so, as some well-meaning church leader at the end of the first century read Paul�s encouragement to allow each person in the Christian community a chance to share a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation, he felt it wise to clarify what the church now meant by �each person� � each person, except the women, who must, of course, remain silent.

At some point in our Christian lives, and perhaps especially for those of us who become women preachers, we have to grapple with texts like these. For some, the conclusion is to reject Paul� He must have been a sexist, so I�ll reject everything he says! For others, the conclusion is to reject the passage, arguing that Paul didn�t write it, so we can ignore it.

Still others wonder about what was going on in the Corinthian Church that could have prompted such a strict instruction for the women to be silent. Worship was quite different in Corinth back in the mid-first century. The people didn�t gather in a public building like the church buildings that we take for granted today.

Instead, their worship took place in the people�s homes. What was normally private space, and the sphere of women and children, was transformed on the Lord�s Day into a place where the whole Christian Community gathered. It included women, men, and children� began with worship, and then the sharing of a community meal.

And so, some have imagined the women both participating in the worship and simultaneously getting things ready for the meal. I can picture a hostess ducking out to stir a pot, and missing a little of the service. �What just happened? What did I miss?� she would say to her sister. �I�m not sure� might come the response, �I was distracted because my one-year-old started to cry, and I was trying to calm her down with a feeding.� And then another mother might join the conversation, filling in her friends on what they missed, followed by further discussion on what they thought of it.

It�s not unreasonable to imagine the women of the church having their own little conversation on the sidelines, while their husbands participated in the main service. But it must have been awfully hard to hear one another and to concentrate. It would have been the kind of disorder in worship that a Presbyterian would find very difficult.

I like this analysis quite a bit because it makes sense of the instruction in that time and place, but argues against applying the same rule to all the women in the churches today. But there�s another interpretation that I like even more. This one takes note of Paul�s style of writing throughout the book of 1 Corinthians.

You see, Paul is responding to concerns that have been raised by some of the Corinthian Christians themselves. A group of folks referred to as �Chloe�s people� have come to Paul to tell him about all the issues and squabbles in the church at Corinth. And Paul is writing back to try to address those concerns and to provide some advice.

One of the things Paul does is to quote something that is being said in the community, and then to respond to it. For example, in chapter 10, Paul quotes a popular saying among the Corinthian Christians: �All things are lawful.� He accepts the saying, but responds to it by adding, �But all things are not beneficial, not all things build up.� Or in chapter 8, he quotes the saying, �no idol in the world really exists� and then goes on to explain why eating food sacrificed to idols should still be avoided so as not to confuse those who do believe in idols.

In our passage, some of suggested that Paul may be doing exactly the same thing. He begins by quoting what some people in Corinth are saying: �Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.�

Can you imagine? That�s what some of the people in Corinth are saying? And Paul, who heard this news from Chloe�s people, who believes that in Christ there is neither male nor female, and who commends and encourages the women who work alongside him in the sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, responds to this blatant exclusion of half the people in the church with two sarcastic questions: �Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached?�

Whether Paul addressed those questions to women in the church who wouldn�t stop chattering while someone else was preaching in the service, or whether he addressed them to others who wanted to keep the women silent altogether� Either way, the point is to open up our church communities so that we can listen to the many voices that are faithfully seeking to share God�s Word.

I have no doubt that I, a woman, have been called by God not to remain silent, but to open my mouth to sing, to preach, and to pray in the community of God�s people. May God give me the wisdom to also know when to listen. And may we all be led to make space for more voices in our church communities, through which our loving God will guide, comfort, encourage, challenge, and direct us. Amen.

February 7, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:54:00 +0000

Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 138
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11

I said in my sermon last Sunday that when we come face to face with God in Jesus Christ, the amazing nature of God�s goodness can make us suddenly aware of our own imperfection. We believe in a God who loves us with an unending love, but who also calls us to let the Spirit transform us more and more into the image and likeness of God. And so, the message of the prophets is never just that God exists, or that God simply loves us, but it is that God both loves us and requires us to live in certain ways � ways of love and justice � within our families, our communities, and in relation to our neighbours.

But sometimes, the fact of our human sinfulness becomes the main message that we get in church. In prayers of confession each week, we are reminded of our failures � the things we have done wrong, and the good and loving things that we have failed to do. As much as I would like to ignore sin and to focus on those things that we are doing well � to concentrate on the ways that we are loving and serving, and giving our time and energy towards God�s good purposes, the reality of human sinfulness comes up over and over in the scriptures.

Today�s readings include two examples of human people coming face to face with the holiness and wonderfulness of God, and just about freaking out from the experience. First, there is Isaiah, who has a weird and wonderful vision of the Lord. God is so huge in Isaiah�s vision that as he sits on a throne, only the hem of his robe fills up the giant temple of Jerusalem. Strange winged creatures are flying about and worshipping God, as the temple shakes and fills with smoke. It�s quite a dramatic scene!

Although God�s voice has not yet been heard, calling Isaiah to become a prophet and to go out in God�s name to speak to the people, Isaiah seems to know that he�s about to be sent on a mission. And he doesn�t feel prepared. He doesn�t feel worthy. With his eyes beholding the holiness and majesty of God, he becomes acutely aware of his own unworthiness: �Woe is me! I am lost,� he cries, �for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips!�

In a moment, God will send Isaiah to speak the very words of God to his people� and this is unimaginable for Isaiah, because his lips (like all our lips) have probably been used to utter curses, to grumble and complain, and to say all kinds of things that shouldn�t have been said.

The fisherman called Simon, who later became Jesus� good friend Peter, had a similar reaction when he encountered the Christ of God for the first time. After borrowing a seat in Simon�s boat so that he could teach the crowds on the shore, Jesus asked Simon to put out into the deep water and let the nets down for a catch.

Simon was doubtful about the usefulness of the endeavour, because he and his friends had been fishing all night and hadn�t caught anything. But he must have been impressed with the authority of the teacher, because he agreed to give it a try. Lo and behold � Jesus was right. They caught so many fish so quickly that their nets were beginning to break. Even with the help of their partners in another boat, there were so many fish that their boats were in danger of sinking.

Again � just like in Isaiah�s story � not a word had been uttered about a call to do some work for God. But Simon was already objecting, letting Jesus know that he (Simon) was not worthy. He fell down at Jesus� knees saying, �Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!� As Simon witnessed the wonderful power of God in Jesus, he became horrified by his own unworthiness, and he could hardly stand to remain in Jesus� presence. It must have felt like a bright light had been turned on� there was light shining onto all the things that he wanted to remain hidden, onto all the mistakes that he wished could be forgotten. It was as if they were written across his face, as if he was wearing them on his sleeve.

Although it can be very difficult� there is something very good and healing about confession � whether it is confessing your mistake to a person that has been hurt by it, confessing your neglect to a friend who will hear you and encourage you to go on and keep trying, or whether it is confessing your sin to God and humbly asking for forgiveness and help.

Whatever the process of confession, what happens is that all that stuff (that we are so embarrassed and ashamed of) gets out in the light of God where it can be acknowledged and dealt with� and ultimately, where it can be left behind. Just think of that awful feeling in the pit of your stomach when you have hurt your spouse, or let down your friend, or ignored someone who needed your help. And remember the release of pressure that occurs when you finally talk about it, or maybe fight about it� and ultimately, get over it and go on?

Imagine Isaiah� looking up at the holiness of God, and blurting out his confession of the bad things that have come from his mouth. And God didn�t reject him. God didn�t go looking for someone else. God didn�t even punish or reprimand him. Instead, God cleansed him from his sin. Isaiah looked, and he saw one of the seraphs flying to him, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched his mouth with it and said, �Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.�

Forgiveness is not just a New Testament concept that came in with Jesus. Here, Isaiah is clearly forgiven by God and equipped to respond to God�s call in the affirmative. �Whom shall I send?� God asks, �and who will go for us?� And Isaiah boldly responds, �Here am I; send me!�

I feel very blessed because in my life experience in my family growing up, and in the church, the message of God�s amazing love for me has always been emphasized more strongly than my utter depravity as a sinful human being. While I have been challenged to live into my identity as a beloved child of God, that identity has never been questioned. I belong to God, and I am loved� just exactly as I am.

But there are many among us (and many more who are not among us this morning) who have not heard that message as often or as consistently as they need to hear it in order for it to sink into their hearts and become a part of their very being. When they look at themselves in the mirror, they may see only the failures, or the broken relationships� they may see only the parts of themselves that they would want to keep hidden from the world and from the holiness and goodness of God.

The author of this morning�s psalm must also have felt pretty small and not very significant compared to the wonder of God�s glory. He wrote: �I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart� I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness.� But the psalmist seemed to know that God would not reject him or his praise, even if he failed to match God�s perfection. He continues: �On the day I called, you answered me, you increased my strength of soul� For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly� The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.�

Simon, who became Peter, was amazed, along with the others, at the catch of fish that they had taken. But he was also afraid� afraid, perhaps, that he would be judged by God and found lacking� afraid, perhaps, that Jesus would expect him to do more than he was able to do� afraid, perhaps, of the unknown possibilities and dangers that lay ahead for him if he were to follow this amazing man on his mission.

Have you ever noticed that on this first fishing trip with Jesus, the nets are beginning to break and the boats are in danger of sinking? Jesus invites us to join him in a mission that is beyond our human capabilities, and that we cannot handle through our own strength and talent alone. But if you read the Gospel of John, you will notice that there are two stories about the disciples fishing with Jesus in that Gospel. In the earlier story, the nets are beginning to break when they are filled to overflowing with fish. But later, when Jesus comes back again after his death and resurrection, he takes them out fishing again. The miraculous catch of fish is repeated. But this time, the nets hold, and with the help of some friends, they successfully drag them into the shore.

This morning we are invited to remember and to know that our identity as God�s beloved children is much more important than our history as humans who make mistakes and do wrong things. And no matter how unimportant or incompetent or inexperienced we may feel, God is calling us to follow the way of Jesus, to learn from him, and to join in his mission. �Do not be afraid,� Jesus says to us, �from now on you will be catching people.�

And as Simon and his friends left everything behind to follow Jesus, may we leave behind our doubts, our fears, and our insecurities, and follow him in faith and confidence. May the Lord fulfill his purpose for us, and may God�s Kingdom come. Amen.

January 31, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:53:00 +0000

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
1 Corinthians 13
Luke 4:21-30

I�ve been pondering these scripture texts all week and thinking about what to say to you this morning. And most of my attention has been focused on the prophets. I spent some time on Friday reading about Jeremiah and his call as a prophet to the people of Judah in the period just before the exile. Jeremiah, whose call we heard today, had the really tough job of preaching God�s words of judgment to the people. He was the one who had to tell them to shape up, to stop worshipping so many false gods, and to turn back to the One God of Israel.

From the very beginning of Jeremiah�s life, he was chosen by God for this difficult task. And though Jeremiah objected, saying that he was only a boy, God said �You will go to all to whom I send you, and you will speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid, for I am with you.� But figuring out what words to say was probably the least of Jeremiah�s worries. God would give him the message to proclaim, but the hard part was going to be dealing with the people�s response to his words.

God said, �I will appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.� In other words, most of what Jeremiah had to do was to bring bad news from God� �Shape up, or God�s going to destroy you! Turn back to God, or this will be the end of you!� Jeremiah�s prophetic role did not make him a popular guy, and he often feared for his life and complained about the ways people mistreated him.

More than 600 years later, Jesus also experienced that kind of rejection when he stood up to preach what may have been his first sermon in the synagogue of his hometown of Nazareth. By the end of his sermon, the people were driving him out of town, and even threatening to hurl him off a cliff. Why? Because Jesus was claiming to have a special mission from God. He was telling them that his purpose was to use God�s power to bring healing and freedom and demonstrate God�s favour for the poor and suffering people of the world. But in his hometown of Nazareth, he wasn�t going to use that power to help the people of his town.

Maybe they had come hoping to receiving something from him that day. Surely they had heard about the miracles that he was already performing in Capernaum, and they were counting on him to do some miraculous things for them too. But Jesus showed no special favoritism towards his immediate neighbours, and many of them went away angry or disappointed after hearing his message that day.

As a preacher, I am very aware of the fact that the sermons I write are often full of words of challenge, rather than simply comforting and encouraging anecdotes. Those who come to worship looking only for healing and blessing in their OWN lives may well be disappointed with what they hear. Because the message of Jesus that I have heard, and that I try to share with those who will listen, is not just �You�re okay, and God loves you.� No, Jesus calls us to turn our lives upside down, to drop our own priorities and follow his way of life. And it�s a way that involves personal risk, and self-giving love, and dedicated commitment to stay on the path with Jesus, even when things get tough.

When we encounter Jesus and his love, we discover that we�re not okay. When we are confronted with his goodness, we discover that we�re selfish, and we�re stingy, and we�re judgmental. We discover that we need to change. And we also discover that God is going to help us to change and to become the loving people that we were made to become.

Less than two weeks ago, I was reminded of how difficult it can be to be the one to voice judgment or correction to someone else in the Christian community. It was a particularly busy afternoon here at the church, with lots of people coming and going from several meetings in the building. As members of the church were arriving for an event, many noticed the nearly-full parking lot and wondered about an unfamiliar pick-up truck that was parked in the lot.

A woman was sitting in the truck, waiting for her friend who was attending a short meeting in the church. Several members stopped to talk to the woman and discovered that yes, she had a good reason to be waiting in the church parking lot� her friend, who owned the truck, was inside. But at least one church member, who spoke to the stranger, made her feel unwelcome. This person didn�t seem to believe the woman�s story about her friend being at a meeting in the church, and derogatory statements about the state of the pick-up truck were made. It was upsetting enough to our visitor that her friend came back inside later to tell me what had happened. Of course, I apologized profusely on behalf of the church, but I could do little more. I didn�t even know who it was that had spoken so harshly to the stranger in our parking lot.

Part of me was thankful not to know, because if I knew, I would need to say something. I would need to confront that person and challenge them to do better next time. That was not a conversation that I would look forward to having� not only because pointing out someone�s shortcomings is uncomfortable, but also because I could easily imagine myself making the same mistake� Maybe because I was cold or tired, and just wanted a place to park quickly so I could get inside to my meeting� Maybe because I was frustrated with all the people parking illegally, making things difficult all the time� Or maybe just because I was having a bad day, and I was losing patience with the first person who got in my way� Whatever �reasons� I might come up with for my impatience and inhospitality, I know that I am just as guilty as that person for failing to enact God�s love to my neighbours and to the strangers I encounter each day.

I remember Jesus� teaching about judging others� You know, �take the log out of your own eye first, so you can see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour�s eye�� And so, I am called not just to �let it go�, not just to pretend that it never happened� But I am called to examine the way I interact with our neighbours (even the illegal parkers), as well as the way I treat the clerks in the store, the waitresses in the restaurant, the people I pass by on the street, and indeed, all the people that I interact with each day. How do my words, and my eye contact, and my care and respect for each person demonstrate God�s love for the people I encounter? Or do they?

As I was writing this sermon yesterday afternoon, another member of our church stopped by my house, and what happened sent my sermon in another direction. She phoned to say that she had something to drop off. And when I saw her approaching the house with a package of food, I assumed that it must be something to pass along to Gwen (who is home sick at the moment).

Well, it turned out that the package of food was for me � a full homemade supper, including a bottle of wine. The gesture was a thank-you for a small favour that I had done, which was obviously much appreciated. But I was blown away by the care and thoughtfulness of the gift� abundantly more than I deserved, given in gracious love.

And I thought of Gwen, actually, and how she had asked me to express her thanks to everyone for all the support, and especially for all the cards and notes that you have been sending. And I thought of all the people in our church who are caring for each other by visiting, or sending food, or writing cards, or phoning, or praying for those who are going through tough times right now. I also thought of the generosity of this congregation towards those outside our community � like last month when many of you responded to a call for financial help to make Christmas dinner at the Saskatoon Native Circle Ministry possible. And these last few weeks, I�m sure that many have been giving generously to help the people suffering in Haiti, likely in addition to your regular offerings, and certainly in addition to the many ways that you serve within the church and the wider community.

Today�s scripture readings do remind me of the challenging nature of the Gospel � that God is constantly calling us to live more faithfully and more lovingly within our world. I pray that God will help us to hear that challenging call with humility, and that God will help us to speak that challenging call to each other with courage, even as we celebrate the ways that we are already living it out in our community and beyond.

May the love of which Paul wrote � that patient, kind, humble, and respectful love � the love that rejoices in the truth, the love that bears all things, endures all things, and never ends� May that love grow within us and among us, and may its power stretch out from us into all the world, that all people may experience the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

January 24, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:46:00 +0000

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21

In the middle of our bible reading challenge here at St. Andrew�s, the lectionary has provided us with a wonderful set of readings on which to reflect and pray. The overarching theme in Nehemiah 8, in Psalm 19, and in our reading from Luke�s Gospel is the scriptures themselves � and in particular, the question of how we use and interpret the scriptures.

The psalmist begins by making it clear that the scriptures are of utmost importance for God�s people. Of course, from the psalmist�s perspective, at least 500 to maybe 1000 years before the birth of Jesus, the scriptures consisted of the Law of Moses, perhaps as gathered together into the Torah � the rough equivalent of the first five books of our bibles today.

The psalmist declares that the Law of the Lord is perfect. God�s decrees and precepts and ordinances are sure, and right, and true altogether. He thinks very highly of these texts and speaks of them with utmost respect and admiration and praise. And it�s not only that God�s commandments are true and right from the perspective of a wise and powerful God. The psalmist is arguing that they are actually useful for those who might read and pay attention to them.

God�s laws revives the soul, the psalmist claims. God�s decrees make the reader wise. Paying attention to God�s precepts and commandments brings joy to your heart and light (or understanding) to your eyes. The writer of this psalm feels so strongly about God�s Word that he hungers for it more than rich food or great wealth. It is the greatest gift of all.

It was during my undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph that I first remember encountering Christians who seemed to demonstrate that kind of hunger for reading the bible. It is, of course, entirely possible that many of the people in the Presbyterian church where I grew up were also reading the bible voraciously, but I don�t remember being aware of that.

When I met some of the Christians on campus, what I noticed first was how many of them carried bibles around with them. They usually bought nice zippered book covers for them, and filled their bibles with book marks and notes, highlighting their favourite passages and making copious notes in the margins.

They talked a lot about having �quiet times� or �doing devotions�� a daily practice they encouraged of taking time to read scripture, to reflect, and to pray. And they got together to study the scriptures a lot too. There were bible studies in the Christian Clubs� office, in library study rooms, and even in residence rooms.

Although these Christians went to church on Sundays, they also went to bible study in the library and did their own quiet devotions in the cafeteria. You can see why they would want a nice portable zippered bible with a handle to carry it around. Their bibles were getting well used.

As I went through my university years, I discovered that the brand of Christianity I was encountering was a little too exclusive and much too literal in its interpretation of scripture for me. And yet, I learned a great deal from my Christian friends at that time. I was inspired by their commitment to prayer, and I caught a bit of their deep reverence for the scriptures.

In more recent years, I�ve been spending less time with evangelical Christians, and more time with Roman Catholic Christians. And though I don�t know many Catholics who walk around with their bibles in tow, I have also been inspired by the deep respect for scripture that I have witnessed in the Catholic Church.

As worship begins, a procession enters the church, including a cross-bearer, a candle-bearer, and one of the readers holding the scriptures up high above them, followed by the priest. Of course, the readers of scripture are not called �readers� but they are called �proclaimers�. They are the ones who have the important task of proclaiming God�s Holy Word in the assembly of the people.

Great care is normally taken to prepare for that proclamation, and the words are read clearly and not too quickly. When the reading ends with �The Word of the Lord� and the people respond, �Thanks be to God� there is a moment of silent reflection, before going on to the next reading.

Our text this morning from the book of Nehemiah comes from the time after the exile in Babylon, when many groups of Israelites had begun to make their way back to Judah and Jerusalem. Nehemiah, for whom the book is named, was a leader in Jerusalem at that time. He had been working for King Artaxerxes of Babylon, and he got the king�s permission to go back to Jerusalem with his people, where he supervised the massive task of rebuilding. Ezra, the other main character in our reading, was a priest and scribe of prominence at that time.

Just before our text, in chapter 7, the author gives us a great long list of the exiles who have returned home to Jerusalem, and he writes about how they are getting settled once again in their homeland. And then, an important event takes place � the public proclamation of the book of the Law of Moses (or the Torah).

The people all gather together � men and women, and everyone old enough to understand. And from early morning until midday (probably about six hours, or so) Ezra reads from God�s Law. [Aren�t you glad our church services aren�t that long?] And what were the people doing during all those hours of reading?... sleeping?... talking among themselves?... minds wandering, and wondering when it would be over?.... No. They were actually paying attention!

It says, �� and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.� They watched as Ezra opened the book, and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord. These people of God were re-discovering their faith within the city of God�s promise. In participating in that proclamation, in paying attention, and in seeking to understand and to apply it to their lives, they were making a meaningful statement about what they believed about God, about themselves, and about their relationship with God. They trusted that God would speak to them through those words, and that they would grow in wisdom and knowledge and holiness, as they learned to understand and to live by them.

Now, as many of you may be all too aware, in the midst of our bible reading challenge, reading, interpreting, and understanding the scriptures is not always as straightforward as we might hope. That�s why we need to study the scriptures together, to read commentaries and others� reflections on them, and learn about the context and circumstances surrounding the text that we are trying to understand.

From the book of Nehemiah we hear, �So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.� But even on that day in Jerusalem, it was not simply a matter of reading it and everyone understanding. One commentator suggests that Ezra was reading, paragraph by paragraph, while 13 other Levites circulated among the people, explaining things and answering questions � like a giant bible study.

From the roots of our particular church tradition in the 16th century reformation, the reading and interpretation of scripture has been an important value. At a time when most people did not know how to read at all, and when the scriptures were interpreted only by the clergy, the reformers worked to make the Bible available to everyone. Translations into the languages of the people, reading classes, and bible classes, transformed the faith experiences of Christians for centuries to come, as more and more people gained access to God�s Holy Word.

Within the Presbyterian Church today, we continue that emphasis on the reading and interpretation of scripture. Our future clergy take more biblical courses than most seminarians in other churches do, and we are still required to study one of the original languages (either Greek or Hebrew). And with a strong emphasis on the importance of preaching, we try to retain the discipline of preaching on the biblical texts, even choosing to focus on the Old Testament texts some of the time.

As you know, this is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It is a time when we both celebrate our unity in Christ and pray for an end to the divisions that still separate us. I cannot help but be thankful today, as I think about the Word of God, for the values and practices around scripture that I have learned from my evangelical and Catholic friends. And I am also thankful, that as we Presbyterians participate in the ecumenical community of the wider Christian Church, that we also have something to offer when it comes to reading and interpreting scripture.

Many people have used this phrase, but I think it�s a good description of our church�s position on the Bible. We read the bible seriously, but not literally. In �Living Faith� our church�s statement of Christian belief, it is clear that we read the bible seriously � that we have the utmost respect and reverence for God�s Word to us in scripture:

5.1 The Bible has been given to us
by the inspiration of God
to be the rule of faith and life.
It is the standard of all doctrine
by which we must test any word that comes to us
from church, world, or inner experience.
We subject to its judgment
all we believe and do.
Through the Scriptures
the church is bound only to Jesus Christ its King and Head.
He is the living Word of God
to whom the written word bears witness.

A few paragraphs later, �Living Faith� emphasizes that though we read the bible seriously, we do not read it literally:

5.4 The Bible is to be understood in the light
of the revelation of God's work in Christ.
The writing of the Bible was conditioned
by the language, thought,
and setting of its time.
The Bible must be read in its historical context.
We interpret Scripture
as we compare passages,
seeing the two Testaments in light of each other,
and listening to commentators past and present.
Relying on the Holy Spirit,
we seek the application of God's word for our time.

In Paul�s first letter to the Corinthians, he was trying to address the problems of conflict and division within the Christian church at Corinth. Very much like the church today, the Corinthians were divided from each other, with various groups looking to different leaders for guidance and direction. In the section of chapter 12 that we heard this morning, Paul describes the church using the metaphor of a body: �For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body � Jews or Greeks, slaves or free � and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.�

But even as Paul emphasizes the unity that we have through the one Spirit of God, he also seems to celebrate the diversity within the church. A body doesn�t work if all its parts are feet, or all its parts are ears. No, God has arranged all the parts with their unique gifts and functions to work together as one body.

I love the part where the body parts seem to be speaking to each other in Paul�s description. He says, �The eye cannot say to the hand, �I have no need of you,� nor again the head to the feet, �I have no need of you.� On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.�

The good news for all the churches and for all the people of the world is that we belong to God. We have been created in God�s good image to be members of the body of Christ. God loves us, and calls us to live with love and purpose in the world. And although we often fail to live in the loving ways that God desires for us, God is determined not to give up on us. God loves us so much that he sent Jesus into the world to live among us, to show us what love is, and to love us so intently and so fully that he would even die rather than give up on loving us.

That is just a �nut shell� summary of the good news of God that we find in the bible. The details are sometimes more complicated, and often even more wonderful when we take the time to read, to study, to interpret, and to learn day-by-day to live by God�s Word. And the fact is, that we do need one another. We need the gifts and strengths of the many church traditions, and we need the contributions of each member of the Christian community, as we seek to interpret and to understand God�s Word for us today.

May our souls be revived, may our hearts rejoice and our eyes be enlightened, as together, we continue to read and interpret the scriptures. Amen.

January 10, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:27:00 +0000

Isaiah 43:1-7
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Be not afraid. I go before you always.
Come, follow me, and I will give you rest.

Through the words of the prophet Isaiah, God says to us, �Do not fear, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.�

These words from the prophet were familiar to me when I read them on Monday and began to think about what I might preach today. This text comes up in the lectionary every three years, and a few years ago, when I learned the song that the choir sang this morning, �Be not afraid�, the words of the prophet became especially meaningful for me.

Be not afraid. I go before you always.
Come, follow me, and I will give you rest.

Perhaps you can think of a time when you were afraid. I am thinking of the day that I discovered a small lump in my breast. I am remembering the time of waiting and worrying before I got the results of the ultrasound. Maybe you are thinking of a similar experience, when your life was in danger or you thought it might be. Maybe you are remembering a time when someone you loved was in trouble, when you feared for their safety, when you were afraid of losing them.

Sometimes I think that the scariest thing about these experiences is the lack of control. I�m someone who likes to be in the driver�s seat � directing the car, being responsible for my own safe arrival. But sometimes in life, we get into situations in which there is nothing that we can do. Just wait. Just pray. And try not to be overwhelmed by fear.

Be not afraid. I go before you always.
Come, follow me, and I will give you rest.

In those times, Isaiah�s words can bring us some comfort. We are not alone in our waiting. The assurance of the Lord is that we belong to God. God created us, and formed us, and we are God�s children. God will no more leave us than a mother will abandon her babies. And you know how it is with mothers�. It doesn�t matter how old her children get, or how often they have let her down, they will always be her babies. She will always be there to help them through, to be with them through whatever challenges they must face.

Be not afraid. I go before you always.
Come, follow me, and I will give you rest.

Last Sunday after church, when many of you were rushing over to the line of bible cards and choosing your passages to read this week, I stood back and watched. I figured that I would choose something that was left after everyone else had chosen. Although I was here every day this week, I didn�t get back to the line of cards until yesterday. I walked along, looking at the leftovers, and came upon the last card for the book of Isaiah. Interestingly, it was for chapters 36-48, the section that includes today�s passage.

As I read through the chapters, I came across familiar bits and pieces, interspersed with many sections that I had never studies before. Beginning at chapter 40, it became clear that I was reading God�s words to the people of Israel near the end of their exile in Babylon. Over and over, the Lord was calling the people to return to Judah and Jerusalem. �You are my children, and I am forgiving you,� God assured them, �I want you to come home to the place where you belong. And through the Edict of Cyrus, emperor of the Persian Empire and current king of Babylon, I am giving you the freedom to leave Babylon.�

It�s not that the people have corrected their errors, or that they�ve been any more faithful to God than in generations past. God continues to be frustrated with their worship of idols � of money, of carved wood, of things made by human hands. And yet, these people are God�s own children, chosen and beloved, and God pleads (through the prophet�s voice) for them to come home.

One might wonder why the people of Israel were not more anxious to get home to Jerusalem. Why does the prophet need to work so hard to convince them? But we must remember that a lot of time has passed since the leaders and highly educated people of Israel were exiled to Babylon between 598 and 582 BCE. And although the exile seemed like a hardship at first, it wasn�t a completely terrible living situation.

It appears that the Babylonians allowed exiles to own land and gave them much freedom. They could continue to worship, to participate in trade, to remain in tribal groups with their leaders, and to serve on royal projects and in the military forces. Based on what we read about the exilic community in scripture, it seems to have been well organized, able to enjoy the benefits of Babylonian life, and free to maintain its own religious life and worship.

And now it�s 50 or 60 years later, and the prophet is proclaiming that God wants the people to return to Jerusalem. Most of the older generation has died by now. Those who remain have heard the stories of Jerusalem, but this generation is comfortable, settled, and well off� living in a fertile and cultured country. They are safe. They have freedom. And many have obtained wealth and status.

The question is, how do you get a group of people to move who are comfortable and settled in a land? Their children have been born in Babylon, but you want them to move back to a wreck of a city (Jerusalem) that has been taken over by people from the surrounding countries. You want to transport them back to a rocky and barren landscape where there are no immediate opportunities for making a living. No wonder it takes the prophet sixteen chapters of convincing! Who would want to leave Babylon to go back to Jerusalem, to the ruined city, to the huge task of rebuilding the temple, to the uncertainty and challenge that such a decision would entail?

Be not afraid. I go before you always.
Come, follow me, and I will give you rest.

The people of Israel in Babylon were well aware that God had helped their people through many challenges in the past. The story of the exodus from slavery in Egypt pretty much defined their identity as the people of God. And as the prophet tried to convince them that they needed to return to Jerusalem, they would have been reminded of that identity. They could hardly miss the imagery of �passing through the waters� recalling how God parted the sea to let their people escape.

When the prophet said, �I give Egypt as your ransom,� they could hardly deny the fact that God had done it already. And then Isaiah has God saying, �I am the Lord your God,� and these Jewish people would have remembered that this was the first line of the covenant at Sinai, when God said, �I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.�

One commentator points out that these people in Babylon are being asked to undergo a second exodus event. They are being asked to pick up their lives and go, with the assurance that God will be with them to help them through, just like the first time. But there�s something different about this exodus. It�s not out of slavery, through the wilderness, and into the promised land. Instead, it�s from relative prosperity into risk, uncertainty, and undoubted hardship. The only promise is that God will be as faithful as God was during the first exodus. They may have to go through water and fire, but God will be there � guiding and leading � just as God was on the journey from Egypt into the promised land.

Be not afraid. I go before you always.
Come, follow me, and I will give you rest.

I think the lectionary has made an interesting choice in pairing this text from Isaiah with the story of Jesus� baptism in Luke�s Gospel. Jesus goes through the waters of baptism, and the Spirit is poured out on him in power. Those of us who know the challenges that lay ahead for Jesus in his life and ministry recognize that his baptism was so very important. Jesus needed the very presence of God within him to make it through the tiring work, the constant demands, the frequent debates with the authorities, and eventually the rejection and torture and death that he endured.

But there, at the beginning of it all, he stood up to his knees in mud and water, and he heard God�s voice so clearly: �You are my son, the beloved, I am pleased with you.�

Doesn�t it sound just like God�s message to the exiles? �I have called you by name. You are mine. I love you.�

I wonder how many of them stayed put � comfortable in their lives � pleased, perhaps, that they did belong to God. But I�m sure glad that Jesus didn�t stay put � that he went out with the Spirit�s power to teach, and to heal, and to challenge the status quo. What a different story we would have to tell if Jesus had simply enjoyed his status as God�s beloved son and done nothing in response!

You�ve probably figured out where I�m going with this by now. The good news for us is not only that God loves us. It�s not only that we belong to God and that God is with us through our challenges. The good news is that God is calling us to follow the way of Jesus � to take some risks, to try new things, to face challenges that may seem beyond us at first.

Things like caring for the sick or the dying. Things like helping the poor, and changing the system so they don�t stay poor. Things like making peace in our families, our community, and our world. Things like taking care of our planet, preserving God�s creation for the coming generations. Things like sharing our faith with our children, with our friends, with our co-workers.

We are being called by God to do all these things and more, and we can set out on the journey to do them because we are God�s beloved children � created, formed, chosen, and called to live for God�s purposes. So let�s get going!

Be not afraid. I go before you always.
Come, follow me, and I will give you rest.

December 24, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:17:00 +0000

Isaiah 9:2-7
Titus 2:11-14

Gwen: Well, it�s Christmas Eve tonight, and just like every year, we�re celebrating� blah, blah, blah� Jesus was born� blah, blah, blah� I�m sure you�ve all heard the story a million times before. Maybe we should just skip to the Christmas prayers so we can get out of here.

Amanda: Um, Gwen, is something wrong? Don�t you want to preach about the wonder of Jesus� birth into our world?

Gwen: I don�t know, Amanda� what would I say? We�ve all heard the story before about how Jesus was born, and the angels sang, and the shepherds came all excited to visit the baby. Babies are nice and all� but how can we keep getting excited about a baby that was born more than 2000 years ago?

Amanda: Don�t you think Jesus� birth has relevance for us today?

Gwen: I can see how Jesus� birth would have been exciting back then. I mean, Jesus came into a time and place when people really needed his help. His own people, the Jews, were living under Roman rule and things were really tough for them.

The pax Romana was supposed to be good for everyone in the Empire, but the reality was that it was only good for the rich and the elite, and it required everyone to give allegiance to and even to worship the Emperor. The Jews, who believed in one God only had a lot of trouble with this kind of system.

Amanda: The people at that time were coping with the Romans in a variety of ways.

Some of them were trying to co-operate with the rulers. They figured �if you can�t beat them, join them�. Groups like the Sadducees and the Herodians were making the best of a bad situation by publicly accommodating the Roman ways, and keeping their own religion privately.

Others like the Pharisees and the Zealots had a different strategy. The Zealots wanted to rise up and fight against their oppressors, and the Pharisees figured that if the people repented and turned back to God, observing every detail of God�s law, then God would raise up liberator who would lead them to victory.

A few, like the Essenes, rejected all of these approaches, calling instead for a withdrawal into the wilderness to avoid the whole simmering mess.

Gwen: So when Jesus came, some people started to figure out that he was the liberator they were hoping for. He was the one who was going to give the people freedom from their Roman occupiers. Remember Mary�s song of praise from last Sunday? She was definitely interpreting Jesus� birth as good news for her people.

�God has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.�

Amanda: Yes, but Jesus wasn�t exactly the military leader that most of them were expecting.

Gwen: That�s for sure! He didn�t rise up and fight for the rights of his people. And he didn�t encourage his followers to fight either.

Amanda: What he did do was to invite his followers to become servants in a different kind of kingdom� not within the Empire of Rome where there was supposed peace and prosperity for all, and where everyone worships the Emperor� but instead within the Kingdom of God.

The good news that Jesus proclaimed was that God is king, and we can live in relation to God and God�s love rather than Caesar and Caesar�s power.

Gwen: Remember that scene near the end of Jesus� story, when Jesus is standing in front of Pilate, and Pilate is trying to understand him and to decide what to do with him?

Amanda: mmhmm� Pilate wants to know if Jesus is the king of the Jews.

Gwen: Yes, and Jesus tells Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world.
�If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.� In other words, Jesus� kingdom doesn�t work the way that other kingdoms or empires do.

Amanda: Earthly kingdoms fight, but Jesus� kingdom, being �from another place,� has another nature and another strategy. Instead of winning by violence and domination, his kingdom simply tells the truth and sees who listens. Jesus says, �for this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth.�

Gwen: That�s got to be the kind of kingdom that Isaiah was talking about! He looked forward to a day when his people, who were walking in darkness, who didn�t know how to live together in peace and justice, would see a great light. He wrote about the joy that they would experience when they were free from oppression and war.

Amanda: And it wasn�t a military leader that Isaiah was predicting. It was a child.

Gwen: For a child has been born for us, a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually
and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Amanda: Zeal! That�s what you were missing earlier tonight, Gwen. Enthusiasm, passion, spirit, devotion, eagerness!

God�s zeal for the people of the world led God to do something big� to send a son into the world to show us a new way.

A way of peace in which the people would live within God�s Kingdom, letting God rule and direct their lives, rather than spending their energy and effort trying to figure out how to overthrow the Roman Empire.

Gwen: I�ve been wondering about why the Gospel writers would tell us the story of Jesus� birth� how he was born to a poor young couple, and how they had to stay with the animals and lay him in a manger on his first night in the world.

Amanda: Well, it�s like the rest of Jesus� story, isn�t it? It�s not what you�d expect of a liberator, or of an overthrower of empires, or of a king. God turns everything upside down with Jesus. It�s the beginning of what Mary was talking about� the poor being lifted up, the hungry being filled with good things, and all of that�

Gwen: But the thing is, I�m still not sure what all of this has to do with us today. Jesus� birth and life and message made sense for the people back then. He showed them a way to live in the Kingdom of God in spite of the Empire of Rome that seemed to be in control. But what does that mean for us?

Amanda: Well, it�s not a Roman Empire that�s in charge in our world today, but perhaps we need to stop and think about who or what is in charge. What kind of kingdom do we live in? What rules in the hearts and minds of people today?

Gwen: One thing I�ve noticed is that there is an awfully strong push towards people buying and accumulating as many possessions as possible. The advertising is everywhere, and we are constantly bombarded with messages telling us that our lives will be so much better if only we had another gadget� if only we had the latest gizmo.

It seems like we live in the kingdom of consumption � a kingdom in which our desire for material wealth goes beyond the level of need or even comfort by making the constant stimulation and satisfaction of desire an end in itself.

Amanda: I think we also live in a kingdom of entitlement. We�ve had so much for so long that we assume that we need and deserve these things. Our kingdom doesn�t encourage us to think of others who may actually be in need, and it doesn�t encourage us to consider the effects that our consumption habits are having on the environment. We are ruled by our supposed need to have all these things, and to live in the ways we�ve become accustomed to live.

Gwen: And the kingdom that we live in is driving us to work more and more, to do everything quicker and more efficiently so that we can acquire more and consume more. It�s as if we need to justify our existence or prove our value by what we can earn or build or amass in this world. It�s not the kind of kingdom that allows us to be still and know that God is among us.

Amanda: It�s not the kind of kingdom that allows us to know that God is among us at all, is it?

But that is the good news of Jesus� birth for us today. That is the good news of God�s kingdom which came in Jesus, which will come in our world, which is coming right now in this place and in this time.

Because we have the opportunity to choose God�s Kingdom. Just as the people of Jesus� time had a choice to make about what king they would choose to serve, we have that choice to make as well.

We can be like the Sadducees and the Herodians. We can live like everyone else in the kingdoms of this world� and privately, within our homes or our churches, we can make mention of the birth of Jesus.

Or we can be like the Pharisees, carefully observing all the details of the religious laws, criticizing and ostracizing those who don�t do as well as us at following them, and praying for a Saviour to help us to conquer the evil kingdoms that rule in our world.

Or we can be like the Essenes. We can ignore the world around us. Shut ourselves off in our little church communities and live our way, oblivious to the world�s concerns and happenings.

Gwen: Or we can live like Jesus� out in the world, connecting with the people of the world, confronting the rules of the kingdoms and often breaking those rules as well. Not fighting against the powers that be� but quietly, deliberately, living in a different way, choosing a new direction that values life and community, reconciliation, generosity, and love.

Amanda: Are you beginning to get a bit more excited about our Christmas celebration, Gwen? Can you feel any zeal coming on?

Gwen: Well, I don�t use the word �zeal� very often, but I do notice that the word �zeal� comes up again in our reading from Paul�s letter to Titus.

Amanda: Yes, just as God�s zeal and God�s amazing love for us was what brought Jesus into our world, Paul tells us that Jesus� purpose was to make for himself a people of his own who are �zealous� for good deeds.

Gwen: Now that sounds like something that I can get excited about! Jesus� birth into our world changes everything! We don�t have to be ruled by the patterns of our world, by the priorities that this kingdom says we should have. Instead, we can choose the way of Jesus and the Kingdom of God.

Amanda: At Christmas, we are invited to pause and remember the birth of Jesus, to look upon the Christ Child� born in a barn, lying in a feed trough� and to know that God loves us so much, God�s zeal for us is so great, that God sent Jesus to turn everything upside down. God sent Jesus to quietly topple the kingdoms of the world and to call us to live as servants within the Kingdom of God.

Gwen: Let our hearts be filled with that same kind of zeal� to love as Jesus has loved us, to give as Jesus has given himself for us, to make our Christmas and all our lives about doing good deeds in name of Christ, who is our Lord and our King.

Amen.

December 20, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:33:00 +0000

Luke 1:39-45

There are two important stories in the first chapter of Luke about Mary before the birth of her son, Jesus.

The first story is the one depicted briefly in the presentation this morning. An angel shows up in Mary�s life and tells her that she�s going to have a child. It will be a special child from God, and God will make him a great king. Mary, amazingly, just asks a couple of clarifying questions, and then agrees to the plan. �I am your servant,� she says to God, �Let it be with me according to your word.�

And the second story about Mary is the one that I just read � the one where she goes to visit her relative Elizabeth, who also happens to be miraculously pregnant.

When that angel messenger suddenly appeared with his very strange news, I can only imagine that Mary must have been in shock. It�s not the kind of thing that happens to a young woman every day, and it was certainly the kind of news that would take some time to sink in, to consider what it meant, and to figure out how to deal with it.

And though the Gospel has Mary quickly agreeing to cooperate with what God is going to do in her life, the very next thing she does is to go and visit an older female relative. We don�t know why she went to visit Elizabeth � whether Mary knew that her relative was pregnant too, or whether Elizabeth was just a good friend to talk to when life was getting confusing. But whatever Mary�s reason for the quick journey into the hill country, the conversation that she has with Elizabeth seems to help her to make sense of what is happening to her.

First, there is the baby�s reaction to the sound of Mary�s voice. When Mary calls out a greeting, the story says that the child in Elizabeth�s womb �leaped� within her. And Elizabeth interprets it, not as a problem, but as a leap of joy! And then Elizabeth begins to just overflow with words of blessing!

Just think of this teenage girl� unmarried, pregnant, worried, and scared. She shows up at her relative�s house, hoping perhaps for a little encouragement, maybe a little nervous that Elizabeth might scold her. And she is welcomed with the warmest of blessings � with joy, with gladness, with expectation and anticipation about what lies ahead for Mary and her child.

The story explains that Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaims with a loud cry, �Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.� And I imagine Mary hearing, �No, you�re not in trouble. No, you�re not crazy. And I can see that God is going to do great things through you and the child that you will have. This is going to be wonderful! And well done, Mary, for listening to God and believing what you were hearing!�

Though Mary�s story seems unique and very special, I don�t think it�s so different from many of our stories. Sometimes people assume that Mary must have been extra special. God must have chosen her because of her extraordinary faith and trust. God must have prepared her for her role by endowing her with super-human patience and humility and obedience. But I like to think� and I think the scriptures confirm the fact, that Mary was just an ordinary Jewish girl, living a normal life in the small town of Nazareth in Galilee.

She was loved by God, just as each one of us is loved by our Maker. She was chosen by God, just as each one of us is chosen to bring God�s very presence into the world. And she was empowered by God to be the God-bearer, just as each one of us can be filled with God�s Spirit, and tasked with a special role in God�s mission to the world.

When Mary goes to visit her relative, Elizabeth, it becomes very clear that the child in Mary�s womb is special. If Mary was starting to wonder if her vision was a dream, Elizabeth�s reaction to her must have confirmed that God was doing something important through Mary�s pregnancy.

I�m reminded of those times when we need others in the Christian community to affirm and confirm our call to particular missions and ministries. Sometimes we think God might be calling us to action � to serve God�s mission in a certain way. Maybe it�s to try out our gifts within an established ministry of the church � to sing in the choir, or read scripture, to serve on the Women�s League, as a church school teacher, or on a committee of Session. Or maybe it�s something new � to head up a new project, to attempt a new outreach ministry, to go on a mission trip, or even to consider theological education for further ministry and service in the church.

As Presbyterians, we have discovered over and over, that it�s when we listen to God�s Spirit TOGETHER that we can be more sure of God�s call � of how we are being called to participate in making God�s kingdom real. What we so often discover, when we listen together for what God is calling us to do, is that God can take the most ordinary among us, and do great things through us.

Can you look back in your own experience in the church and think of ordinary people, or groups of ordinary people, that God used to do extraordinary things?

I think of the Presbyterian missionary Pauline Brown, who grew up in the same congregation that I did in Ottawa. She trained as a nurse, and set off at age 25 to serve in the Bhil region of India. Over 60 years in that mission, she trained more nurses than you can imagine, empowered women in the community, strengthened their hospitals, and shared the Gospel in word and in action. An ordinary Presbyterian woman, and God has done great things through her.

And I think of the Rev. Stewart Folster and his dream of doing ministry among the Aboriginal People of innercity Saskatoon. It started small and in a rented space, and I�m sure there were times when he wondered how he would manage. He kept going even when he was under-staffed and stretched to the limit. And now, things are coming together. The building is theirs, and looking great. The Board is getting stronger, and the support is growing. A new staff person is coming to help in January. And this afternoon, Christmas Dinner will be served to probably hundreds of people, hungry both for food and for the loving community that they find at the Saskatoon Native Circle Ministry. Through an ordinary Ojibway man from a reserve outside Winnipeg, God is doing great things.

As I continue to think and to pray about our church and about the future of our ministry in this city and in this Presbytery, I can�t help but be encouraged by Mary�s story. Like her, we sometimes feel scared and confused and uncertain about what the future holds. Will we have what it takes to carry the son of God into the world? Will we be able to do the new things, and face the new challenges that are before us? If we are going to do it � if we�re going to bring God�s loving presence into our hurting world, perhaps we should pay attention to Mary�s experience.

First of all, we�ll need to be listening enough to hear what God may be asking us to do. It may not be as obvious as an angel messenger, so we�re going to need to do some listening prayer.

Second, we�ll need to be open enough to hear a challenging call. What God is asking us to do may be a little scary. It may require a lot of time and a lot of commitment. Like it did for Mary, it may turn our lives upside down.

And finally� when we�re not too sure what to make of God�s call� when we�ve been hearing a message and we�re scared� when we�re just not feeling confident that God can really use us for his purposes� then we need to talk to each other. We need to encourage each other. We need to let the Holy Spirit work through us to pour out blessing on each other� on the ordinary people among us who are being called by God to do great things.

What Mary came to understand as she visited with Elizabeth was that God was taking the ordinary girl that she was, and God was using her to do an extraordinary thing. God was lifting her up, and through Mary and her child, God would lift up many more.

As Mary raised her voice to praise and magnify the Lord, as her spirit rejoiced in God who was her Saviour, let us also lift our voices in praise. And may God work through our ordinary lives and our ordinary church. And may God accomplish extraordinary things through us.

Here we are, your servants, O God. Let it be with us according to your word. Amen.

December 13, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:35:00 +0000

Zephaniah 3:14-20
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18

The message of the prophets on this third Sunday in Advent is about the joy of salvation. Like Israel before us, we have a reason to rejoice, because God has decided not to hold us accountable for our sins and failings, but to demonstrate grace and offer us forgiveness. As the prophet Zephaniah wrote to the people of Israel, �The LORD has taken away the judgments against you.� We are called to rejoice and exult with all our hearts. We are invited to draw spiritual water from the wells of salvation, and to do so with joy and thanksgiving.

This is, of course, a message that is not reserved for Advent or Christmas. We are reminded of God�s grace and forgiveness over and over in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and Sunday after Sunday, we hear the assurance of God�s abiding love and grace for us, God�s own wandering children.

But the message of grace in today�s scriptures comes hand in hand with a challenge. The prophet John is preaching about the One coming into the world from God. He is calling the people to prepare the way of the Lord, to get ready for a Messiah who will baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire.

But John�s message is not, �Relax and don�t worry. You folks are fairly good people, and God is forgiving you anyway, so you really don�t need to be concerned about anything.� John the Baptist is not nearly so sweet and kind and reassuring. In fact, he�s yelling at the people and calling them �snakes�. He�s accusing them of being hypocrites � of putting on a show of repentance in order to avoid the judgment and punishment of God. �Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?� he asks them. And then he challenges them to PROVE their sincere desire to repent, to change, and to turn towards God�s loving ways.

There are many who would level the same charge against churches and Christians today. They notice that we come to God to confess our sins and to receive forgiveness. They notice that we do a lot of talking about what�s right and wrong, and often spend a lot of energy pointing our fingers at others we think are doing wrong things.

But what they often do not notice is Christians acting very differently than anyone else in our society. They notice that we are just as likely to get angry and be rude to a clerk in a store. They see that we spend just as much of our money on luxuries, and we�re no more likely to be making sacrifices to care for the earth. Our presence in church doesn�t seem to affect the values we are teaching our children, or the ways we are functioning in our jobs or our social circles. They call us hypocrites because we are enjoying the grace of God�s forgiveness, but often our lives are not bearing the fruit of our repentance.

In John�s Gospel, Jesus describes his relationship with his followers as being like a vine and branches. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. When we stay joined to him and let his energy fill our lives, the result is that we bear fruit. Jesus has the power to help us to do good works when our repentance is sincere and when we remain connected to Christ, allowing him to direct us in every area of our lives.

Paul also writes about the fruit that should be produced in the lives of those who follow the way of Christ. Writing to the Galatian Christians, he tells them that the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GENEROSITY, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL. If God has the power to grow this kind of fruit in our lives, surely the people around us will begin to see it and to wonder at the source of our changed lives.

But God cannot do these things without our full participation. God needs us to be the branches that bear the fruit of faithfulness and generosity, and God needs us to be the hands and feet of Christ�s body, healing and helping and holding our suffering world today.

As I was studying today�s Gospel passage, I noticed that John gets very specific about the fruit of repentance that he expects to see in the people�s lives. He doesn�t just say, �You need to be a little kinder,� or �You should try to be more patient.� It�s not a matter of simply increasing their concern for their neighbours or for the stranger in their midst.

Instead, John is calling for a radical re-orientation of their lives and ours. And he�s telling them that people will see the fruit of that change (of that repentance) when they start dealing with their money and their possessions in a completely different way.

There were three groups of people who listened to John that day, and each one asks John the same question, �What should we do?� John�s answers give concrete examples of the ethical reform that he called for in the previous verses. All three answers call for an end to a life-style based on greed and the accumulation of material possessions.

To the soldiers, he said, �Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.�

To the tax collectors, he said, �Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.�

And to the crowds in general, he said, �Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none;and whoever has food must do likewise.�

Traditionally, repentance was expressed by putting on sackcloth and ashes or offering sacrifices. But for John, repentance takes the form of a sincere and dedicated enactment of the commandment to love one�s neighbour as oneself and to do deeds of loving kindness.

John does not call for the people to withdraw from society to live a religious life (like the Essenes were doing at Qumran). Neither does he seek a military solution to the problems of poverty and oppression (like the Zealot groups of his time were doing). Instead, John addresses individual needs, and he believes that the answer begins with the individual. If one has more than is needed to sustain life, one who does not have such abundance should be provided for.

Notice that he does not say that one who does not have food or clothing should TAKE from one who has more than needed. He�s not Robin Hood! His interest is in repentance and ethical reform, rather than revolution. And the first step towards a redeemed community is for those who HAVE to share with those who HAVE NOT.

Most of us gathered here today belong to the group of those who HAVE. We are challenged, like the tax collectors and the soldiers, to be honest in our dealings with money, and perhaps most difficult in our society, to BE SATISFIED with what we have. And like the rich ones in the crowd that day, we are invited to share what we have � to share out of our abundance.

Christmas is an ideal time to respond to John�s challenge, and to co-operate with God in producing good fruit. We can choose to give gifts to those in our community who are in need at this time, instead of buying more sweaters or electronics for our friends and families who already have more than they need. We can choose to spend more time with those who are lonely or grieving or sick or depressed this Christmas, and less time at the mall loading our carts with things we hope will make ourselves and our families happy.

It takes courage to make these kinds of changes in our lives � to trust that we will be okay, that God will be with us, and that the joy of the Lord will actually fill our lives when we have let go of the money and material possessions that our world tells us we need in order to be happy and fulfilled. We must learn from those who have experienced the joy of the Lord in their lives despite extreme poverty or illness or uncertainty. And in faith and trust and hope, let us open our hearts and our lives to share from our abundance.

While we are preparing for Christmas, leaders from around the world are meeting in Copenhagen to come to some agreement on how the nations of the world will attempt to slow the progress of climate change. Like our individual lives, there are some in that gathering who HAVE a great deal, and others who have very little. Some of our countries are doing great harm to our earth and our atmosphere, while others are suffering the effects of that harm.

KAIROS, our Canadian ecumenical social justice organization, is calling Canadian churches across the country to pray, and to speak out, and to ring our bells today, for climate justice. As a HAVE country, filled mostly with HAVE people, Canada has a responsibility to make sacrifices in order to share the abundance we have with the people of the developing world.

Today, let us ring our bells, and shake our tambourines, and beat our drums, and bang our pots� both with the joy of the Lord and the warning of the prophets. May our lives bear fruit worthy of repentance, and may God�s kingdom come. Amen.

December 6, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:50:00 +0000

Malachi 3:1-4
Luke 1:68-79
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6

I haven�t been experiencing a great deal of peace lately. I don�t mean that I�ve been literally participating in conflict, and I don�t mean that I�ve been troubled about my own relationship with God. But I haven�t been experiencing much peace because there has been some stress and anxiety in my work as a minister among you and within this presbytery.

I�ve been a minister for six years now, and before I became one, I never imagined that part of my work would include the job of closing churches. I thought of ministry as preaching and leading worship, as teaching and praying and providing pastoral care. I thought of ministry as reaching out and trying new things, imagining new ways of sharing the gospel in word and action with a world that is lost and confused and in need of God�s help.

The image of John the Baptist is very appealing. I can imagine myself (or the church as a whole) as the one crying out in the wilderness of our world. We cry out both warning and welcome. We warn that things must change � people must turn their hearts and their lives to God and God�s loving ways. And we welcome all people to come and be forgiven by God � to be baptized, to be cleansed, to begin again in relationship with the God who loves them.

But while the people of John�s time were streaming out to hear his teaching and be baptized by him, the people of our time are staying home, sleeping in, spending time with their families, or going to the mall. It raises all kinds of questions for those of us who are still in the churches. Are we failing in our mission to share the good news about Jesus? What are we doing wrong? What must we change?

The fact is that the churches haven�t changed very much over the last 60 or 70 years, but things have changed around us. The era of Christendom in our country - in which Christianity was the norm and participation in the church was a part of everyday life � that era is over. In other words, we can�t just set up a church, put a sign out front with the service time, and expect people to show up. Most younger people today have no idea what we�re doing inside this building on Sunday mornings, and unless we�re making as much noise as John the Baptist�s cry, they�re not too likely to find out.

The last several months and the last week, in particular, have been a bit of a reality check for me. A good deal of my time recently has been spent working with the churches in Saskatoon that are closing. Parkview Church closed in October 2008, and we welcomed many of their members to worship here with us. Circle West Church is scheduled to close at the end of 2009, and perhaps a few of their members may choose to join us as well. McKercher Drive Church has an average Sunday worship attendance of around 10-15 people, and they have decided to close their doors at the end of April 2010, and to come together to join St. Andrew�s as well. Meanwhile, the elderly congregation at Calvin Goforth Church is determined to carry on � trying to forge a way ahead in a world that has changed around them.

Our church is in a slightly different position, in that we still have the critical mass required to worship and learn and serve and reach out into the community in some fairly significant ways. We have two ministers and a variety of groups and programs for various age groupings and interests. But we cannot make the mistake of assuming that means we are doing things right � that we are somehow going to survive where other churches have declined and closed down.

I spent three days this week at a conference in Ontario on the topic of transitions in congregations. Our national church sponsored the conference to give support and training to Regional Staff and other church leaders who are helping congregations move through change� things like amalgamations, clusters, closures, and size transitions, whether growth or decline. It was a very valuable time of sharing experiences from across the country, and receiving some very insightful guidance from Alice Mann of the Alban Institute.

It was helpful to know that we are not alone in this work of letting some congregational ministries come to an end. It is happening all over, and there are some things to learn about how to do it well. But I also realized this week that these closures are just the beginning. If you look at the demographics of our congregations today, you have to realize that there are going to be more closures or more down-sizing, at least, in the years ahead. Twenty years from now, who will be left? Who will be left in our church if we keep on doing what we have been doing � if we don�t change in some pretty significant ways.

Earlier this year, we welcomed four new elders into leadership in our congregation, and immediately, a number of older elders took the opportunity to retire after many years of faithful service. Our church includes groups for children and youth throughout the week, but some of our members are quick to point out that the largest group to gather (aside from Sunday worship) is often the Thursday Group � a gathering of older adults who come together for learning and fellowship. And as much as this congregation relies on the leadership of a team of ministers, and as much as I know you are committed to the work we do within the Presbytery and the Synod, the financial strain is a reality that we cannot ignore for long.

Are you finding this to be a rather depressing sermon? What�s the point in dwelling on the negative? I mean, there are lots of good things happening in and through our church�s ministry. Why don�t we just focus on those things instead, and keep on doing all we can to share the gospel in word and in action? Well, I guess I�m thinking that if we do that, we�ll just end up like the other churches in our city that are closing their doors. It will take a few more years, but eventually we�ll have to come to that same decision.

It seems to me that this has got to be the moment to act, to make changes that help us to reach out and bring the good news to our community, rather than just hanging on to what we have. I hate to think that the folks from Parkview and Circle West and McKercher Drive are abandoning their sinking ships, only to hop into a larger, but leaking, boat.

But I am not without hope. Because the scriptures testify over and over again that it is just when things seem the most bleak, that God appears to bring light and life and hope. The prophet Malachi spoke of a messenger who would come from God, and he wondered who would be able to endure the day of his coming. Who would be judged by God and not be found wanting? Who would be evaluated, and not be found needing to improve or change?

Malachi knew that none of God�s people � no matter how religious or devout � were worshipping and serving God perfectly. But he also believed that when the messenger came from God, there would be an opportunity to change. He said, the messenger �is like a refiner�s fire and like fullers� soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.�

The descendants of Levi, the tribe called the Levites, were the priestly people, the ones charged with looking after things religious. In a sense, those of us in the churches are like their descendants. We are the ones charged with the responsibility of telling the world about God, of inviting the people into relationship with God. And in order to be faithful to that call, we are going to need some refining. We are going to need to change.

John the Baptist too, called the people to change. He challenged them to repent � to turn in a new direction BEFORE it was too late. And he encouraged them with the assurance that they were being forgiven and renewed for life in relationship with God.

I am not certain about what our new direction as a church is going to look like. I have some ideas of things that I would like to try � things that may get us opening our doors to let people in, things that may get us going out in Jesus� name. But we have some work ahead to discern our direction together, to listen for where God is calling us.

But I think the first step needs to be a reality check. We can�t just keep doing what we are doing now until we run out of steam and have to just stop. We have to acknowledge that we are at a turning point � and, that Jesus is coming. In the midst of the darkest places, the most confusing times, and into our lives and our communities when we don�t know what to do or where to go, Jesus comes.

Jesus comes to us when we are stressed out and when we are tired. Jesus comes to us when we are worried, and starting to argue with each other. Jesus comes to us when we have not been paying attention to God very much, and we are needing to get back into that relationship of guidance and direction.

As much as this work of closing churches has been very difficult, I am more sure than ever today that it has been necessary work. We are at a time in our church�s life when we need to consolidate our resources, when we need to come together and make plans for a future with hope. We need to stop trying to do and be everything that the church once was, and discern what we are being called to do and to be today in today�s world.

The Baptist�s cry came out as a warning: Repent! Turn! Now is the time to change and to make space in your lives for what God is about to do! May we heed that warning today, and may we also have the courage to turn, to change, and to risk so that God may work in our lives and in our churches. Like those who came before us, we don�t know exactly what our future is going to look like, but we need to trust God and move forward in faith.

In the words of the Apostle Paul to the church at Philippi... �I thank my God every time I [think about] you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ�And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.� Amen.

November 29, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:46:00 +0000

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

Today we begin a new year in the calendar of the church. And as we mark the first Sunday in the season of Advent, we jump from last week�s celebration of Christ as our King and Sovereign, back into the experience of waiting for Christ to come into our world. A week ago, we declared Christ as our Lord, and acknowledged his presence, power, and authority over all things. Our Christ candle shone brightly in our worship, and we were challenged to go out and shine that light into the world.

But today, we lit only the Candle of Hope. The Christ Candle is not shining today. And not because Christ is not present with us� I certainly believe that he is. As much as Christ was King last Sunday, Jesus is our Lord today. But in Advent we take time to acknowledge the fact that although Christ has come, Christ�s presence and power is not yet felt throughout the whole earth. Although the light of Christ shines, there are still many dark places in our world and within our lives.

As you may remember, Advent means �coming�. Christ came among us 2000 years ago in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. And in Advent we both wait to celebrate that coming, and we anticipate Christ�s coming again � the future time when Christ�s presence will pervade all things, when everyone will live in peace with justice and righteousness, and all will be well in the world.

Our scripture texts this morning connect us to the experience of God�s People long ago, when they waited and hoped for God to act powerfully and help them in their trouble. The prophet Jeremiah spoke words of hope to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Remember that at this point in history, the Babylonian Empire has invaded Judah a number of times, and the city of Jerusalem has been destroyed. Many of the people have been exiled to live in Babylon, and others are left to live a shattered existence in the aftermath of the invasions.

And rather than thinking about these events as �bad luck�, God�s People are interpreting them as evidence of God�s having abandoned and forgotten them. They wonder how God could allow their devastation, why God would turn away from the covenant made at Sinai, and they even consider the possibility that God might be powerless compared to the Babylonian deities who seem to have won the war. And so the prophet�s task is to give the people some hope. He brings a message from God that encourages them to hang on and to remain faithful until things finally turn around for them. They need to trust God and wait for the time when things will get better.

Jeremiah writes:
�The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made� I will cause a Righteous Branch to spring up for David [a ruler, a king in the line of King David will come] and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.�

Looking back, we can see that there were some better days ahead for the People of Judah and Jerusalem. The day did come when those in exile were allowed to go home, and eventually the temple was rebuilt. They did have one or two reasonable kings in the centuries that followed as well, kings who cared about their people and even encouraged the people to turn back to God and God�s commandments. Perhaps Jeremiah�s prediction did come true.

But those who lived nearly 600 years later and who met the man Jesus of Nazareth came to a different conclusion about Jeremiah�s prophecy and others like it. The Jews of the first century were struggling too, like their ancestors before them. Though they had their temple and their religion, they were occupied by the Roman Empire now, and lived under their oppression. And even if some among them lived fairly comfortable lives, many of God�s People suffered from poverty or illness, or simply from a lack of hope for things to get better.

When Jesus began his ministry of teaching and healing and forgiving in God�s name, they interpreted his presence and work as the fulfillment of the prophet�s predictions. When one woman was healed by Jesus, they saw hope for the healing of all who were suffering. When one man was forgiven and restored to community, they were encouraged that no one was outside of redemption. When the least among them was welcomed by Jesus, they caught a glimpse of what God�s inclusive love would look like. When Jesus came on the scene, hope came with him, as God�s people were lifted above their distress into the joy of relationship with God.

Those who watched what was happening with this man called Jesus must have wondered. Though some were seeing him as their Saviour and Messiah, he didn�t act like the king that the prophets were calling for. He didn�t take power. He didn�t conquer. And he didn�t even appear to win. He was put to death on a cross, and he was dead and gone. At least, that�s what some people must have thought. But Jesus� followers had been transformed by their relationship with him. They had received the gift of hope, and that gift could not be taken back.

It�s not that their lives became easy at that point. Things actually got pretty challenging for those who became followers of the Way � for those who professed their hope in Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. Things were bad enough that Christian writings in the mid to late first century were sounding very much like the prophetic writings of centuries past. In the face of trials and persecutions, the Gospel writers were encouraging the faithful with predictions of great trouble, but followed by ultimate victory for the Son of Man and those who were faithful to the Christ. The author of Luke�s Gospel encouraged his Christian friends to be alert, to be on guard � ready for Christ�s coming again to make everything right, to inaugurate the Kingdom of God.

Like those before them, they needed some hope. They needed some encouragement to know that God could get them through their present struggle and on to a new day. The Gospel writer has Jesus sharing a parable. Jesus says, �Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the Kingdom of God is near.�

Today, our Christ Candle is not lit. Today, we pause to acknowledge the chaos and confusion in our world and within our lives. We remember that there are hungry people needing to be fed. We take notice of the brokenness in our relationships, in our families and communities, and even in our churches. We pay attention to the fact that our lives are so often ruled by greed and a lust for power, rather than by the humble love of Christ our Lord.

We cannot ignore these things any more than the first century Christians could ignore the trouble they were experiencing. But Jesus� parable called those Christians to look around at all the chaos and confusion, and to see all of that as a sign of the coming Kingdom of God. Like leaves growing on a tree indicate the coming of summer, when they saw trouble around them, they could be sure that Christ was on his way once again into their world.

In the midst of the darkness, the Candle of Hope shines out. It is the same hope that encouraged those before us, that the first Christians discovered in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Because Christ did not come into a perfect world where everyone was healthy and happy and content. Christ came into a world of darkness and doubt, of poverty and illness, of sadness and isolation, and Christ transformed the lives of those he met and he transformed the world itself.

Today we can certainly see signs of trouble. But we must keep looking for the way that Christ�s light is shining into those dark places and bringing hope.

Today we can read about hope on our PWS&D insert � how women in El Salvador like Gloria are starting their lives over as they learn about women�s rights, family planning, and mental health � as they develop lasting friendships and change their futures through the gifts of our church.

Today we can see that hope in the faces of those on the front of our bulletin. It�s a Christmas celebration at the Evangel Hall Mission in Toronto. In the midst of poverty and despair, people are finding food, and friendship, and community, and through support, training, and encouragement, many of their futures are being transformed.

Today we can participate in sharing the gift of hope with those who are suffering most. Through our gifts to PWS&D or Presbyterians Sharing, and through our participation in the Advent Appeal, we have the opportunity to be Christ�s hopeful presence, to shine Christ�s light of hope into some very dark and sorrowful places.

And today we also get to experience a taste of hope. Christ is calling us not only to wait for the coming kingdom, and not only to work for the coming kingdom� but Christ is inviting us to experience the coming kingdom right now. As we gather at the Table of the Lord today, may we be filled with hope. May this truly be a foretaste of the heavenly banquet in the coming kingdom of God, and may God�s kingdom come. Amen.

October 11, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:12:00 +0000

Mark 10:17-31

I have an image in my mind of an elderly man standing beside the grave of his 90 year old sister. Most of the other mourners have started to make their way back to their cars, perhaps to find shelter from the cold, Saskatchewan, winter wind. But this man seems stuck in his position beside his older sister. He is bent low, with his hand on the casket, and he�s praying and crying quietly.

I can see that he is a man of faith. His lips are moving with the words of a prayer he has repeated many times, and every once in a while he makes the sign of the cross and straightens up, as if he is ready to leave. But then he bends again, as if he can�t bear to leave her there. Some younger family members come over to comfort him, and he quietly cries �why? why?� as the tears begin to stream down. He�s the last of his generation still living, and this loss seems too much for him.

�It was her time,� �She�s at peace now,� he hears from those around him. But their words are too easy. Perhaps letting go of her means letting go of his childhood, of his history, of his memories of what once was good. Whatever this letting go means for this man, what is obvious to me, as I observe the scene at the graveside, is that letting go is hard.

For the man who came looking for Jesus� advice in our Gospel reading today, letting go was just too hard. It�s not that he was an evil man, or a selfish man, or someone who just didn�t care much about what God wanted him to do. From what we can tell, he was a good man. Well� as Jesus says, �no one is good but God alone�� but this man was trying. He knew the commandments, and he was trying to follow them. He tells Jesus, �Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.�

He�s off to a good start when it comes to loving God and following Jesus. I figure he�s kind of like your average committed Christian� someone who�s been going to church their whole life. They�ve done the church school program, they�ve learned the bible stories, they come to worship on a regular basis, faithfully bring in their offering, and maybe even volunteer on a committee or two.

But somehow, it just doesn�t seem like enough. If we had to earn our salvation, that couldn�t be enough to guarantee us a place in heaven. And if we�re supposed to be building the kingdom of God on earth, then our little church activities hardly seem likely to make the difference that is needed in our world.

No matter how well we are doing at them, our work is not enough. And there are times when we, like the man in our Gospel, suddenly realize that our faith is not enough, and we come running to Jesus to ask him what we�re missing. What else are we supposed to be doing? What can we start doing, or stop doing, or do a little differently, that will assure us of our salvation� that will make the difference in our world?

So the man ran to Jesus and asked him what he must do. And Jesus looked at him. Actually, the Greek phrase could be translated as Jesus looked INTO him. Jesus didn�t just see the man�s face, but he saw into his heart. Jesus looked INTO him, and LOVED him. And then he said, �You lack [only] one thing; [You have to get rid of all your stuff!] Go, and sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, and follow me.� He lacked only one thing, but it was a big thing. Jesus was asking him to let go of everything in his life, so that following Jesus would be the one and only purpose of his whole life.

The incident shouldn�t be too surprising. I mean, Jesus had challenged others to leave their lives behind and follow. But Jesus began by calling fishermen. They didn�t have houses and servants and treasures to leave behind. Somehow it seemed simpler for them. They just dropped their nets and followed.

In an online discussion on this text, someone described the incident as �one of Jesus� more public failures�. He was supposed to be building the kingdom, convincing people of his connection to God, and gathering more and more followers as he went. But Jesus is not willing to bend the rules, or to lighten the demands for those who find his way of life more difficult. Jesus had never had great riches himself, so I wonder if this conversation is when he first realizes how difficult it will be for those who are rich to follow his way of being in the world.

It�s not that money and possessions are terrible and evil. We can obviously use the things we own and the money we have to do good work in the world. Most of the ministries of the church rely on funding from people�s generous gifts. And we can choose to use our homes, our vehicles, and many of our other possessions for welcoming, caring, and loving our neighbours and those in need around us. But our things can often get in the way. We can get too used to having all this stuff. We can come to depend on it, and to rely on it for peace and security and happiness. Just imagine if Jesus asked you to give it all up, to give it all away! Could you do it? Or would it be too much?

Someone might suggest that Jesus didn�t get it because he had never owned much of anything. He couldn�t understand how hard it would be to let all that go. But I�m reminded of another story from Mark�s Gospel. It takes place early in Jesus� ministry, just after he appoints the twelve apostles. Jesus goes back to his home town. He goes home, to the place that he had left behind when he was baptized and the Spirit came and anointed him and sent him out on his special mission from God. And it�s here that we see what Jesus has left behind: His reputation, for one thing. Many of the people in his town think that he�s lost his mind, and some of the others think that he has a demon in him.

And then, as Jesus is teaching in a house, his mother and his brothers show up outside the door. They�re calling out to their brother, asking for him to come out and see them, but Jesus does not give them special treatment. He says, �Who are my mother and my brothers?� And looking at those who sat around him, he said, �Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.�

Jesus has given up his home, his profession, his reputation in the community, and even his family. He�s left it all behind� not because those things were bad. They were probably pretty good. But he�s left them behind because God has called him to give them up so that he can be the one who inaugurates the new kingdom of God on earth.

And those who work with him, those who follow his way, are called to that same kind of giving up. We are called to put Jesus and his mission before everything else that we hold dear� before our possessions and our interests, before our families and our homes, before our own agendas and desires.

As I think about �giving up� today, I can�t help but think about some of the struggling churches in our presbytery. I think of the way that the members of Parkview Church gave up their building and congregation one year ago. Instead of hanging on to a building that was getting harder and harder to maintain� instead of clinging to their identity as a church with such a small group of members� the folks at Parkview decided to �give up�.

I don�t mean �give up� as in �they failed�. I mean they decided to �give up� the things they had, to �give away� all they had gathered. Special things like their communion table and baptismal font and piano were given to the Saskatoon Native Circle Ministry. Many other items were given away, and some things were sold. The building was sold to another Christian Church that needed a larger space. And the proceeds of all that will soon be distributed to a variety of ministries within our presbytery and beyond.

Today, there are two more congregations in our city that will be closing within the next few months. Circle West will be dissolved, and the members of McKercher Drive have decided to amalgamate with our church, coming together to join our worshipping community. And I can�t help but think that as sad as it is to see these churches closing, the willingness to give up all that we have and all that we are has got to be the first step before we�re able to do what Jesus is calling us to do with and for him.

I have seen that the giving up can feel pretty terrible. That�s why the rich man went away grieving, because he had many possessions, and it was going to be too hard for him to give them up. But Jesus knows what that feels like too. I think of Jesus, near the end of his life. Mark�s Gospel tells us that after Jesus shared the Passover meal with his disciples, he took them to a place called Gethsemane so that he could pray. Jesus spoke to Peter and James and John, his dearest friends, and he began to be distressed and agitated. He said to them, �I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.�

And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, �Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.� Giving up is hard, even for Jesus. When God asks us to give up our �everything� it is very hard, indeed. And that is what Jesus did. He gave up everything for our sake, and for the sake of the world, so that everyone would come to know the love and grace of God, so that God�s kingdom would grow and God�s kingdom would come.

I wonder what I am being called to give up. I wonder what we are being called to give up, so that God�s kingdom will grow, so that God�s kingdom will come in and through us. I am pretty sure that we are going to be called to do a lot of giving up over the coming years. The demographic changes over the next 20 years or so alone, are going to dramatically change the face of the church, and that dramatic change is going to require us to change. In fact, it is already starting to demand that change� that giving up.

Like the disciples who were confused and perplexed, we may be wondering how the church will survive all that change. How will we be able to keep on preaching the Gospel and sharing the good news when there is so much uncertainty and struggle in our future? Let�s just remember Jesus� response to his friends. Jesus looked at them and said, �For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.� Thanks be to God for this hope.

As we seek to follow the way of Jesus, may God do the impossible in and through us, and may God�s kingdom come. Amen.

October 4, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:50:00 +0000

Job 1:1; 2:1-10
Psalm 26
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

Today�s readings are not easy ones. We hear the psalmist, begging for God�s help, claiming innocence, and hoping that God will be on his side and help him. And we have Job � a man who is described as �blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil�. But though Job was a good man, his story indicates that his righteousness did not protect him from harm. Despite his faithfulness, he was struck with many troubles � losing his possessions and his family, suffering physical pain and illness and isolation.

It seems to me that the words of the psalmist match up with our human perception of what is right and fair. If God exists, and if God is both powerful and loving, then we should expect to be able to ask for blessings and receive them. If we work hard to be good and faithful to God, then God should reward us.

The psalmist expects this kind of justice from God. He writes: �Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering� I wash my hands in innocence, and go around your altar, O Lord, singing aloud a song of thanksgiving, and telling all your wondrous deeds� Do not sweep me away with sinners, nor my life with the blood-thirsty��

It seems only right that God should reward those who are faithful. And so, when bad things happen to us, we often find ourselves saying or thinking, �What did I do to deserve this?� Or if we�re feeling guilty about something, we might even assume that God is punishing us for some sin � that our current trouble or suffering is caused by God who is executing justice � punishing us for our mistakes.

There�s something about being human that leads us to that kind of conclusion � maybe because we humans usually do justice like that. Someone hurts someone, so they should be hurt back. Someone kills someone, so they should be put to death. Someone attacks, so we should fight back with all our might. But the book of Job challenges that concept of justice. It questions the idea of �an eye for an eye� and raises all kinds of new questions about the meaning of suffering.

I must say that I remember being quite shocked by Job�s story when I first encountered it. It read about how God was meeting with the angels, and how the one called Satan (or �the accuser�) was among them. Satan had just come from walking to and fro on the earth, and God asks if he�s noticed God�s servant, Job. God describes Job as �a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil�.

The conversation about Job continues, and before long God is agreeing to destroy everything Job has and everyone that Job loves, in order to see whether Job will remain faithful to God. Satan figures that when Job loses everything, he�ll curse God. And God apparently wants to prove that Job�s righteousness is more deeply rooted than Satan assumes.

If you assume that Job was a real, historical person, and that this conversation between God and Satan really took place, it�s rather horrifying! How could our loving God inflict such suffering on one person for the sake of winning an argument with Satan? Not only were Job�s flocks and herds and possessions destroyed, but his children were all killed! And in today�s reading, Satan gets God to strike Job will illness and physical suffering. His body is covered with terrible sores from his head to his feet � all for the sake of seeing how much Job can take before he cracks!

But I believe that the story of Job is a story � told for the sake of trying to make sense of suffering. It challenges that base assumption that people suffer because they have sinned. And it explores the questions around what to do when bad things happen to good people. It�s been several years since I last read Rabbi Harold Kushner�s book, �When bad things happen to good people,� but even the title of his book makes an important point about suffering. He doesn�t attempt to answer �why� bad things happen to good people. He doesn�t say it�s because they have done something to deserve it. He doesn�t say it�s because Satan is having an evil little party, and is arbitrarily inflicting suffering on good people. And he doesn�t blame God either � saying that God is either mean or harsh, or not powerful enough to protect the good from harm.

Instead, like the book of Job, Kushner does not dwell on the question of �why?� but moves right on to explore what happens �when� bad things happen to good people. How do we respond? How do we cope? Do we curse God, and turn away in anger and disappointment, as Job�s wife and friends encouraged him to do? Or do we cling to the God of our life for help and strength to make it through? Can we keep on believing that our trials and troubles are not punishment? Can we remember, in the midst of our suffering, that God is with us to walk us through until they eventually come to an end?

Like all people, we struggle with the meaning of suffering. Sometimes it is our own illnesses, or losses, or disappointment. And sometimes we look at the world around us, and we wonder at the poverty and the hunger, at the needless violence, illness, and oppression. But as Christians, we turn to the life of Jesus for guidance and hope in the midst of all that confuses and concerns us. If Job was a fictional man, who lost it all and suffered greatly despite his goodness and faithfulness to God� Jesus was the real man, whose life followed a similar pattern.

Our reading from the book of Hebrews today begins by reminding us that long ago, God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets. God spoke through the person who wrote the story about Job, for example, and God�s people were strengthened and encouraged to live in relationship to the God who made them. But Hebrews goes on to say that in these last days, God has spoken to us by a Son. This man, Jesus, Hebrews tells us, is the reflection of God�s glory and the exact imprint of God�s very being. And God sent Jesus into our world to live with us. Jesus came as a teacher � showing us how to live in loving relationship with God and each other. And he came as a leader, showing with his own life what it means to love one another and God.

And all of that seems just fine to our human way of thinking. We needed that extra help to understand how God was calling us to live. We needed that example to follow so that we could learn to be as righteous and upright as Job � so that we could honestly cry out the words of the psalmist: �Vindicate us, O Lord, for we have walked in our integrity, and we have trusted in the Lord without wavering.�

But though Jesus was perfect (more perfect even than the character of Job) his righteousness did not protect him from suffering. In fact, it led him right into it. Jesus came into the world to love us humans in all our brokenness, in all our sinfulness, in all our suffering. He came and walked with those who were most despised and rejected by others, and he shared their suffering. He lifted them above their troubles, and showed them that they were loved. He stood up for the poor and the outcast, and for all those who were suffering.

Someone asked the question, �What are human beings that God is mindful of them, or mortals, that God cares for them?� Well, God made us. And God does care for us in Jesus Christ. No, Jesus didn�t come and fight against those evil powers with sword and violence. Instead, he walked with us in our suffering, and took upon himself all that fear and hatred and violence. Like Job, Jesus was the innocent one who suffered for no good reason at all. Or in his case, he suffered and died so that we humans would know that we are not alone, that God is sharing our pain, that God loves us that much, and that at the end of it all there is victory.

At the end of Job�s story, he is restored. He receives everything back that he has lost, and all is well. At the end of Jesus� story, we discover that suffering and death do not have the final word. Jesus is raised, and there is a new and everlasting life for him in relationship with God.

This morning, we will gather at the table of Jesus� suffering to remember (together with all the people of God) that Jesus loved us that much. As we offer bread and juice, we remember Jesus� offering of his whole life � body and blood � for the life of the world. And as we receive these gifts, we know that Jesus is still with us, walking with us through our suffering, rejoicing with us in our celebration, filling and strengthening us to live his way in the world today.

Thanks be to God for this Holy Communion with Christ and with his body here on earth. Amen.

September 13, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:06:00 +0000

Proverbs 1:20-33
Psalm 19
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38

As you know, the bible contains many different types of literature within its many books. And the book of Proverbs is part of the type of biblical material called �wisdom literature�. It is an amazing book full of wise sayings and advice for many people in many situations. And it begins with an image of wisdom personified.

Wisdom is out in the street, in the squares where all the people are passing by, and she�s shouting. Woman Wisdom has chosen the busiest corner at the entrance of the city gates, and she is calling �How long, O simple ones? How long will you love being simple? How long will you hate knowledge? I have called to you, and made my words known to you. I have offered to share my wisdom with you, and you have ignored me.� Wisdom is sick and tired of being ignored, and she seems to be giving up on the people who don�t have any use for her. �It�ll serve you right!� becomes her message. If you ignore wisdom, things won�t go well for you, and you�ll have to deal with it all on your own, without any knowledge or wisdom to help you.

Now it could be that the wisdom that is calling out to us today is simply the many proverbs that we find in the bible. The image of Woman Wisdom calling out is a great way to introduce these wise sayings, to get us paying attention to what we need to hear�. things like this well-known proverb: �Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge the Lord, and he will make straight your paths.� (Proverbs 3:5-6) Or like these lesser-known pieces of wisdom: �Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to advice. Fools show their anger at once, but the prudent ignore an insult.� (Proverbs 12:15-16) Woman Wisdom calls out with her warning: �If we listen to wisdom, we�ll be able to live happy, healthy, and whole lives. If we ignore wisdom, then we do so at our own peril.�

But there is a great deal more wisdom in the scriptures than is contained in the proverbs, or even in the wisdom books. Our psalm today pointed out that the laws and commandments of God are full of wisdom, making wise the simple and enlightening the eyes. The commandments serve as a warning for those who care to pay attention, and there is great reward in following them. And though the Hebrew Scriptures are full of wisdom for how to live righteous and good lives in relationship with God and with one another, we still look to the second testament for further insight. Jesus himself, seems to have been a great teacher of wisdom.

Though the documents we have today about Jesus� life and ministry are mostly in the form of narratives, they do contain great long sections of his teachings and wisdom sayings � very similar to the proverbs in some ways. In fact, biblical scholars have a theory that the earliest document about Jesus to be written and distributed was probably a collection of his wise teachings. It would have contained sayings like�

�Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.� (Matthew 6:19-21)

�Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing.� (Matthew 6:25)

�You have heard that it was said, �You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.� But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you�� (Matthew 5:43-44)

�Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.� (Matthew 7:13-14)

So, Jesus is, among other things, a teacher of wisdom. He has been teaching and preaching, inviting people to follow him and learn from him along the way. But in today�s reading, we see Jesus kind of �checking in� with his disciples to see if they are �getting it�, to see if they�ve been paying attention to him, to see if they understand what he�s been trying to teach them.

So he asks them a question. But it�s not like a typical �pop quiz� that a teacher might give. He doesn�t ask them whether they have learned the commandments. (They probably already knew those before they met Jesus anyway!) And he doesn�t ask them to repeat back the things he�s been teaching, or even to interpret some of his parables.

You see, I think it all comes down to whether or not they are �getting� the bigger picture. It doesn�t matter whether or not they can quote scripture, or follow someone�s rules, or even understand the deeper meaning of a story. Jesus wants to know whether they understand what his presence and his leadership is all about. And so he asks, �Who do people say that I am?�

Well, some say you�re John the Baptist, or Elijah, or another one of the prophets returned. Those are the kinds of things that people are saying about Jesus as he travels through the towns and villages proclaiming the coming kingdom and helping and healing people along the way. You see, they get that Jesus is someone important. He has the power to help them, and he has lots of interesting things to teach them. They may even see that God has a special mission for him.

But the crowds don�t get it completely. And it seems, at first, that Jesus� disciple Peter knows what the crowds, what the regular people out there have missed. When Jesus asks, �But who do you say that I am?� Peter boldly declares: �You are the Messiah!� Of course!

And Peter is right. Jesus orders his disciples not to tell anyone about his true identity. Perhaps because if the wrong people found out what he was claiming, he would quickly be in trouble. You see, Jesus had no illusions about people accepting him and his message and his identity as the one sent from God. Though in Mark�s account of the Jesus story, Jesus is not rushing to make his true identity known, he does know that it�s eventually going to come out, and he�s not going to be well received.

The author of Mark�s Gospel has Jesus very accurately predicting what his fate will eventually be. He says, �the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.�

I don�t know whether the historical Jesus would have articulated his fate in such detail, but the Gospel writer is putting it together for us. He�s telling us that Jesus knew what he was getting into. He knew that his mission was to be more than a wise teacher, more than a prophet. He knew that what God was calling him to be and to do was going to lead to his execution, and he was bold enough to talk about it.

That�s when we realize that Peter�s not much farther along than the crowds in his understanding of who Jesus is. Peter gets angry when he hears Jesus talking like that. Like the family or friends of a critically ill person, who won�t let their loved one talk about the fact that they�re going to die� Perhaps Peter didn�t want to acknowledge that the authorities did have the power to put Jesus to death. Maybe he wanted everyone to stay �optimistic�. Or maybe he truly believed that Jesus would become the kind of Messiah who would take religious and political power by force, who would rise up and triumph over those who opposed him.

I wonder if Jesus was disappointed when it became clear that even Peter didn�t really understand him. His angry response seems to indicate that he was frustrated, or at least caught off guard, by the fact that Peter had so completely missed the point. �Get behind me, Satan!� Jesus yelled, �For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.�

Jesus has been teaching them, as they go along, about divine things� about God�s kingdom here on earth, about God�s love and God�s desire for us to live according to God�s standards of love, and grace, and generosity. And Jesus has been teaching them (and showing them!) what it looks like to leave human concerns behind and to live the life that God is calling them to. They leave behind fishing nets and families. They give up money and possessions and security. And they relinquish a whole set of old ideas about who is important and who is not, about who is in and who is out.

But how easy it is to slip back into old patterns! How easy it is to return to those old cultural assumptions and values! I can imagine Peter rebuking Jesus: �No, Jesus! You can�t be put to death! Don�t talk like that! You�ve got to win! You�ve got to overpower your enemies! We�ll rise up! We can do it together! Just don�t talk like that any more.� And in just a moment, his tongue has turned from the faithful, trusting, �You are the Messiah!� to a terrible rebuke.

It�s not that Peter was a bad disciple. He had his moments of failure like all the others, but he was the one that Jesus later nick-named Rock � the rock on which the church would be built. But Peter didn�t yet understand Jesus� �upside-down and backwards� kind of wisdom. He had certainly heard the teachings� things like �blessed are the poor� and he had lived according to them in so many ways as he travelled along with Jesus. But he hadn�t taken that wisdom to its logical conclusion. He still wanted Jesus to be successful and victorious in terms of human standards.

It�s a hard teaching. �If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.� In the midst of an angry moment, when I�m railing against someone�s stupidity or some injustice against me, or when I�m complaining that something simply isn�t fair� I realize that I�m a lot like Peter. I don�t completely �get� Jesus� upside-down and backwards wisdom. Well, I �get� it intellectually. But I realize that it still hasn�t seeped down into the core of my being to guide and direct my choices and my reactions to the things in my life.

Too much of the time, my mind is set on human things. I want success. I want recognition. I want to accomplish some stuff. I want to be comfortable. I want to have some things. It�s not that I�m a bad disciple. I love Jesus, and I�m ready to work for his kingdom, and I want to follow him and to be more like him. But when I think of being more like Jesus, I�m usually thinking of being more loving and kind and committed. I�m not usually thinking of the suffering that he experienced� of the things that he gave up, and the betrayal and abandonment and rejection that he endured when he took up his cross.

I can�t help but think of the martyrs of the early Christian church � those Christians who were so committed to their faith in Jesus that they were willing to die rather than deny that they were Christians. Many of them went willingly to their deaths, believing without a doubt that their �losing their lives for the sake of Christ and the gospel� would result in them being saved. They would have a new life in heaven with God. That would be their reward.

But I don�t think that Jesus� saying is just about suffering and dying now so that we�ll be able to go to heaven later. I think it�s about something much more immediate, and perhaps much less dramatic most of the time. Maybe it�s about giving up some of our personal rest time in order to come to church and worship God. Maybe it�s about giving up some of our financial resources in order to carry out the work of the church. Maybe it�s about giving up the quest for personal success and recognition in order give more time and talent towards mission work in the church and the community. Maybe it�s about resisting our society�s constant message that becoming whole and well means acquiring more and more things. Maybe it�s about learning to be content with less, simplifying our lives, and finding our true peace and contentment in the love of God through Jesus Christ.

Remember Woman Wisdom, God�s wisdom personified, calling out in the streets, calling out to the people passing by and inviting them to listen and learn and become wise like her? The great story of our faith reminds us that God has been faithfully trying to get humans paying attention to wisdom for a long time. God gave us the commandments to show us how to live. And when we kept ignoring them and ignoring God, God sent prophets to challenge us and turn us back to God�s wisdom and God�s way. And though some lived in relationship with God, at least some of the time, God eventually decided that words were not enough. Proverbs were fine, but in order for humans to truly understand, we needed that wisdom to become flesh. And so God sent a son. God came in Jesus to live among us. God�s Word made flesh. God�s wisdom in human form.

Jesus lived among us as Emmanuel (God with us). And though he was a teacher and preacher with many wise things to say, he was so much more than that. He said, �Those who lose their life for the sake of the gospel will save it�. But he didn�t just say it. He lived by it. He showed us what it looks like to live for others, to give up personal comforts, concerns, and desires in order to care for people in need. And he did it all the way to the cross.

May God help us as we seek to live in his way, as we grow into his wisdom. God, help us to be willing to give something up, to give ourselves up, for the sake of Christ and the gospel. And let us find our true lives in you. Amen.

August 9, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:11:00 +0000

Ephesians 4:25 � 5:2
John 6:35, 41-51

The day of a baptism is a wonderful day to reflect on and to celebrate the church � the family of God � the Body of Christ that we all belong to together. Today we are welcoming a new member of our big family. Grace Anne is joined to Christ and to all of us (to our congregation here at St. Andrew�s, and to the whole Christian church throughout the world).

I would love to be able to simply celebrate that� to say �Welcome Grace Anne, to this big, happy, healthy, wholesome family of God!� and let that be all that I say. But like most families, our Christian family is not always a happy place. Our family is prone to dysfunction. We often do recognize that we all belong to the same family, but we don�t always get along, or talk to each other, or act like we belong together. We�ve had lots of disagreements in our Christian family over the years, and lots of our members are still feeling angry or hurt or disappointed. Some have moved out. Others have given up on trying to get along, and mostly stay in their own little corners of the family home.

When Doug and Vickie brought Grace Anne home from the hospital a few months ago, their new house in Biggar wasn�t quite ready to move into yet. And the Christian family home that she officially joins today still needs a lot of work too. Together, we have the responsibility of doing that work (with the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit) � the work of renovating the church, of being reformed by the Word of God, of growing up into Christ who is our head.

Today�s reading from Paul�s letter to the Church at Ephesus gives some advice to the Christian community as to how that continual change and growth must take place, and it expresses an understanding of Christian life in community that runs through all of Paul�s letters. We must first remember that Christians have been transformed in Christ. In our baptism, we have been forgiven, cleansed, and renewed. We have died to our old lives, and been raised with Christ to a new life. We have been joined to Christ as members of his body. And we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit who teaches us and empowers us to live as faithful disciples of Jesus. We have been transformed, and we are children of God, disciples of Christ, and members of the church.

But at the same time, Christians must be actively engaged in strengthening what we already are. Conversion, baptism, putting off the old and putting on the new, and being sealed with the Spirit and freed from sin are not past events whose effects simply remain. Rather, these events have introduced us into a new reality � the body of Christ � which is still in the process of growing into its head.

In order for the Christian community to grow in love and unity, Paul says that we must begin by speaking the truth to one another. Honesty is the place to start when it comes to getting along in community. We need to tell the truth to each other about who we are, and what we�re feeling and thinking. We need to tell the truth about what we need and what we have to share. We need to tell the truth about what we believe and what are our doubts, about what we value and love, and those things that make us afraid. Telling the truth in love is the only way that we will be able to know and love one another in Christian community. It is the foundation for relationships of trust and care within all our families and within the family of God.

But Paul knows that telling the truth is not enough to ensure a healthy Christian community. Openness and honesty in our relationships will reduce misunderstanding and conflict, but it won�t solve all our disagreements. Paul writes, �Be angry, but do not sin.� And I�m reminded of something my mother used to say when our sibling conflicts had gotten out of hand. She said, �You can HATE your sister, but you can�t HIT her.� You can FEEL angry, and you WILL feel angry at times, but don�t let that anger control your behaviour. Don�t let the anger take over so that you hit your annoying sister or sin against your neighbour in the Christian community.

I had a conversation a few weeks ago during which I had to hold fast to that advice. It was during the Canada Youth conference in St. Catharines when I was chatting with another minister from Ontario and a youth worker from the Maritimes. The youth worker decided to stimulate the conversation by asking us whether we would describe ourselves as conservative or liberal. I responded that I found those labels rather misleading and unhelpful, but that I could tell him where I stood on individual issues.

He brought up inclusive language and various issues around the interpretation of scripture, and then he started talking about the ordination of women. For a moment, I wondered whether he realized that the two women he was speaking with were, in fact, ordained ministers in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Our very being witnessed to our obvious position on the issue.

With great boldness, this young man explained to us why he believed that God did not want women to be ordained. And as I listened, I could feel the anger rising up inside me, the adrenaline kicking in and getting me ready to fight. And don�t worry, I didn�t hit him. I didn�t even hate him, actually. I simply presented my own position and my interpretation of scripture, and explained the church�s position as clearly as I could.

The Presbyterian Church in Canada has been ordaining women to the ministries of Ruling Eldership and Word & Sacraments since way back in 1966 (15-20 years before this young man was born), so it�s rare that I encounter a Presbyterian who disagrees so strongly with the practice. But there are always issues on which we disagree, even within the Presbyterian Church, and even within one congregation.

What is the best way to promote our mission fund �Presbyterians Sharing� and to meet our own congregational budget during challenging financial times?

Should we purchase a grand piano for the church, and where should we put it, and how will we use it as a significant tool for the ministry of our church?

What factors should we consider when purchasing coffee for the church? Taste? Cost? Fair trade? Organic?

How are we being called to reach out from our congregation? Is it by caring for the poor, getting involved in political action for justice and peace, or by connecting with suburban families � figuring out their needs and seeking to meet them?

These are just a few examples of the many issues in congregations like ours that lead to disagreements, and sometimes disputes and divisions. Paul�s advice can be very helpful to us as we strive to keep on living in loving community with one another, despite the inevitable differences of opinion.

Yes, we�ll get angry at times, but let�s resolve not to STAY angry. As Paul says, �Don�t let the sun go down on your anger.� Talk it out. Work it out. Listen to one another. And sometimes we might even have to just �let it go�.

Paul continues� �Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.�

It would be fairly simple to live by Paul�s advice if our conflicts were always as benign as the music we sing in worship or the colour of the carpets. But even our little Presbyterian Church in Canada is home to Christians with an amazing diversity of background, experience, opinion, and theological perspective. The same diversity that gives our church its richness and beauty also creates some challenges for us as we attempt to live together in harmony.

We�ve pretty much settled the issue of the ordination of women in our church, but we�re still deeply divided over the inclusion and ordination of gay and lesbian men and women in our congregations. We�re so far from agreement on that issue that we hardly even discuss it anymore. And the issue that raised the most concern and debate at recent General Assemblies was around how to co-operate and dialogue with other faith groups, while maintaining a belief in the uniqueness of Christ for salvation.

These are big issues with implications for who we are as a Christian community and who we are in relationship to our neighbours in the world. They are not simple issues with black or white answers. And open, honest discussion of them brings along a whole whack of feelings, often including that anger that Paul wrote about.

John�s Gospel gives us a powerful example of a Christian community that had suffered through disagreement, conflict, and division. In their case, it was over the very identity of Jesus of Nazareth. This group of Jewish Christians had been kicked out the synagogues by other Jews who did not agree with their new beliefs about Jesus.

The fourth Gospel illustrates how that Christian community tried to cope with the situation. They kept themselves separate, and allowed others into their circle only when they could declare their belief in the group�s doctrines. They demonized those with whom they had disagreed, making that �other� group of Jews into �the Jews that killed Jesus�. John�s Gospel is the only one in which Jesus seems to require right belief before grace and salvation is given. And John�s Gospel sets clear boundaries for who is in and who is out of God�s family, having Jesus make statements like �No one comes to the Father except by me�.

The Johannine Christian community was not the first or the last church to stumble through difference, disagreement, and conflict. Today�s church throughout the world, our denominational bodies, and our individual congregations experience many similar challenges. Although life together in our Presbyterian Church might be simpler if we agreed on at least the big issues, it would not be as interesting, or growth-producing as it continues to be.

And while part of me wishes that everyone would just agree with the way I see things, I�m also kind of proud of the way our Presbyterian Church stays together, and keeps on talking, and keeps on listening, and keeps on loving one another even when we don�t agree. It�s too easy to let anger lead us into sin, to let hating become hitting.

Paul encourages us, �Put away from you all kinds of bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another�� Be KIND to one another. There�s an interesting thing about the Greek word that is translated as �kind�. It sounds very similar to the Greek word for �Christ�.

Even when the issues get between us� even when we�re angry� Paul tells us to be KIND to one another. Be CHRIST to one another� welcoming, accepting, loving, forgiving, challenging, and loving some more.

That�s what it means to be members of the Body of Christ and the Family of God. Welcome, Grace Anne. Welcome to the family. Amen.

August 2, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:10:00 +0000

2 Samuel 11:26 - 12:13a
Psalm 51:1-12
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35

Back in February, I helped to lead an ecumenical retreat for women in ministry here in Saskatoon. The Eucharistic theme of our time together was taken from Henri Nouwen�s book, �Life of the Beloved�. We explored how our lives (as women in ministry) are taken, blessed, broken, and shared for the life of the world, as we participate in Christ�s own ministry today. As part of our time together, we decided that it would be both fun and meaningful to make bread. I had never made bread except using a bread machine, but some of the other women were at least occasional bread bakers, so we gave it a try.

We gathered in groups of 6 or 7 around tables in the dining room at Queen�s House, and took turns adding ingredients, mixing, kneading, sharing stories, and laughing a lot. And much to my surprise, our bread turned out both beautiful and delicious. We ate it together the next morning during our closing worship. It was an ecumenical �holy meal� with plenty of bread and wine to share as we celebrated our brief time together and began to think about returning to our particular ministries.

And I have not stopped making bread since. The grocery store still has my business, but I�m usually buying flour, yeast, and milk, and rarely any pre-made bread. There�s something about the smell of the yeast, the feel of the dough in my hands, and the wonder of its rising each time and baking up into such wonderful food! Making bread is great, even when it�s just for Nick and I, and even when I just wrap up the loaves and stick most of them in the freezer. But it�s even better when I get to share it, like I can this morning.

Have any of you ever made bread? Do any of you make bread regularly?

Many of you may not know that one of our church members, Wilma Hallam, has been making the bread for communion here at St. Andrew�s for many years. She has quietly shared her bread-making gift with us for a long time, and she has recently reached a stage in her health that is making that offering difficult to make. So� if you would like to share the joy of baking bread for communion, just let Gwen or I know if you would like to take a turn.

But communion is not just about the bread, is it? That�s what I told the children this morning: It�s not just about the bread.

I recently read about a church in Florida that periodically hosts an event for people in their community that are homeless. The church simply provides the place and partners with specialized ministry to the homeless that can help them organize an expo of resources for them. They have everything from clean underwear and dry socks to the state documents they will need to get a job. They are connected to the immediate resources they need for health. They receive gifts like free hair-cuts, and necessities like back-packs and tents, along with group home options, employment information, and more.

A good meal and new clothing are part of the program as well. But the best part, the pastor says, is that every homeless person is paired up with someone from the congregation. There are literally hundreds of church people who walk with those who may be a bit intimidated or embarrassed or confused. That walk is the most important part of the distribution process. Resources without relationship are just stuff. Receiving without being respected, listened to, and laughed with just results in more to lug around.

It�s more than just bread.

I also heard a story about a small village in Chile. There was a mine near the village that provided the only source of income for the people that lived in that village. Apparently, the mine had been bandied about between nationalization and privatization, and it was due to be closed in the very near future by the new capitalist government.

Many communities have faced this sort of thing. The one industry that sustained them is being closed. Everyone�s going to lose their jobs. They�ll have to find other ways to survive. But in this little village, there was no Plan B. No way to leave the village, no government plan for relocation, no natural resource nearby that they could easily tap into for a new source of income, no way of connecting with other communities to generate enterprise. No capacity for a new start at all.

At the centre of the community was a building that told the story, literally in concrete terms, of the way things were and where they were heading. It was a communal oven where the women would gather once a week to bake all the bread for the village. It stood cold and unused. There was no longer anything to burn in order to bake the bread � the inhabitants had picked the landscape bare of natural wood and had burned everything else they could put their hands on and could spare from their homes. No one could afford to buy firewood from somewhere else. There was no longer any bread.

An outsider visiting the community saw the loss of that communal bread-making, and wondered what else is lost when a community oven goes cold. What about the everyday connections between and among the women? In what way did the oven serve as a furnace to the souls of these women, as well as to the bread that would feed their bodies and those of their families? The visitor imagined the loss of flour-dusted conversations and well-kneaded friendships. And she tried to imagine the depth and variety of the hungers that were already gnawing away at this fragile community.

It�s more than just bread.

As Reformed Christians, we do not read the bible literally. We read it seriously, but not literally. We realize that the scriptures are full of many types of literature, including parables, poems, letters, wisdom sayings, and more. And the stories that we may once have read as if they were history, we now understand contain more theological truth that is wrapped up in symbols and metaphors, rather than historical reality.

The Gospel of John is chalk full of stories that need not be read as historical fact, but that point us to the truth of God come to us in Jesus Christ. Having been written much later than the other Gospels, probably in the early 2nd century, the details in the stories in the 4th Gospel are fairly unlikely to contain much historical accuracy, but every detail is carefully crafted to convey a theological point about the identity and power of Jesus the Christ.

For example, the other Gospel writers talk about Jesus blessing the bread, and then inviting his disciples to distribute the food among the crowd of four or five thousand. But in John�s Gospel, Jesus does the distribution all by himself� as if one man could feed such a gathering all by himself! Literally, I�m sure he couldn�t. But you can see the theological point� It is Jesus himself who feeds and nourishes each one of us with all that we need for life.

The community of Christians from which John�s Gospel emerged was one that had experienced both isolation and persecution because of their devotion to God in Jesus Christ. They believed that God had been made flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and their mission was to share that life-changing good news with anyone that they could.

The whole Gospel is set up as a series of signs performed by Jesus that reveal his identity and his connection to God. People experience these signs, and come to believe and to trust in Jesus for life and hope. I don�t think that Jesus� historical life was likely as neatly organized or as obvious as John�s Gospel makes it out to be. But remember, the Gospel is not an historical account. It�s a theological demonstration, meant to reveal, to convince, and to change the lives of those who read it.

Jesus� disciples first see him turning water into wine at a wedding � and they see his glory and they believe in him. Later, Jesus heals the son of a royal official. The official sees it as a sign of Jesus� ability to give life, and he and all his household believe in Jesus. But now there is a crowd. People are getting interested in this miracle-worker and the things that he is doing and teaching. Jesus performs another miracle � another sign of his power and his identity as the one sent from God. But this time, the people who witness the miracle (and who benefit from it) don�t seem to understand it.

It was more than just bread.

It�s like King David (in our Old Testament reading this morning) who didn�t understand that the prophet�s story was about him. David took the story literally, assuming that the people in the story were real people � not noticing that the sin of the rich man in the story compared to his own sin, and that the story was really about him and the horrible thing that he had done.

Well, the crowd liked Jesus because he gave them some bread. They liked bread, and they probably really liked free bread. But they missed the point that it was more than just bread. It was more than just an uncanny ability to provide lots of free food for lots of people.

The theological point that the Gospel writer is trying to make is that Jesus himself is bread for the world. His life gives us life. His love empowers us to love. He doesn�t just fill our physical hunger, but he satisfies our hunger for meaning, purpose, joy, love, laughter, relationship, community� and so much more. And with Jesus in our lives, we don�t get hungry again, because he is more than just bread.

Jesus said to them and to us, �I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.� As we come to the table today, may we truly experience Jesus� presence with us, and may we truly know that this is more than just bread. Amen.

July 5, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:46:00 +0000

Psalm 48

The time for the festival was approaching, and God�s people were on the move again. For centuries, since the time that God had led the Hebrews out of Egypt and into this new land, Jerusalem had been thought of as a very special place.

Though the tablets with the ten commandments were once carried in a special box as God�s people travelled through the wilderness, it had now been a long time since Solomon had built the great temple in Jerusalem. There was a home for God, a place for the people to worship, a place where they could meet with God and know with certainty that God was there.

And so the people came. God�s people lived all over by now � in Jerusalem, in the nearby towns and villages, and even further afield. Most Jews wouldn�t go up to worship in the temple every day or even every week. Instead, they would gather in local synagogues to read from the Law and the Prophets, to interpret the scriptures, to worship God, and to encourage one another.

But Jerusalem was still a very special place � a holy place where God�s presence was sure. Jerusalem was a place where heaven and earth seemed to meet � like on the mountain where God had first spoken to Moses and called him to lead God�s people out of Egypt.

And so, wherever God�s people lived, they would go up to Jerusalem. They would go up for the great festivals � the pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. They would celebrate God�s faithfulness and steadfast love towards them. They would come and worship and make their offerings. And as they came, they would sing: �Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God.�

From some distance off, they would look up at the city on the hill and exclaim: "God�s holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth. Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.�

As they approached the city, they would think of others who had once travelled the same roadways. Of course, other pilgrims had passed that way many times, but so had kings and armies that were coming to attack the city of Jerusalem.

The pilgrims probably thought about the destruction of the city and its temple in 587 BCE, when the Babylonian Empire conquered them and sent many of their leaders and nobles into exile. But they hoped that would never happen again. They imagined kings and armies joining forces to try to take Jerusalem � but this time, without success. God was on their side, so they could not be beaten! They expressed such confidence and hope. They sang of their attackers looking up to the great city and trembling. When they saw its greatness, they would be astounded and begin to panic. They would know that they had no chance of winning.

And after a long journey, the pilgrims would arrive at Jerusalem, and go up to the temple. The streets would be teeming with people, and the outer courts of the temple would be jam-packed. But even in the midst of the chaotic festival days, they would have a deep sense of God�s holy presence in that place. Their song would continue: �We ponder your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. Your name, O God, like your praise, reaches to the ends of the earth.�

And it wasn�t only in the temple that they would experience God�s presence. It seemed to be all around them in the city itself. In the song, they seem to encourage one another to make the most of this trip to Jerusalem: �Walk about Zion,� they sing, �go all around it, count its towers, consider well its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will be our guide forever.�

It�s not just a sight-seeing trip to a historic city. Somehow, the city itself, and its architecture, have come to represent and to convey the guiding presence of God in their lives forever.

There�s something interesting in the Hebrew here that doesn�t show up in the NRSV translation. The instruction is to �count� the towers of Zion, and then to �tell� the next generation that this is God. But those two words in Hebrew are from the same root word. It�s more like �count� the towers of Zion, and then �recount� to the next generation that this is God.

Come to this holy place where God�s presence is overwhelmingly obvious. Observe all the details. Count the towers. Take in all that you can about this faithful and loving God. And then recount what you have learned to the next generation. Pass on your experience. Invite your children and grandchildren to experience God�s presence throughout their lives as well.

These were the verses that intrigued me this week and drew me towards preaching on the psalm this morning. I was thinking about the responsibility that we have to pass on our faith to the coming generations and how challenging that can be.

How do we find the words to explain to our little children the gift of living in relationship with the God who made us and who loves us? Or even more challenging perhaps� How do we explain to our adult children, who may have left the church and God long ago, that this is our God who is ready, willing, and able to be our guide forever?

How do we recount our faith to the next generation? The psalm suggests that we must first begin by counting so that we can be equipped for the recounting. Think of the apostles. They began as disciples� walking with Jesus, listening to Jesus, and learning from Jesus, before they were sent out to preach and to heal in his name.

I often wish that we had pilgrimage festivals that were comparable to the Jewish religious festivals. Of course, we have Christmas and Easter and Pentecost, which are fine. But Pentecost is just a tiny celebration on a regular Sunday morning at church, really. Most Christians probably don�t even keep track of the fact that it�s coming up, and when it arrives there�s often no more celebration than the minister pulling out a red stole to wear for the day. And Christmas and Easter are wonderful Christian festivals, but they�ve been so co-opted by secular and commercial traditions that their significance as religious celebrations pales in comparison. For so many families, going to church to sing some carols is just a nice little extra in the middle of a very full schedule of family visits, gifts exchanges, and lavish meals.

Though Christians may choose to immerse themselves in worship and reflection on God during the Christian festivals, I believe that we also need to find other opportunities to �go up to Jerusalem� � to spend time in the presence of God in order to �walk about Zion, to go all around it, to count its towers, and consider well its ramparts�.

Presbyterians are not typically people who go on a lot of pilgrimages and retreats. Our retreats tend to look more like conferences � full of activity and learning opportunities with less focus on worship, reflection, and simply resting in the presence of God. And we may not have even considered a pilgrimage. Our logical minds remind us that God�s presence is everywhere, so how could one place be more holy than another?

But I, and many other Presbyterian Christians, have experienced the power of intentional retreats and pilgrimages. It�s not that God is more present in one place than another, or that quiet reflection is more meaningful that sermons, lectures, and group-building activities. But there is something powerful and wonderful about making the choice to come apart for a time and to be in the presence of God in a place of spiritual significance.

For many Christians, Muslims, and Jews, the city of Jerusalem represents that holy place. And when human conflict subsides, allowing relative safety for pilgrims, Jerusalem becomes a place where many go to �count the towers� � to experience the faithfulness and steadfast love of God.

For many young Christians this summer, their pilgrimage will be to the Taize community in France. Thousands will come to study the scriptures, to live and work together in community, and to worship God in song and prayer. They will meet others from around the world who speak many languages and come from varied experiences. And many of them will meet God in that place. They will come looking for God, and God will be there, and they will grow in faith and love and commitment to the way of Jesus.

Others will go to a place called Iona in Scotland. It�s a place they say that heaven and earth come close together� where the rocks and the sea and the wind and the ancient Celtic abbey all witness to God�s faithful presence from the beginning of time and forever. And as they sing, and pray, study, work, and eat together, they too will have a powerful experience of God. They will have stories to tell and experiences to share with their children and grandchildren.

Though I�ve spent a few days in Taize, and I hope one day to visit Iona, I realize that there are many other holy places much closer to home. I think the point is that the pilgrim must go to the place hoping for and expecting and looking for an experience of God. The pilgrim makes an intentional choice to set aside their time and attention to be in God�s presence, to learn from God� to �count the towers� in the city of God. And God is sure to meet them there� wherever their spiritual destination may be.

I spent the last few days up at Camp Christopher, helping out with some of the staff training for the summer, and then enjoying the open house and staff commissioning there yesterday. And twice during the week, individuals spoke of coming up to camp as a kind of pilgrimage or spiritual retreat. One told me about the feeling of peace and rest that she begins to feel when she drives across the bridge coming out of Prince Albert. Still a half hour away from the camp, that�s when she starts to relax, like she�s almost home. She is anticipating the feeling of peace that she will experience in God�s outdoor house.

Another camper talked openly about the Spirit�s palpable presence at Camp Christopher. She came to volunteer at camp for the first time last summer, and yesterday she could feel it even more strongly. Was it the loving community? Was it the beauty of creation? I don�t know. But perhaps it was her own expectation of experiencing God�s presence� her own decision to start paying attention to the God who was obviously just as present in Saskatoon as God was beside the lake at Camp Christopher.

As another summer begins, many of us will be thinking about journeys that we will enjoy. Others may be wishing that they had the funds or the time or the opportunity to take a trip to a beloved destination. My prayer for us all, wherever we are, is that we will commit ourselves to make a pilgrimage (even if we don�t go anywhere). But let�s pay attention to God. Let�s spend time in God�s Word, rest in God�s presence, give thanks and worship God wherever we are. Let�s �count the towers� in the city of God, so that we will so easily and naturally be able to �recount� what we have seen and experienced to the next generation� that this is God, our God forever and ever. God will be our guide forever. Amen.

June 28, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:33:00 +0000

Psalm 130
Mark 5:21-43

At least once, almost every day, I meet someone who greets me by saying: �Hello Amanda. How are you?� And without a pause, I naturally respond, �Fine thanks. And you?�

A few months ago, I caught a horrible cold that kept me off work for a couple of days and feeling terrible for several weeks. And I noticed several times during that illness, when someone would say, �Hello Amanda. How are you?� I automatically answered, �Fine thanks. And you?� If I had thought about the question even for a moment, I would have had to admit that I was no where near �fine�. My head hurt, and my throat ached, and I was so exhausted that I was ready to drop. But �Fine thanks. And you?� was what came out of my mouth. And I don�t think I paid much attention when my conversation partner chimed in with their own �I�m fine also.�

It�s amazing how much time we can spend together with friends, neighbours, and fellow church members without having a lot of meaningful conversation. We can exchange a lot of pleasantries and waste a lot of time talking about the weather, and when we part ways, we don�t know much about the people we�ve been talking with, and none of us have been particularly impacted by the fact that we had a conversation.

The scripture texts this week got me thinking about the risks that we take in getting involved in meaningful relationships � when we decide to move beyond the superficial level and open ourselves to the people around us. The words of a song by Carolyn Arends came to mind. Carolyn is a Christian musician from BC, who writes in this song about the masks that we often wear to keep ourselves separated and safe from other people.

She writes: �Why do we try so hard? Life�s not some greeting card. Models and movie stars, they�re just pretending. Family full of achievers, Beat the Joneses, Be the Cleavers, Give the lawn a manicure, No rough edges, that�s for sure! Sunday, the whole congregation doesn�t seem to need salvation. Everybody�s JUST TERRIFIC all the time. Why do we try so hard? Life�s not some greeting card. If we�re not who we are, we�re just pretending.�

There are certain places and circumstances in society where most people feel they should be on their best behaviour� where they should dress up and behave well� places like at the symphony or at a formal banquet. We wouldn�t want to be embarrassed or to make a scene in these places. And so sometimes, we don�t really act like ourselves. We put on our masks and pretend to be someone else. Or at least, a more refined version of ourselves.

At some point along the way, many of our churches became places like that. They became places where everyone wore their best clothes, and women showed off their finest hats. The expectation was that worshippers be happy and pleasant towards one another. Voices should not be raised too loud, except in singing the hymns. And everyone should smile and say some kind or encouraging word to the minister at the door, no matter how long, boring, or theologically troubling the sermon may have been.

When I was in high school in the early 90�s, I read an article in the Presbyterian Record (written by a young person) about whether or not it was appropriate to wear jeans in church. I remember chuckling at the article, thinking it was a pretty silly thing to be concerned about. I figured God just wanted us to come and worship, and couldn�t possibly care what kind of material our pants were made of.

But then I heard from friends that people in their churches did seem to care. They thought it was terribly inappropriate to come dressed like that � and so these young people felt the pressure to wear dresses and suits, or else to stay home instead. Just think about that � young people choosing to stay home from church� perhaps not because they didn�t want to dress up nice, but because they weren�t accepted in the church community �just as they were.�

That�s a sad story, indeed� not only because it offers a potential reason why a whole generation simply disappeared from the church community in the 1970�s and 80�s, but also because it is so dramatically opposite to the ministry of Jesus. And it�s Jesus� ministry that we are supposed to be carrying on.

There was no pretending necessary for the people who met Jesus during his ministry. He knew who they were, whether tax collectors, sinner, or prostitutes. Jesus didn�t interact with many people who �had it all together� or people who had no problems. He came to the lost, the outcast, the people who had messed up, the sick, the dirty, and the sad. And he didn�t teach the people to clean up their lives by putting on their best clothes and acting respectably. He transformed their lives by healing them and teaching them, and by inviting them to respond to his love by following his example.

In our Gospel reading from Mark today, we heard about two very different individuals who came to Jesus for help. Mark�s �story within a story� contrasts the status of an unnamed woman with that of a known leader of a synagogue. It also highlights their common vulnerability, which leads them to seek Jesus� healing powers. Details in the story imply that Jairus and the unnamed woman have run out of options; they are desperate. We hear that Jairus �begged Jesus repeatedly�. And the woman has expended all her resources, and found no relief in 12 years of suffering.

As a result, each one takes risks. Jairus breaks rank with religious leaders who view Jesus as a threat, and goes to Jesus for help. The woman takes a great risk in her bold act of touching a man in public who is not family. Both Jairus and the woman �fall down� at the feet of Jesus. Jairus does so to ask for help. The woman does so �in fear and trembling� when Jesus notices her presence.

Like the psalmist, who cried out to God for help in the midst of trouble, both Jairus and the woman reached out to Jesus for help and hope when they could see no other way. They accepted the risk of being rejected or disappointed. And they accepted the risk of being scolded or mocked for their boldness and belief.

I think it�s probably true that a lot more people than show up regularly in church will turn to God for help when they�re really at the end of their rope. What�s the saying? � �There are no atheists in fox holes!� Or in hospital waiting rooms when there�s nothing else that can be done, even the most unlikely people will send up a prayer, just in case.

But our job as the church is not just to encourage people to cry out to God at those times. We are called to be the body of Christ � Jesus� continuing presence in the world, carrying on the ministry that he began. So that means that when someone needs to cry out, we have the job of listening. It means that when someone is reaching out for help, we have the responsibility to do what we can to give assistance.

It means that we need to become a place where all kinds of people are accepted �just as they are�, where people can take off their masks, where no one needs to pretend that �they�re just fine� all the time, and where the conversation goes beyond pleasantries, allowing people to share their feelings, their sorrows and struggles and joys.

Something that has always bothered me is that when many church-going people experience a great loss or tragedy in their lives, they stop coming to church. They find it too hard to pretend, I think. They�re worried about crying too much and making other people uncomfortable.

And if there�s a risk in crying out to God when we are struggling, there�s an even greater risk in opening ourselves to allow our sisters and brothers in Christ to help us through when we are down. Yes, there is a risk in coming to this place, especially if we decide to take off our masks and to minister to each other as Jesus ministered to Jairus and the unnamed woman, and to so many others.

But like those who cried out to Jesus, the reward for us can be very great. We can be healed and transformed, whether we are listening and caring, or opening our lives and hearts to share. My prayer for our church is that we will continue to grow in our openness and care for one another, and that we will have the courage � more and more � to take off our masks and be together in God�s presence and love.

In a few minutes, when we have the prayers of the people, I would like to invite you to share with someone near you in the congregation. Perhaps there is a struggle or concern in your life. Perhaps there is someone that you would like prayer for. I�ll give you a couple of minutes (just before the prayers of the people) to talk with a neighbour in the pew, and to share your requests for prayer. Then, in our prayer together, there will be a time for us all to pray silently for our neighbours.

June 21, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:35:00 +0000

1 Samuel 17:32-49
Psalm 9:9-20
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Mark 4:35-41

When we read the stories of the bible, one of the first questions we often ask is �What kind of story is this?� Is it something that really happened historically? Or is it a mythic or symbolic story shared to teach us a deeper truth?

A good example would be the parables that Jesus told. He told a story about a prodigal son � how he took his inheritance and spent it in wild living � and how he later came to his senses, realized the mistakes he had made, and returned home to find himself welcomed and embraced by his forgiving father. Of course, we know that the story is not historical. It is told not to teach us �what happened� but to show us �what God is like� � loving, forgiving, and ready to celebrate over each of his children who return to relationship with him.

Today�s Gospel story is one that most Christian bible readers would put in the category of history. It�s a story about something that happened to Jesus and his disciples when Jesus decided it was time to cross over to the other side of the lake to continue his ministry in another area.

Many modern interpreters get stuck with these stories about Jesus� miracles and his divine power over nature. They can�t imagine these dramatic events taking place, and they argue that even if Jesus did have the power to still a raging storm, what does that have to do with us today? Should we row out into stormy seas, risking our lives and futures, trusting that God will protect and guard us? Is it a sign of our lack of faith that we take precautions like checking the weather forecast or choosing a safer route? And if it�s reasonable for us to be scared when we�re out on the highway and we get caught in a snow storm, why would Jesus be so down on his friends for being fearful when their boat was being swamped by the raging waves?

I can�t make a lot of sense of this story when I think of it literally. But when I consider it as a parable or a story with symbolic meaning, I begin to understand and to make connections with my own experience.

The first thing we might notice is that it�s Jesus who directs them to go out on the lake. They�ve been travelling with him in his ministry of proclaiming the good news, and he guides them away from one set of crowds. Across the lake they will presumably find more people to teach and heal and care for. But the way that Jesus chooses leads them through danger. There is a great wind storm, waves beating into the boat, and the boat is quickly being swamped.

While the disciples are freaking out, Jesus is taking a nap. He�s sleeping! That is perhaps the ultimate way of expressing how relaxed and peaceful he was. They�re worried. They�re afraid. They think they�re going to die. And Jesus is so calm that he�s sleeping. What the disciples have not yet figured out is that there�s nothing to be afraid of when you�re with Jesus. Every challenge can be overcome. Every negative force can be overpowered. Storms may arise, but they can be faced with courage because we are not alone and Jesus will help us through.

The point that this story illustrates is not a new one. God�s people have always relied on God to get them through challenges and storms that threaten to overpower them. The words of the psalmist come to mind: �The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.�

Like the disciples who were led by Jesus out through the storm, others also faced fear-inducing challenges because of the things that God had called them to do, and it was God�s presence and strength that they relied upon to get them through those challenges. Think of David, who was called and anointed to lead the People of Israel, and how he risked his life to fight the giant Goliath. Or remember the Apostle Paul and his friends who endured through afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, and hunger. They kept at the ministry that God had called them to do. They were not overcome by fear or the instinct towards self-preservation, but they risked their lives and opened their hearts, trusting that God was with them and would help them to succeed.

I think the problem with fear is that it threatens to stop us in our tracks. It can paralyze us so that we cannot do the things that God is calling us to do. Perhaps you can think of a time when fear held you back� when fear stopped you from making a phone call to ask for assistance, or when it made you hesitant to offer a helping hand. Maybe fear kept you from initiating a relationship, or it stopped you from clearing up a misunderstanding or working through a conflict.

Fear can be debilitating. There are some awful examples of debilitating fear on a new television cop show called, �The Unusuals�. These two cops are partners and they both struggle with fear. One is obsessed with the fact that both his father and his grandfather died at the age of 42. Now he is 42 himself, and he�s afraid that he too is destined to die at 42. He�s so afraid that he wears a bullet-proof vest ALL THE TIME, and his fear holds him back in his work, causing him to run for cover when he needs to be brave and bold. Eventually, he ends up hiding in his apartment, double and triple locking the door, and not coming out to work at all.

His partner has a different kind of fear � not an irrational fear of what might happen, but an overwhelming fear of facing the reality that he has a brain tumour. He�s been experiencing symptoms for months, and self-diagnosing, and we learn that he really does have a brain tumour. But he�s afraid� afraid to deal with the ramifications of that diagnosis, so he doesn�t even go to a doctor. Fear has paralyzed him so that he doesn�t even get the medical help that could potentially save his life.

The problem is not that we FEEL afraid. I think feeling afraid at times is natural and normal. But fear becomes a problem when it keeps us from moving forward, when it keeps us from doing the things that God has called us to do, when it makes us forget that we are not alone � that God is with us to help us face the challenges that come our way on the journey.

Today is Aboriginal Sunday � a day to remember our First Nations brothers and sisters, to celebrate the gifts of their culture and faith, and to focus on the work that still needs to be done to bring healing and reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in our country. The Presbyterian Church in Canada has come to the realization that we were complicit in the great harm done to Aboriginal People in this land by European settlers, both government and churches, who saw themselves as superior and civilized, and who saw the Natives as savages.

Through the church�s apology of 1994 for the harm caused by our participation in residential schools, and through the church�s continuing commitment to the ministry of healing and reconciliation, we are responding to God�s call to make right a relationship that has been broken. But like so many ministries to which God calls us, this ministry leads us into many challenges. Apologizing is never easy, and when we do apologize, we are usually hoping that that will be the end of it. We�ll be forgiven, and we�ll move on, and everything will be okay.

True healing and reconciliation take a lot more work than that, though. We are called to meet the ones that we have harmed, to listen to their stories and their struggles, and to share their burdens. We are called to get to know Aboriginal people enough that we begin to love the parts of them that we once feared and tried to change. And we are called to walk with First Nations people on their journey towards healing � healing that does not come quickly or easily because it is deep. It has injured them to their core, and been passed from generation to generation as well.

A few months ago, we had the opportunity here at St. Andrew�s to participate in a Sharing Circle led by the Rev. Gordon Williams and the Rev. Stewart Folster � both Presbyterian ministers and both First Nations people. One of the things that we experienced in that circle of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people sharing their thoughts, experiences, and feelings, was the gift of amazing courage.

I was surprised at how freely and how personally so many people were able to share. Each one who opened up their hearts and spirits to share and to listen deeply took a great risk� the risk of being hurt again, the risk of saying something that would cause more hurt, and the risk of sharing the pain and suffering of another person.

Maybe it was because of great courage, or because of many carefully chosen words� but I believe it was because Jesus was with us in that circle that fear did not paralyze us, and a little bit of healing took place. Understanding grew, relationships were strengthened, and hearts were opened to one another and to God�s working within and among us.

On Aboriginal Sunday, we are reminded that there is much more work to be done, and that we must open our hearts to listen and to share with our Aboriginal sisters and brothers more and more.

I think we can learn a lot from First Nations people about giving of ourselves freely without fear of the risk that it entails. As you know, many Aboriginal people in our city live on social assistance or low working incomes, and Aboriginal people are often among those who come to the church seeking assistance in emergency situations.

And one of the reasons for that is because their natural inclination is to share the little that they have with anyone who is in need. A relative needs travel money to get back to the reserve� a friend needs help to buy baby supplies� an acquaintance is hungry or needs a place to sleep. More than the rest of us, Native people seem to offer help first, without counting the cost to their own budgets. They give, and then they hope and trust that someone will do the same for them.

�That doesn�t sound very smart,� you may be thinking. Well, perhaps not. But it reminds me an awful lot of the way that Jesus lived his life� giving of himself without counting the cost, offering all that he had to the people who needed his healing, his teaching, and his loving, and relying on the kindness of strangers for food to eat and a place to sleep along the way.

The way that Jesus lived, and the way that he calls us to live is a way that accepts risk, that overcomes fear, and that leads to reconciliation and peace. Jesus followed that way all the way to the cross. May we remember that he is with us as we face the challenges and storms along our journey. And may we receive the gift of faith that overcomes fear and equips us for the work of healing and reconciliation. Amen.

June 7, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:24:00 +0000

Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 29
Mark 3:13-19

There are many stories in the scriptures about Jesus sending out his followers to do ministry in his name. Our Gospel text today is one of these stories that give us insight into our mission as Jesus� followers today. One of the interesting things about this text is that it lists the names of the people who were sent, and it gives them a new title.

Most of the time, Jesus� friends were called �disciples�. You probably remember that �disciple� comes from a Greek word meaning �one who follows and learns�. In fact, today�s passage begins with Jesus inviting some of his �disciples� to go up on a mountain with him. And then he chooses twelve of them to receive a new title and a new task. The new title he gives these twelve is �apostle� � from another Greek word meaning �one who is sent�. And the only other thing in the passage, besides the listing of the apostles� names, is a sentence about the work Jesus was sending them out to do. He sent them out �to preach and to force out demons�.

When I study a passage like this one, I usually start wondering about what those apostles were feeling as Jesus� sent them out to preach and to force out demons. Did they feel like they were ready to do it? Had they figured out what they would say to the people when they reached the first town or when they met some strangers along the road?

Though one of the men called Simon was known as �the eager one�, I wonder if the others were excited about their mission, or were they rather hesitant to set out on the road? When Luke�s Gospel describes how Jesus sent them out, it includes instructions not to take much with them. They had to rely on the kindness of the people in the towns and villages. And sometimes the people wouldn�t be so kind� they wouldn�t always be welcomed, and they would just have to shake the dust from their feet and keep moving.

And what do you suppose they were going to do to �force out demons�? There�s another passage in which the apostles try to force out a demon, but they can�t seem to do it. Jesus comes along to help, of course, and tells them that they would have needed to pray to get rid of it. But did they know this kind of stuff before they set out on the road? Did they have any idea of what they were getting themselves into? I don�t know if they did or not� but they went. Jesus sent them out. And they went.

Just as Jesus chose twelve disciples to become apostles and sent them out, Jesus continues to choose followers today and gives us particular missions to carry out in his name. Some are called to be missionaries, to travel to far-away places and to share the Gospel both in word and in deed. And most of us think, �Yes, missionaries. They are the ones that God calls and sends out. I wouldn�t know what to do. I wouldn�t know what to say. I wouldn�t have the right skills or abilities or power to do things like preach and force out demons.�

I may not be called (at least, not right now) to go to a far-away land to serve as a missionary. But I believe that God has called me to this place, to this community, and sent me to preach within this community. It is an amazing privilege and a constant challenge to be a Christian preacher� not because it�s such a hard job, but because I must always approach the task of writing and presenting a sermon with utmost seriousness.

My preaching professor said that with experience, most preachers start to feel less �nervous� when they are preaching. We can get over our �stage fright� if that was an issue for us. But� we should never completely relax so that we no longer remember the importance of what we are doing as preachers. We should always ascend the steps to the pulpit �in fear and trembling� before God.

We are called to �speak God�s words�. That means that we must take the scriptures seriously, and we must listen carefully to what God might be saying to us through them, and we must pay attention to the community in which we are preaching, and we must pray and ask God to help us put into words God�s message for these particular people.

And I�m not suggesting that we always get it right. Sometimes we utterly fail to preach the good news that forces out demons. But we must remember that the preaching task is not about promoting our own agendas. It�s about speaking God�s words� faithfully considering what those words might be, and boldly sending them out there, hoping and praying that our voices will carry the power of God�s voice to those who have ears to hear.

Sometimes it can be discouraging� maybe because the church is not filling up with people who are having their hearts and lives changed by the words that we speak. It is difficult to see or to measure the power of the words that are preached in this place. We probably have even less knowledge of the effect of the words that we speak in God�s name throughout the week. But I believe that it�s not only preachers that have been sent by Jesus to speak the words of God. Whether it�s a kind word to someone on the street, words of confession or forgiveness offered to bring reconciliation in a relationship, or words of comfort or consolation offered to someone who is suffering� We often do not even realize the power of God�s words spoken through our words.

Today is the end of another year of church school, and it is the day that we celebrate and give thanks to God for our church school teachers and for our leaders in ministry with children and youth here at St. Andrew�s. Our teachers and leaders have been called by God and sent to preach and to force out demons in the name of Christ. Most of them probably think about themselves just as �volunteers�� but they are much more than that. They are apostles of Jesus � chosen and sent to speak God�s powerful words of grace and love among our children and youth.

You probably all know that I spend a great deal of my time in ministry working with our younger members in Kids� Club and Youth Group, and I enjoy the younger children as well when we have our February School Break Program each year. But it�s rare for me to get to experience the ministry that takes place in our church school on Sunday mornings. (I�m usually upstairs with you - preaching.)

But last Sunday I went downstairs for church school. I joined the teachers Maureen and Eva Anderson, and Karl Behrend, and a group of kids. And I heard God�s powerful words spoken in our church school last Sunday� I heard the words of a scripture story shared� I heard words of prayer� and I heard words in song. Those were the planned words from God, and they were good. But then I also heard lots of words of encouragement, as the children shared their responses to questions, and as they worked on a craft project. I heard words of acceptance, words of sharing, and words of joy as well as sounds of laughter.

Sometimes teachers and leaders may leave a class or program feeling great� with a sense of the joy and exhilaration of sharing God�s words of love and seeing them joyfully received. Other times, the effects of their words may not be so visible and obvious. Sometimes our teachers and leaders may feel confident and excited about the ministry that they have been called to, and other times they may feel unqualified and nervous, wondering if they�ll find the words to speak to share the good news of God with our children and youth. And yet, God sends them out. In fact, I think God chooses each of us to go out in our particular sphere of life and ministry with power to preach (to speak God�s words) and to force out demons� to conquer evil with good, and to make peace where there is conflict.

Today�s psalm reminds us that God�s voice has amazing power. When we speak God�s words, we get to share that power of goodness. And the vision of Isaiah reminds us that even though our voices have been used for other purposes at times, it is God that has the power to forgive us, to cleanse us, and to renew us, so that we can use our voices for good.

When Gwen and I were talking about these scripture texts last week, we were reflecting on the good news that seemed to leap from these texts. That good news is the fact that God gives us words to speak that effect healing, and that bring love, justice, and hope to the people around us. (That�s what �forcing out demons really means, I think.) And just as Jesus was God�s loving Word made flesh in our world, we get to embody God�s loving Word in the world today� not only with the words we speak, but also with our attitudes and actions towards our neighbours near and far.

As we were talking, this illustration came to mind for Gwen. It�s the story of the Inukshuk. You know the beautiful piles of rocks that Inuit People build as markers to guide their way through the wilderness. Inukshuks are rocks piled up to look like a person� with a body, head, and arms stretched out. Sometimes non-Inuit people ask about how the Inukshuks direct people on their journeys. One might think that one of the arms would be built to point in the right direction. That would make sense, wouldn�t it? But that�s not how they work. You may have noticed that Inukshuks are built with a small hole in the middle� a gap between the rocks. And I guess, the way you find out which way to go is by looking through the hole. It is the very heart of the Inukshuk that gives the direction, that shows the way.

The words that we speak with our mouths are very important. When we preach, we choose our words carefully, trying to listen for God�s voice and to share those words with the people. And when we speak to each other, to our families, to our neighbours, to our colleagues, or to strangers on the street, our words have power as well. We need to be conscious of the words we share, seeking to share God�s words of loving kindness at all times.

But as Jesus embodied God�s Word of love and grace in the world, we are given the responsibility of embodying Christ�s continual love and presence even today. As the Inukshuk is built with a hole in the middle to guide travellers on their way� we are created in the image of God, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit to live in and through us, and our very lives have the power to witness to God�s loving kindness.

Whether we are preachers, teachers, or leaders, or whether we are called to serve in some other way� we give thanks that God is sending us, and that God empowers us to do so much good in the world. Let us continue to listen for God�s voice of power, and let us respond to God�s call, as Isaiah did, by saying: �Here am I; send me!�

May 24, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:31:00 +0000

Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:15-23

Today is Ascension Sunday, the day that the church celebrates Jesus� ascension into heaven. After Jesus had died on a cross and been buried in a tomb, we believe that God raised him from death, and he appeared to many of his friends and followers. But the risen Jesus did not just keep hanging around with the followers of his way. The last chapter of Luke�s Gospel and the first chapter of the book of Acts tell the story of his ascension into heaven.

He spoke a few final words to his friends, and then he was gone� up into the sky, into heaven, carried away by a cloud. That�s the way the story�s author describes Jesus� departure. We may not want to take the description literally today, but we get the point that the early Christian community wanted to convey: Jesus was no longer physically present among them, but they did not believe that he was dead and gone, rotting in his grave. They believed that he was gone to be with God, seated at God�s right hand (like a prince beside a king) and that he would rule the world with all power and authority forever and ever.

We hear the passage from Paul�s letter to the Ephesians on Ascension Sunday too, because in it Paul emphasizes very strongly that Christ lives in heaven with God, where he rules over all of creation with great power and might, far greater than any other power or authority.

But when I first started to look at and study this passage, it wasn�t the power of Christ that I noticed. The first thing that struck me in the text was that Paul was praying that the Ephesian Christians would have HOPE � that they would know the HOPE to which Christ had called them.

HOPE. It makes me think of Barack Obama who used the word hope an awful lot when was rallying American voters to give him a chance as President of the United States. And many of them did place their trust and their hope in him � that he, with like-minded people, would be able to lead their nation into a time of greater justice, equality, and opportunity for all. Whether he will be able to do so remains to be seen, I suppose, but it is clear that his leadership has given many people hope once again.

Hope is an amazing gift. Hope is what keeps us going when all the odds seem to be stacked against us. Hope gives the person with cancer the will to keep on fighting it. Hope gives the foster parent the encouragement to keep taking in children, despite the challenges. Hope strengthens the struggling student to keep on working after a poor grade. Hope keeps partners together to work on their relationship, even when they have hurt and disappointed each other many times. Hope empowers those who care about the environment to keep trying to save our planet, despite reports that it may be too late. And hope is the reason why many of us Christians keep on this journey that we have begun in relationship with God through Christ.

There are versions of the Christian Gospel that proclaim (or at least imply) that when you become a Christian, everything in your life will be just great. You will be saved. You will feel happy. Some of them even sell the idea that you�ll be rich and prosperous once God is on your side. I don�t think that has been the experience of most of us here. In fact, some might say that the decision to follow the way of Jesus has brought challenges and complications into their lives.

The way of Jesus has called us to use our time differently � to worship, to pray, to spend time in serving others� and our friends and families haven�t always understood that. The way of Jesus has invited us to become more generous people� with our money, our time, and our gifts. We haven�t become richer, at least not in financial terms. And the way of Jesus has not always led us to happiness. We�ve spent more time with people who are suffering, and we�ve paid attention to those on the margins who are poor or oppressed or excluded. We�ve learned that the way of Jesus is not always happy, and rarely is it easy. But the gift that we have been given is HOPE.

Yesterday I was visiting with a long-time member of our congregation who has not been able to attend church for many years. She has a chronic illness that keeps here home-bound, and she recently had to move into a nursing home. We read the Ephesians passage together, and I told her that I was planning to preach about hope today. I wondered aloud how it is that our Christian faith gives us hope. And she said, �Well, it definitely does. I don�t know how other people manage without that hope. My hope in Christ is the only thing that keeps me going.�

I�ve spoken to quite a few Christians at the end of their lives, and I�ve so often been encouraged by the hope that they have in God. From their death beds, I�ve heard so many say, �I�m at peace. I trust God. I�m not worried about what will happen to me when I die. I�m in God�s hands.�

I think that kind of hope is a part of what Paul was talking about. In the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus, we see God�s great power at work. Though death appears to be the end of things for us, we can see in the story of Jesus that death is not the end. Though we have little idea of what heaven, or eternal life with God, will be like, we have hope that life wins out over death, and death is not the end for us.

Now maybe it�s because I�m still fairly young, but I rarely spend much time thinking about heaven. The question comes into my mind only when I�m faced with the deaths of people that I love, or when I�m ministering to those who are dying or their families.

There�s another place in Paul�s writings where he encourages Christians to always be ready to explain the hope that we have. And I wouldn�t say that my hope has much to do with what will happen to me after I die. The hope that I have is more to do with the future of our world and its people.

When Paul writes to the Ephesians about the hope to which Christ has called them, he talks about Christ having power and dominion over the world and everything in it. And this is the continuation of a very important theme in the Gospels and in Jesus� own preaching and teaching.

Right from the beginning, and all the way through his ministry, Jesus talked about how the kingdom of God was arriving in him. Christians get so used to hearing about the kingdom of God that I think we sometimes forget its significance.

The kingdom of God means that God is in charge. In the kingdom of God, people look to God both for protection and direction. And in the kingdom of God, God�s commands are followed, people love one another, and everyone lives in peace and freedom.

When we look around our world today, it doesn�t look much like the kingdom of God. You might think of the continuing conflict in Afghanistan. You might think of the little girl that was abducted and killed in Ontario recently. Or you might just look west on 20th street, and notice the poverty, the drug trade, and the prostitution within our own neighbourhood. These are not the kinds of things that should be happening within a world where a loving and powerful God is in charge.

So where does our hope come from? Well, it begins for me in Jesus� announcement of the coming kingdom. He stepped into a world and a community that was struggling just as much as we are today. Poverty, illness, and oppression were keeping the common people down and crushing their hope. And Jesus said, �God�s kingdom of love is here! I am making it happen, and you can follow my way and join in building the new kingdom.�

And Jesus wasn�t all talk. He launched right into the work of creating God�s kingdom of love and peace. He healed the sick and cast out demons. He showed love for the outcast, and made room for those who had been excluded. He welcomed children and women, and he forgave people who had made mistakes. And he called others to do the things that he was doing. When they began to love as he had loved them, the kingdom would grow and grow.

Making God�s kingdom on earth wasn�t easy work, even for Jesus. There were many people who objected to what he was doing. They were used to their earthly kings, and to the power of the religious establishment to lord it over the weak and the powerless of society. There were many challenges � many arguments with the religious leaders � and as we know, Jesus� mission and message eventually got the authorities so angry and scared that they had him put to death.

Talk about a situation that doesn�t inspire hope! Most of the disciples who had decided to follow Jesus� way got scared and scattered at that point. They probably gave up the idea that his message might be true. God couldn�t possibly be in charge if Jesus had ended up dead!

But that�s where they were wrong. On Sunday morning, the man who had been dead and buried on Friday appeared to one woman in a garden, and then to a whole group of others in an upper room. Those who opposed Jesus� way seemed at first to have won, but the truth was that God�s power of love and life was still stronger. Jesus was raised from death to live and reign forever with God.

And if that was the end of the story, the only hope that we would have might be that when WE die, we might also get to go to heaven like Jesus did. That�s the hope that many people do hold on to. But I think of today�s story from the book of Acts, and Jesus� words to his disciples. He said, �You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.�

That�s got to be the same power that Paul wrote about to the Ephesians � �the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.� The power of God that raised Jesus from death, and that brought him up to heaven� that power would come by the Holy Spirit onto the disciples on the day of Pentecost. And that power would not only help them to tell about God�s love in Jesus, but that power would give them the ability to keep on building God�s kingdom on earth.

The hope that I hold on to is that God�s kingdom is coming. I see little glimpses of it right here in our own Christian community� in the way that we care for each other, and work to share God�s love with our neighbours. It is so easy to get discouraged by the troubles of the world, or by the difficulties of our own particular lives. And yet, we do hang on to this hope that we have in God through Jesus Christ.

Like Paul, we pray for one another, for believers and seekers throughout the world, and for all who are looking for some kind of hope. We pray that God may give each one a spirit of wisdom and revelation as we come to know him, so that with the eyes of our hearts enlightened, we may know what is the hope to which he has called us, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. May God fill us with hope, as we participate, with the Spirit, in building God�s kingdom of love and peace. Amen.

May 17, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:57:00 +0000

John 15:9-17

I�ve been thinking about LOVE all weekend. A young couple in our congregation, Greg Mergen and Kim Lund, got married yesterday so I got to preach on the classic wedding text of 1 Corinthians 13 � the �love chapter�. You know the one. In the middle of it, the apostle Paul describes what love is:

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

And whether it�s the Corinthian Christians trying to love each other despite their differences and conflicts, whether it�s married couples trying to love each other through all the ups and downs of life together, or whether it�s any of us Christians trying to put love into practice in our lives, it seems like an impossibly high standard to live up to.

We do try though, don�t we? We try to get along with our co-workers. We try not to snap at our kids. We try to be friendly to the neighbours next door. And we smile at the bus driver or the store clerk or the person passing by on the street. Sometimes we try, at least, when we remember�

But often when we get to church on Sunday� that�s the time when we think about Jesus� commandment to love. And that�s when we notice how little loving we�ve been doing. We pause to confess our sin, and our hearts feel heavy - weighed down with regret, bowed down with guilt.

We remember our own impatience with our spouses. We think of the way we complained about our colleagues behind their backs. Nasty words spoken of other drivers, neighbours, bosses, or in-laws come to mind. Not to mention the way we turned away from the homeless person on the street, or the indifference we showed towards hurting or hungry people throughout the world today.

Sometimes we come to church and we think, �I�ve done it again! I can�t do this LOVE thing that Christians are supposed to do! It�s the greatest commandment. That�s what Jesus called it, and I just can�t seem to get it right!�

I�ve heard people talk about going to church and feeling just like that. They go to church every Sunday because that�s what they�ve always done, and they leave at noon feeling really terrible about church, about God, and mostly feeling really terrible about themselves.

And I say this really hoping that you don�t leave this church after the service feeling like that. If you do, then perhaps we have been failing in our task of proclaiming and sharing the good news of God in Jesus Christ. Because it is GOOD news!

Our Christian faith is not about a bunch of rules that we have to follow in order to get into heaven. And it�s not about a bunch of doctrinal things that we must know by heart and believe without a doubt. The Gospel text today makes it clear that our Christian faith is a way of being and living in the world in relationship both with God and with the people around us.

Last Sunday�s text gave us the wonderful metaphor of Jesus as the vine, and us as the branches � connected both to God and to one another. It�s even better than the jugs of water that I talked about with the kids this morning because when you�re connected to the vine you don�t need to keep coming back to the jug to get a re-fill of water or a re-fill of love. As branches that are connected to the vine who is Jesus, we have a constant source of nourishment.

Jesus says, �The Father has loved me, and I abide in that love.� Jesus lived in constant connection to God. He didn�t just check in on the Sabbath day when he went to public worship. But he spent time in prayer and study, and lived each day in relationship with the God who loved him.

All the loving that Jesus did in his ministry� when he touched the sick and healed them, when he spent time with the outcasts and those who were despised by others, and when he got down on his knees to wash the feet of his friends� I think he did all that loving out of the overflow of the love he was receiving from God the Father.

And Jesus says, �As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.� We are invited to drink up the goodness of Jesus� love for us. We are God�s beloved children, made in God�s image, and worthy of God�s love. When we leave church on Sunday morning, that should be the message resounding in our ears. We should hear it in the scriptures, in the prayers, in the preaching, and in the music we share. And most of all, we should be convinced of our belovedness by the way we are treated and cared for in this place. We should leave absolutely overflowing with love to share throughout the week.

And sometimes, that�s exactly what happens. And for that we give thanks to God.

But Jesus didn�t use the metaphor of the jug and the little cups. He talked about the vine and the branches � a system where we don�t just come back once in a while to get filled up � a system where we stay connected all the time, like a hose to a tap.

We can tap into that source of love by staying connected to each other beyond just sitting together in church. We can take time to get to know each other and to care for each other beyond what happens here on Sunday mornings. We can support each other in times of struggle, and we can celebrate together in times of joy. We can listen to our Christian friends, and share our lives with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Reflecting on the fact that Jesus has called us friends, author Paula Ripple writes these words: �It is not the easy words we say, nor is it the gifts we give that make us friends. Friendship invites us to share not only bread broken, but our brokenness. Friendship invites us to share not only wine poured into glasses, but our lives poured out� We remember Jesus best when we are faithful to our lives and when we share in faithful friendship.�

We can also tap into that great source of love by staying connected directly to God� through prayer, through bible study, through attentiveness to God. We can let God be a part of all the aspects of our lives � our work, our family, and our friends, as well as our church.

Jesus said, �No one has greater love than this, to lay down one�s life for one�s friends.� And Jesus had such great love for us, overflowing from the Father�s love, that he gave his life for our sake� so that we would know God, so that we would have life, so that our lives would overflow with love until God�s kingdom would come.

May God continue to graft us together into the nourishing, sustaining vine that is Jesus, so that we may truly love one another as Jesus loves us. Amen.

April 12, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:42:00 +0000

Mark 16:1-8
Acts 10:34-43
1 Corinthians 15:1-11

If you open up a bible to the end of the Gospel of Mark, you will find that its ending is unclear. The earliest manuscripts finish with chapter 16, verse 8: �So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.�

But our Gospel translations have two added endings. The shorter one simply adds these words: �And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.�

The longer ending goes on for eleven more verses in which Jesus appears to Mary, then to two disciples, and then he appears to the eleven disciples and commissions them to proclaim the good news to the whole creation. Finally, he ascends into heaven, and the narrator assures the readers that the disciples did indeed go out to proclaim the good news everywhere.

These extra endings are not believed to be from the original manuscripts of the Gospel, but they were added by editors in the late 2nd or early 3rd centuries. They incorporate incidents and ideas from the other Gospels and from the book of Acts. And more importantly, they change failure into success to end the Gospel on a positive note.

There�s no question of what happened, they assure us, the women went out and told what they had seen and heard. Jesus appeared to many of his followers, and the good news began to spread throughout the world. Despite their confusion, and despite their fear, we know that the women did go and tell. Despite the fact that they could not yet understand what they had seen, that they still had questions and concerns and worries, they must have said something to someone. As the shorter ending puts it, they must have at least told the news briefly to those around Peter.

And that telling made all the difference� I�m sure that it must have made a difference to those women, who first spoke the words carefully and tentatively:
Christ is risen?� He is risen indeed? In time, as their faith grew and as their confidence strengthened, they must have started to proclaim it more loudly with sure and certain hope: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Remembering those women this morning, and imagining their journeys in relationship with Jesus and all the decisions that they made along the way, makes me think about my own journey of faith and the events and experiences and decisions that have brought me to this time and place today.

I remember happy experiences in a loving family and a welcoming church where I felt at home. I remember church camping and learning to speak about my faith as a teenager. I think of the fact that I decided to attend church every Sunday when I was fairly young� probably mostly because I enjoyed singing in the choir, but I was there, and I loved being there.

I remember other decisions as well� to reject the kind of Christianity where everything is black-or-white, and where most people are judged and excluded. And of course, the decision first to make my life about following the way of Jesus, and then to answer the call to a ministry of Word and Sacraments in the church.

My life so far, and yours, has included many, many decisions: To answer a call, to take a job, to begin a relationship, to be faithful to a friend, to move to a new place, to participate in a community, to commit to love another person, to try something new and scary, to bring a life into the world, to put someone else first, to love a neighbour as we love ourselves, to love God, to follow Jesus.

Today is a good day to give thanks to God for all the events and experiences and decisions that have shaped our lives to this day. As eight individuals in our church community come forward today to profess their faith and become members of the church, we give thanks to God for all the things that have shaped their lives to this day. We give thanks for God�s presence with them on their journeys thus far, and for the Spirit�s guidance in their lives and their decisions.

We pause for a moment to give thanks for all the people that have been part of their (& our) journeys of faith� people like the women at the tomb, who went to tell what they had seen and heard� people like Peter who preached the good news about Jesus to Jews and Gentiles and people from every nation� people like Paul who handed on what he had been told and what he had come to believe.

And we remember and give thanks for people like our parents or our grandparents who taught us about Jesus and showed us God�s love, for our church school teachers and ministers who proclaimed the good news of the Gospel and helped us to understand, for the people who shared their faith with us, for the people who prayed for us, for the people who have been our older sisters and brothers in the family of God.

But what we are doing today is not simply an exercise in looking back at the journey and being thankful. Easter is a traditional time in the church for baptisms and professions of faith because it is a time for new beginnings. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! And Jesus� resurrection means new life and hope for us as well.

Some today will be publicly professing their faith for the first time, so this really is a beginning. It is the beginning of a new adventure with God. Others will be re-affirming the faith that they have professed already in another Christian community. But this is still a new beginning for them. It�s the beginning of a new commitment to be a member of this particular community of faith� to be partners together with us in living out and sharing the good news of God with the world.

What happens here today, when eight people come forward to profess their faith, and when a congregation stands to profess our faith together once again� what happens is not just something that happens for a moment. It is a decision that is made� a decision in response to God�s amazing love for us. It is a step out in faith, despite unanswered questions, and despite fear about where this path may lead us.

But we do it in faith, trusting that God will journey with us, asking God to teach us by the Word, relying on God to feed us with the Bread of Life & the Cup of Salvation, and praying that God will guide us by the Holy Spirit, as together we walk the path that Jesus has marked out for us.

We don�t yet know the end of the story. But we know that it will not end with us being confused and shaking all over. It will not end with us being too scared to tell anyone what we have seen and heard. No, we will open our mouths together, to profess that we believe, until we have shared the good news with the whole world. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

April 10, 2009 - Good Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. Amanda Currie) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:29:00 +0000

Mark 15:33-39

I have been thinking for several weeks about what I might be called to say to you on this Good Friday morning. Often we don�t have a sermon on this day. We let the scriptures speak for themselves. We tell the story of Jesus� last day. We journey with him through the agony of his passion. And we pause at the foot of the cross to mourn for a while, because Jesus our Lord is crucified. But this year, I wanted to preach. I wanted to spend some time with the event that we are remembering today, and to consider why it is such an important part of our Christian faith � why Good Friday, in many churches, is the most highly attended service of the year.

Last Friday evening, at our Kids� Club program, we spent some time with the Easter story as a whole. The kids got lots of practice looking up bible verses as they had to look up 14 different verses that traced out of events of Jesus� life, ministry, death, and resurrection. And then they had to put the events in the correct order. Once they had completed the activity, we reviewed the story, and invited them to share how they would explain the story of Jesus to someone who had never heard about him before.

As one of our St. Andrew�s kids was sharing, she used the phrase �Good Friday� to describe the day that Jesus was crucified. I immediately noticed the look of shock on the face of a visiting friend, and the girl�s hand shot up into the air to ask a question� �Why,� asked the girl with little or no church experience,
�Why is it called GOOD Friday?�

Why, indeed! It was a day of confusion. It was a day of abandonment. It was a day of pain and suffering. It was a day of sorrow and death. Why do we call it GOOD Friday?

Though it was noon (normally, the brightest time of the day), darkness came over the whole land until three o�clock in the afternoon. And at three o�clock, Jesus cried out in what must have been anguish and despair: �My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?�

Some of the people standing around wondered whether there would be a miracle � whether the prophet Elijah would come to take Jesus down� But he didn�t. Jesus gave a loud cry, and then he breathed his last. He died. And for some reason, we Christians call this day GOOD Friday.

You see, somehow, we believe that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we have been reconciled to God. A broken relationship has been healed. We have been forgiven and restored to right relationship with God. We call it GOOD Friday because somehow, through the events of that day, we have been saved.

Right after verse 37, in which Jesus takes his last breath, Mark�s Gospel describes another dramatic event � an event that seems to result from Jesus� death: Verse 38 says: �And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.� The �curtain of the temple� is probably the curtain veiling the Holy of Holies � the inner sanctuary where God would be found � where the people were not allowed to go � where only one carefully chosen priest could enter, and only once each year. When Jesus dies, Mark�s Gospel says that the curtain that separates off the Holy of Holies is torn completely. Suddenly there is access to God. Somehow, in Jesus� death, there is a new direct connection to the Holy One being provided by Jesus.

The Gospels and the letters of the early church consistently proclaim that it is by Jesus� death that we are saved, that we are reconciled to God, that we are freed to live in joyful relationship with the God who loves us.

In our Sunday morning bible studies over the last few weeks, we have been studying six biblical models for understanding salvation or atonement. �Atonement� is an English theological word that simply means �reconciliation.� Break the word apart to remember its meaning: �At-one-ment�. Atonement is God making us �one� with God once again. Though we struggle in the church, and sometimes disagree about HOW Jesus� death and resurrection accomplishes �atonement�, the Christian consensus is that somehow, it does. In Jesus� death and resurrection, we have experienced that reconciliation. We have been drawn close to God, and so we believe.

�Living Faith: A Statement of Christian Belief� is a subordinate standard of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. In the section on �Jesus as Saviour�, Living Faith highlights the many images and metaphors used in the scriptures to try to understand and explain how Jesus� death and resurrection saves us:

3.4.3 God�s reconciling act in Jesus Christ is a mystery
which the Scriptures describe as
the sacrifice of a lamb,
a shepherd�s life given for his sheep,
atonement by a priest.
It is also the innocent dying for the guilty,
the ransom of a slave,
payment of a debt,
and victory over the powers of evil.
Such expressions interpret the love of God
revealing the gravity, cost, and sure achievement
of our Lord�s work.
Yet that love we cannot fully explain.
God�s grace, received by faith alone,
pardons and justifies,
redeems and reconciles us.

When I started writing this sermon, I had the idea that I would carefully explain all the models for salvation that we�ve been looking at in our bible study� Jesus the Teacher, who shows us the way to God� Jesus the Moral Example, who models the self-giving way of love that we are to follow� Jesus the Victorious Champion, who conquers the powers of sin, evil, and death, and is raised to new life� Then there�s Jesus as our Satisfaction, who though innocent, takes the punishment that we sinful people deserve� And there�s Jesus as the Happy Exchange, in which Christ takes unto himself all the negativities of our lives: our sins, our guilt, our subjection to suffering and death. And in exchange, Christ shares with us the forgiveness of sins and the power of resurrection to eternal life. There�s even a model where Jesus is the final sacrifice, or where Jesus is the scapegoat who takes upon himself all our sins and bears them away.

Obviously, there isn�t time here to explore all of those models for salvation. But those are some of the ways that the Christian Church, in our scriptures and our theological reflection, have tried to explain the difference that Jesus� life, death, and resurrection has made in our lives and in our relationship with God.

In my own personal reflection on this day, I have noticed that I am particularly drawn towards the model of Jesus as Victorious Champion who wins our over the powers of sin, evil, and death.

It was a terrible day� that Friday so many years ago. It was the day that a human community (very much like our human communities today) put an innocent man to death by nailing his hands and feet to a cross and hanging him there to die. We don�t need to watch �The Passion of the Christ� to know that it was a terrible day. Not only because he was innocent� Not only because it was a particularly torturous way to die� but because that man had been the human embodiment of LOVE� in his words, in his actions, in his touch, and in his presence, those who encountered Jesus came to believe that they had met God.

And on that terrible day, he was killed. Human sin and evil, human betrayal and abandonment, human fear and failure seemed to have the last word. And Jesus was dead. But even as we remember that terrible day, we know that it was only day one. Day one would end, and day two would pass, and with day three, hope would once again be born. Jesus would be raised. Life would win over death, and evil would lose its power.

Often, as Christians, we talk about Jesus� resurrection as the hope for our own resurrection. We think it is mostly to do with what will happen to us after we die � that we�ll get to go to heaven like Jesus � that death won�t win over us, but we�ll have eternal life. And, you know, I do believe that. I preach it at funerals all the time, proclaiming the hope that we have for our sisters and brothers who have died. But I also believe that Jesus� triumph over sin and evil and death can actually make a difference to our lives today in this world.

When we are concerned about our war-torn and hurting world, and when we�re starting to despair� we remember that God is more powerful than all the hatred and greed, and that we get to work with God in building a kingdom of love and peace. When we are overwhelmed by the struggles and pains of our lives, and when we�re thinking of giving up� we remember that God is more powerful than all the sickness, the sadness, the mistakes and misfortunes, and that God will be with us to help us through until the morning.

You see, the amazing good news of the Gospel is that God can take a terrible, terrible day, and God can transform it into something that we can rightly call good. �Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.�

Let us pray that as God transformed that terrible day into GOOD Friday, God will continue to transform our lives and our world, until we truly reflect God�s image and the goodness of God�s creation. As we continue our journey with God, let us be encouraged by the hope that God in Christ is indeed more powerful than everything that can hurt or destroy us. Amen.