Evolving in Monkey Town

Isn't January great? In the first days of the month we make New Year's resolutions. And the for the first few weeks we actually follow through with said resolutions. And when we do, we feel such a sense of accomplishment. And we try our best to not worry for the next goal cause that's for our future selves to worry about. Right? Or is that just me?

I love New Year's resolutions. In January.

February is another set of feelings. Cause. You know. Ash Wednesday needs planning. So does the AGM. And that stupid Masters thesis proposal isn't going to write itself. And there's the little trip to Ontario that I need to make. (Did I tell you that I have the privilege to be a Youth Group leader for General Council 43? Yay! But there's some traveling ahead to prepare for that.)

Anyway.

Life in ministry has a tendency to hit hard in February because Lent always (ALWAYS) seem to take ministers by surprise. It always (ALWAYS) comes a lot sooner after Christmas than you would think.

But I digress.

This year I've set my reading goal to be 26 books. They are stacked every so beautifully on one of my bookshelf. I am excited to read each one of them as I carefully selected them just last month. I love looking at books. And holding books. And choosing books. And buying books. It's the reading all of that's hard. There never seems to be enough time. I sometimes think having a chauffer would free up some valuable reading time.

Today I am happy to report in about book #1 - Faith Unraveled by Rachel Held Evans. I enjoy Rachel's writing. When I was on sabbatical I read her book, Searching for Sunday and very much enjoy it. As do lots of people on Twitter. I regularly see tweets that are thanking Rachel for her wisdom in that book. So, as I do when I like something, I get more of it. In fact, if you pay attention over the next year, you will see a few repeat authors (Hatmaker, McLaren, Barnes) - I might be able to run workshops on each of these theologians by the time I'm finished the pile. From Rachel Held Evans, I selected Faith Unraveled and A Year of Biblical Womanhood.

The long and short of Faith Unraveled is that it is a memoir about Rachel's faith journey. She grew up as a conservative, evangelical Christian in Dayton, Tennessee, which is where the Scopes Monkey Trial took place in 1925. The trial was a test of the law, at the time,which prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools. The American Civil Liberties Union sought a teacher who wished to sue the State to oppose its anti-evolution laws. Some bright spark figured that Dayton would be put on the map if the trial took place in their courthouse. A local teacher by the name of John T. Scopes was found and the trial took place in the heat of that summer. Essentially, it was a science vs. religion spectacle. Dayton acquired the name, Monkey Town (a play on evolution's assertion that humans are just a short genetic hop from primates).

The trial was many things and both sides think they won. Scopes ended up being charged with violating the law as he admitted to teaching evolution in his classroom. Dayton ended becoming fervently religious. Conservative religious. Evangelical religious. Rachel grew up in the nineties as a believer in the black and white of God's Word as presented in the Bible. All of life could be seen through a biblical worldview and there was only one correct path - the path of her church and pastor. A critical event occurred as the US was about to invade Afghanistan in 2001 and was broadcast on TV. This event made Rachel ask questions of her faith tradition and her God. Questions that her friends, student colleagues, parents and religious leaders could not answer to her satisfaction - thus beginning the unravelling of almost she had ever believed in. And the building up again of her faith and the establishing of a firm foundation upon which she meets God and Jesus.

I very much enjoyed this book if, no other reason, than it speaks to what we, in the United Church of Canada, know to be true - doubt and questions are not denials of faith but essential components of faithful living. Here's one of my favourite lines, from chapter 19 entitled, Adaptation:

I may have met one or two people who rejected Christianity because they had difficulties with the deity of Christ, but most rejected Christianity because they thought it means becoming judgmental, narrow-minded, and unkind. People didn't argue with me about the problem of evil; they argued about why Christians aren't doing more to alleviate human suffering, support the poor, and oppose violence and war. Most weren't looking for a faith that provided all the answers; they were looking for one in which they were free to ask questions. (203)

If you'd like to borrow this book or any other one that I've written about, swing by my office one day - I'd be happy to lend it to you.

Onto book #2 - Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown - the book we are studying for our Lent Book Study. See the SVUC website for more details.

Reel Theology: Lady Bird

Exodus 13:17-18, 20-22 and Matthew 15:21-28

Christopher and I saw Lady Bird in early December, before the Golden Globes were announced and so I didn’t necessarily watch it thinking I would be preaching about it this month. When it was nominated for Best Picture in a Musical or Comedy, I was not surprised. I had urged Christopher to go see the movie for three reasons. First of all, it’s the scene in the trailer in which Lady Bird opens the car door as her mom is driving and just tosses herself out of the moving vehicle. Her mom’s reaction is awesome. She is ragging on her daughter in one moment and then in the next she’s screaming at the insanity of what her daughter just did. That scene was so great. I would have paid money to see that movie for that scene alone because it’s my kind of humour. My interest in the movie was heightened when I heard a compelling interview with the movie’s writer and director, Greta Gerwig in which she described her thought process in the writing and making of this movie. And finally, I wanted to see Lady Bird even before it was on our short list of Golden Globe nominees for this Reel Theology sermon series because our son Matthew, who is attending film school has a very good understanding of which movies are worth seeing and which movies are not and said this was going to be one of the best movies of the year. Not a statement to ignore.

On Friday afternoon, I went with some friends to see The Greatest Showman – another movie we are exploring in this Reel Theology series. I enjoyed that movie so much that after Christopher and I went to it over the Christmas holidays, I went again with my friends. Just as the movie ended and we all took a breath, one friend turned to me and asked, ‘now, how are you going to turn that into theology – into a sermon?!’ As I had seen the movie before, I quickly listed the themes that I will be exploring when the time comes. But the question alone of how to pull theological themes from a movie or any other life event is not insignificant.

Stephen and I did not choose movies with overtly religious story lines. As far as I know there are also no moments of glaring biblical allusions such as there was in the Superman movie, Man of Steel where Superman is up in space and he knows that he must return to earth to save the planet. He leaves the spaceship by stepping backwards from it and hangs, there suspended, because, you know, he’s Superman and can stand out in literal space with no spacesuit and he hovers there a moment and as he does, he raises his arms and hangs his head. Which recalls anyone who knows the story of Jesus to his last moments of his humanly life, his crucifixion. And then there’s the last scene of Clint Eastwood’s movie, Gran Torino, in which the main character played by Clint, has put himself in harm’s way to protect some certain others that he used to despise and had grown to care deeply about over the course of the film. Clint’s character is shot and killed, and the ending scene and the camera pans up from the ground so that we can see Clint’s character laying on the ground and he’s lying there, with his arms outstretched. Once again, recalling viewers to the cross and, if you are a believer in the notion that God sent Jesus so that that his life would be sacrificed for the sake of humanity, this moment would be quite meaningful.

When images such as these appear in films, it is easy to make connections between the story on the screen and the bible. Well, it’s easy for those who are quite familiar with the biblical stories. When I was in first year English as university, my professor told the class it was essential for us to know the Bible because so often literature has the same story arcs as the Bible. Now that I’ve lived a bit of life, I would qualify what that professor told us. It’s not so much that English literature re-imagines the themes of the Bible but that those who know the Bible find parallels between the two. If a Rabbi, a Pastor and an Imam read the same book, I’m sure they would each find connections between the story written and the teachings of their own faith tradition. This is because each of them and each us have a particular worldview through which we filter what we see, feel and hear in the world using our life experience and the knowledge that we’ve gained to help us categorize and make sense of our world.

For those who grew up in homes with family attending church and having the occasional theological discussion, regardless of which faith tradition it is, it would not be a great stretch to make connections between what is happening in the secular world and your faith. You are trained to hear things and see things that others might not recognize because they are not familiar with the story. Like having a secret language. Like when the early Christians when it was still dangerous to openly acknowledge that you were a follower of Jesus, you would greet a stranger and draw a line such as this in the sand. If the other person did not follow Jesus, it would be meaningless to them, just a random movement. But if they were a follower of the Way, the invitation would be recognized, and they would complete the symbol by drawing another line so a fish was revealed.

When you live and breathe something intentionally, you begin to make connections between what you know and believe with what is happening out in the world. Like when my then fourteen-year-old asked me during the month of March if the flowers in the middle of a restaurant’s dining room table were purple because it was Lent. Probably had nothing to do with Christianity but he knew it was Lent and the colour for Lent is purple, therefore he saw Lent when he saw the flowers. A Muslim would have just seen beautiful flowers. Or perhaps, purple means something for them that we Christians did not make the connection to at that moment. There was push by some Christian denominations to always keep the teachings of Jesus forefront and centre, to filter all that happened in life through biblical learnings by asking the question, ‘What would Jesus do?’ A whole line of jewelry and rubber bracelets were created with the letters, WWJD to remind the wearer to examine the situation they were in through the lens of the Gospel. So, when my friend asked me, ‘how are you going to preach the movie?’ it was not because she didn’t believe there were biblical themes in the movie but, rather, it was because she did not watch it with an eye for what would Jesus do, what is God telling us, as she watched the story.

The Bible is a series of stories that have been told and re-told over many, many years of how the early people of our world interacted with God and began to understand the ways of the world as God’s people. These stories were eventually written down and canonized into what we know as our Bible today, which includes the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, some of which we share with Judaism, and the New Testament, the Christian Scriptures. There are some Christians who might say that the day the Canon was finalized, was the end of interpreting of what God is doing in our world. What is written in the Bible is set in stone and the teaching is either there or it is not. There is nothing new to be understood or added. This literal, fundamentalist view of the Bible is a rather modern idea, created in late 1700s, early 1800s. Unfortunately this take on the Bible does not allow for the events of today’s world to enter into the biblical stories. The Bible was not intended to be a closed, dead thing. It is the Word of God and, as we know, God is not dead. God has created and is creating. God worked then in and through Jesus and God works today, in and through us. The Bible is a living thing, ready and able to accept the innovations and actions of God’s great Creation, of God’s humanity, and inform us as to how God might want us to act and react to the history that is being made today. We just need to be paying attention.

So, here we have this movie, Lady Bird. The story begins with a young woman, just about to begin her final year of high school. She and her mother are wrapping up a tour of potential colleges for Christine, who has recently given herself the new name of Lady Bird. We quickly learn that her mother has set a rather low bar for her daughter and does not have much confidence that Lady Bird will amount to much. She is trying to keep Lady Bird’s expectations in check. State college, not an Ivy League school is likely her best case scenario. Over time we come to understand that Lady Bird’s parents have serious financial concerns. The dad struggles with depression. The mom works double shifts as nurse on the mental health floor of the hospital. The older brother’s girlfriend has moved in because of something sketchy that’s happened, possibly between her and her parents. The dad has a soft spot for Lady Bird and her ambitions. The mom is exhausted. While she empathetic and caring at the hospital, she is fiercely direct with her daughter, who seems to be flighty and not appreciative of all her parents have sacrificed for her. The movie is a love story of the relationship of these two women. One-minute fighting tooth and nail and the next being in total agreement. There is religion throughout the movie as Lady Bird’s parents have insisted that she attend a Catholic private school. As the movie moves through Lady Bird’s grade 12, the passing of time is marked by the religious holiday masses the students need to attend but, by no means will she attend a Catholic college.

The focus of Lady Bird’s life, in this last year of high school, is to get out of Sacramento, the town she has lived in, on the wrong side of the tracks, for her whole life. Her mother does not want her to go. For financial reasons and also, we come to suspect, because she doesn’t want to lose her daughter. With some deception, Lady Bird finds a way out of Sacramento for college and when this is reveled to her mother, her mother is completely devastated. Devastated at the betrayal of the deception, the betrayal of her leaving, the betrayal that Lady Bird no longer needs her mother. She refuses to speak to her daughter in the last weeks she lives at home and when she finally does go, there are no words of hope, comfort or encouragement. The last few minutes of the film shows Lady Bird in her new life. And then, in an evening when the impact of all that has occurred washes over her, she revisits and reclaims all that she thought she had left behind her. She takes back the name her parents gave her. She seeks out a church to attend mass. And she calls her mother.

I chose the scripture readings from Exodus today because I was reminded of the trust in God that the Hebrew people had in fleeing from Egypt. Of course, there was soon to be some whining and complaining about wandering in the desert, but there was also a firm belief that there was a future for their people in moving forward. They not only believed this in their hearts but they had a sign in the pillars that God provided for them. A pillar of cloud in the day to protect them from the intensity of the sun and a pillar of fire at night to light their way and give them warmth. From the very first moment we meet Lady Bird, we can see in her the strength of her belief that she was capable of more than a local college. And, while we might not have seen the pillars that were set before her to follow, we see her determination and trust in following them. I also chose the story of the Canaanite woman who insists that Jesus assist her and her daughter, despite of his dismal of her request and her need for his help. In this story of Jesus, it is one of the only times that we see Jesus be inconsiderate of another’s need. And the woman does not back down. She fights for what she needs. I saw that story played out in this movie. Lady Bird’s potential is dismissed again and again by the elders in her life but she does not back down. She keeps standing up for what she wants. For what she needs.

Now these are the biblical stories that came to mind in regards to Lady’s Bird’s commitment to something bigger than what life seemed to be offering her in Sacramento. It was her determination to keep her eye focus on what was in front of her that I best remembered when I asked myself, what biblical story does this remind me of. And I could have built on the idea of having complete faith that God is working in your life and to keep keeping on. But what I have found, that has struck me more than her commitment was her paying attention. Just as the Hebrew people had to pay attention for the sign to flee Egypt and they had to pay attention to the pillars of cloud and fire to escape without harm. And just as the Canaanite woman had to pay attention to what Jesus was saying so that she could use his own teaching in her argument that he needed to help her and her daughter. Just as the people of God need to pay attention of how God is working in their lives, Lady Bird needed to pay attention to what was good in her own life. We don’t really get the sense that Lady Bird has anything good to say about Sacramento. Or her family. But as she is writing essays for her college applications, we discover that Lady Bird knows Sacramento in and out. We see a memory of hers of her first drive through town after she gets her driver’s license and we get the sense that she suddenly has a different appreciation for the town she has long taken for granted. In her new life, she is chatted up by a fellow and, out of the blue it seems, she asks him if he believes in God. Not really, he says. Why, do you? He asks. And she realizes that she does. No longer having time marked by being enveloped within the seasons of the church, she found herself paying attention to what she believed as opposed to what she felt was imposed upon her. The fellow asks her name. Christine, she says, the name my parents gave me, she says. She has a terrible evening. And in trying to get back to her residence, she finds herself in front of a church, at the beginning of mass. And she walks in. We are not privileged to join her once she walks in but when she walks out, she does what seemed impossible just days earlier, she calls her mom. Not expecting her to answer but to let her know how much Christine appreciates her mom in her life. Lady Bird seems to have spent so much of her last year of high school trying to flee her life not realizing it was the very things she was trying to escape that gave her the strength, the courage, the hope and the determination to leave. To stay on track. To stay focused. A solid church that gave her a stable and firm grounding in the world. A foundation of a family who kept her grounded and loved her beyond measure and against all odds allowed her an education that they couldn’t really afford. A Dad who was always there. A Mom who never relented in fighting for her daughter, even if it sometimes, from Lady Bird’s teenage ego-centric view, felt as if the mom was fighting against her rather for her. But it turns out Lady Bird was paying attention all along. She noticed what was good and vital in her life. And that’s what God asks of us. To notice what’s good and vital. To pay attention.

Don't Be Afraid to Fail. Be Afraid Not to Try.

Happy New Year!

I love this time of year. Not the weather so much. - 20℃ is never pleasant for a person who, as my Beloved says, is allergic to the cold. It's pretty much true--I'm allergic. I have Raynaud's disease where my fingers and toes lose circulation and become very, very, very cold when it's chilly outside. It makes being outdoors uncomfortable. Coming inside doesn't feel much better for a little while as the warming up of the fingers and toes can be quite painful. Anyway, I digress.

I love this TIME of year for a few reasons. The house gets tidy after the clutter of the Christmas decorations get put away, schedules go back to normal after a month of Adventing, Christmasing and New Year's Eveing and we get to think about New Year's resolutions.

Some people don't appreciate resolutions. Too much pressure, too much potential for failure, too much to keep up with, too much, too much. It's easy to get caught up in thinking you can change this and you can change that just like that, after a lifetime of living into the very habits you might be trying to change. Our brains can also trick us at this time of year into believing we can just add something more into our schedule that's already jam-packed full.

Over the years I've made New Year's resolutions that have failed to materialized into being. And some years I've been quite successful in tweaking something here or adding in something there. Last year I shared with all of you that I was striving, in 2017, to read a book a week. And I shared that my Beloved thought I was being slightly too ambitious. Let's be honest. He thought I was being overly ambitious. He worries how I might feel if (when) I fail to accomplish some grand plan. He frets that my spirit might get bruised or broken a bit if I fall down in trying to achieve my grand schemes. I appreciate his concern. It's kept one or two of my more wild ideas in check over the years. However, for the most part, I note his concern and carry on.

So, last year, he was pretty certain that reading 52 books during the calendar year would be impossible. I secretly agreed with him but I set the resolution anyway. And invited y'all along on the journey. As committed list-maker, I kept track of what I was reading and when I read it. I did really well for the first five months of the year. And then disaster hit. We put ourselves through a significant home renovation and the enemies of planning entered my life in a major way - stress, moving not once but twice, packing, uncertainty and did I mention stress? Never mind celebrating a high school graduation in the midst of all of it.

I got back on track during my two weeks at the lake when reading was high priority in the mornings and then when I was in Zambia - the time in the bus seemed endless some days. I took a few books with me that I could give away after I finished with them. But, upon my return from Zambia and the beginning of fall programming, I felt like life was a race against time and reading was not really a priority.

The long and short of it, I managed to read 26 books in 2017. Exactly half of my goal. And, I'm happy with that. I certainly would not have read even a fraction of that number if I had not put that goal in front of myself. These are the books I read:

1. Insurrection - Peter Rollins
2. Help, Thanks, Wow - Anne Lamott
3. A New Take on an Ancient Story - Clair Woodbury
4. Jesus for President - Shane Claiborne
5. The Girlfriends' Clergy Companion - Melissa DeRosia
6. Stitches - Anne Lamott
7. Why Christianity Must Change or Die - John Shelby Spong
8. Wings Like Eagles - Claire Woodbury
9. Standing Naked Before God - Molly Phinney Basket
10. Preaching the Big Questions - Catherine McLean
11. Rewritng: How to Do Things with Texts - John Harris
12. Bullseye - Jamie Holtman, Debbie Johnson
13. Economy of Love - Shane Claiborne
14. God & Empire - John Crossan
15. A New Life - Awakening to Your Life's Purpose - Eckhart Tolle
16. In the Beauty of the Lillies - John Updike
17. The Happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin
18. An Altar in the World - Barbara Brown Taylor
19. Transforming Congregational Culture - Anthony Robinson
20. Follow Me to Freedom - Shane Claiborne, John Perkins
21. When Spiritual But Not Religious is Not Enough - Lillian Daniel
22. Purpose Driven Church - Rick Warren
23. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
24. With or Without God - Greta Vosper
25. The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical - Shane Claiborne
26. Theological Worlds - Paul Jones

And so, you might be wondering what resolution/goal I have set for myself this year? Well, just because I didn't read all 52 books last year doesn't mean I'm not interested in reading. So, this year, I plan on reading another 26 books. That's just over two books a month. As I compiled my 2017 book list from the books I already owned and were being neglected on my bookshelf and I didn't dare buy new books as I trying to make my way through the pile, I had most of my 2017 book allowance still left in December. Please don't talk to me about the inconsistency of buying books when I still had half of my 2017 books to read. As I explained in another blog post - I'm a bit of hoarder when it comes to books. Let's face it, there are worse addictions in this world. Anyway, I spent a fun day in December spending my 2017 book allowance and when the books arrived at the church, it was like early Christmas.

Here are the books that I have selected for 2018:

I'm nearly finished my first book. I will write about it next week.

**If you're interested - I've got Brene Brown's Braving the Wilderness in the pile. I will be leading a book study on it. The study begins February 4th. If you'd like to join in, send me an email by January 15th and I will order you a copy. Details of the book study can be found on the Symons Valley UC website.

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Finding Hope in WhatsApp and the Prime Minister of Canada

Mark 13:24-37

I thought made a tactical error this weekend. I waited until yesterday to start my sermon—my sermon for Hope Sunday, this first Sunday of Advent. Each of these next Sundays, the four Sundays leading up until Christmas have their own, preset themes in this season. Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. Hope Sunday marks the beginning of the wait—the anticipation of the arrival of the baby Jesus—the great hope that was promised to come to save the world, and after he was executed some thirty odd years later, was promised once again to the world of his return so that the righteous may be separated from the not-so-righteous and all would be made whole in God’s Kingdom. Anyway, it is somewhat expected that a preacher might preach on these specific, positive and hopeful themes, in the darkness that starts this season and then in the growing light of all that is good as it is represented in the recalling and celebrating the birth of the one who came not as a sword to conquer and vanquish the cruel and unjust leaders, but came instead as a vulnerable baby, needing protection and care until he was ready, until he, himself heard the voice of God calling him to a ministry like no other.

I am supposed to be preaching on hope today. I was supposed to prepare a sermon that speaks to the hope that is to come in the celebration of the Christ’s birth. But I made a mistake this weekend. I waited until Saturday morning to start writing. As I started my day yesterday, I heard the news that the American Senate passed the dastardly republican tax bill sometime after midnight on Friday. And, while I am not American, if half of what is being said about how this bill will impact everyday Americans, those going to college, those who rely on Obamacare, those who do not own planes or have massive estates to pass onto their children—if half of what they are saying is true, the world is about to witness a turning in the States like never before. This bill is the absolute epitome of the rich becoming richer and poor becoming poor. And many who have not consider themselves poor before now, may discover poverty in the coming years.

Hope felt thin yesterday morning. You might ask, why does it matter so much to me about what is happening in the States? They are not us and we are not them. That is true, but we cannot ignore what happens with the people who are our next door neighbours. If you ever doubt their socio-economic impact on Canada, just remember we are coming off a week of massive sales called Black Friday. Black Friday is a strictly American concept—it is tied to Thanksgiving, their most important holiday, which always takes place on a Thursday. The Friday after Thanksgiving has become the kick-off for Christmas shopping. It is called Black Friday and in the past it has meant nothing to Canadians other than maybe it was a good time to be the States for shopping. But, over the past few years there have begun to be more and more stores that have sales events based on Black Friday. So, the long and short of it is that I seem to have this chronic sense of despair of the losses the American people are experiencing with the presidency of Donald Trump and I am wary of similar sentiments that go him elected being revealed elsewhere in the world, particularly in Canada and here in Calgary. Some days hope is hard to find.

And, let’s face it, it’s not like the scripture reading really helped. The Lectionary this Advent is challenging. Here at Symons Valley, we don’t always follow the schedule of readings offered by the Lectionary but we chose to for Advent so that we could hear the familiar stories during this tradition-rich time. Except that I failed to take into account that today is the beginning of the church year that we read mostly from the Book of Mark. Although Mark is the second book of the Christian Scriptures, the New Testament, it was actually the first of the Gospels to be written and it is the most bare-bones. Matthew and Luke build upon Mark’s Gospel and fill out the life and ministry of Jesus for us. But Mark is pretty cut and dried. The Marconian community—the time and life out of which Mark was written, was living in an era of crisis after of crisis. Jesus had died, tensions had grown steadily between the Hebrew people, the new Christians and the Romans. The Temple was destroyed and all hell seemed to be breaking loose. Mark writes as if time was of the essence, there was no time for embellishments. Did you realized that Mark does not even have a birth story—the first chapter of Mark starts right with the baptism of Jesus. So, in this Lectionary year in which Mark is the Gospel of focus, the first few Sundays of Advent are spent reminding us of the power and strength that the baby Jesus will grow into—that the one who is coming will be named Son of Man, that he will be revealed as the Christ, that he will be more powerful than the baptizer John, that he will be the light of the world. We are being reminded that the one who came as a helpless infant, grew to be the One who best revealed God’s love on earth and who led, not with an armed force but led, instead, by offering healing through relationship—relationship with each and every person that is met along the way of life, relationship with God, the one who moves as Spirit encouraging us and helping us remember that we are not alone, we are never alone, and, finally, relationship with ourselves because all healing begins first with ourselves.

The hope from Mark is not about the upcoming birth because the birth is not there. Instead, the hope comes with the reminding of what Jesus was the first time he came. Hope in this Advent season is the promised second coming and, if Jesus was so powerful the first time around, can we possibly imaging how powerful he will be upon his return? But how will it be known that he has returned? It was pretty uncertain the first time he arrived. The Lectionary guides us by taking us right to a mini-apocalypse for the First of Advent. The sun will be darkened, the stars will fall from heaven and the powers will be shaken. No one know when the master of the house will come. In other Gospel versions of this ‘keep awake’ narrative, these stories are referring to the end of time however our scripture reading today does not talk about the end times, about the end of the world. The reading today speaks only of the coming of the Son Man. Remember, Jesus had not yet been crucified. It had been discussed amongst the disciples that Jesus might be the messiah, the Christ, but Jesus had not confirmed it. What is interesting is that the scripture reading today foreshadows the events of the last moments of Jesus’ life—the sky becomes dark just as it did before Jesus died, the cock crows just as it did signifying the denial of Peter and the dawn comes as it did with the women at the empty tomb. That’s why this scripture reading is referred to as the little apocalypse of Mark’s Gospel.

And that’s why I was struggling a bit with hope yesterday because it kinda does feel, some days, with the state of the world is a little apocalyptic right now. With increasing nationalism, the rise of protectionism, fear and distrust of the other being encouraged, individualism working against the common good—all of this feels a little like we need a messiah to come set us straight. I woke up yesterday and heard the news of passed tax bill in the States. I read our scripture reading looking for inspiration for what to say about hope. And then I did some housework. I scrolled around on Facebook a bit. I made a list or two—making lists helps my brain. And then my phone began pinging. I was surprised to see it wasn’t a phone call but a voice call on the app WhatsApp—the app that we made connections with new friends that we made on the youth trip to Zambia. Douglas, our driver, was calling me to chat. Douglas spent nearly the whole three weeks with us that we spent in Zambia in August as he was our driver. He has just finished his second of three years of theological training and is at home with his family in Lusaka. The internet sucks in Zambia so we couldn’t really chat. I could hear his five-year-old daughter laughing in the background but our voices were too delayed to talk. We ended up visiting by texting back and forth. He mentioned that he liked the book that I gave him and we discussed its merits. It was lovely to connect so directly with him after these few months. Not only to make the connection but to hear his voice. Things have sure changed since I first went to Zambia. For a Zambian to be able to make connections with the wider world with the use of a free app is remarkable.

After Douglas and I finished chatting, it occurred to me that I was looking for hope in all the wrong places. I was trying to find hope in the negative. It would be easy to stand here and tell you why hope is lost but when I was in school we were taught that it short-changes the discussion to talk only about what you are against instead of talking about what you are for—about what you believe and what you support. Our scripture reading today gives us the foreshadow of the coming crucifixion but it is not speaking to some far-off time. It is speaking to the now and then. Remember, for the author of Mark, the Temple had just been destroyed, Jesus had been dead already for years, the second coming of the Son of Man was eagerly anticipated. But our reading does not speak of the end of Jesus—it speaks of his reentry into our lives. We begin this church year, this Advent season by looking ahead to the promise of the second coming but here, today, we are told we know not how or when Jesus will return—he will come in to our lives in many and varied ways. And maybe that is the message of this First of Advent. That there is no perfect time in which the Son of Man will make himself known. It is a reminder that this time of Advent is time to direct our gaze to this very present moment, imperfect yet beloved, fragile yet important, flawed yet beautiful, the very time and moment in which God chooses to meet, love and redeem us. Here.

So, with the phone call from Douglas, something that would have been impossible even 7 years ago when I was in Zambia last, I need to say what is good and right about our world. While the States is undergoing this monumental turning in it’s moral, political, social and economic systems, I need to say what is good and right in our world. Here in Canada. Right in the here and now. I need to say where I see the love of Jesus and the work of God is reentering our world. Right now. Not waiting for some far off time. So, I see good and right in the public act of what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did on behalf of Canada this week. He spoke in the House of Commons, sending a message out to our country and to the entire world about who WE are as Canadians. Sending a message about what we believe in and how we want to be as citizens together. This is what he said in his apology to LGTBQ community (insert all other areas that we marginalize people after 'gender identity or expression...race, faith tradition, culture):

For all our differences, for all our diversity, we can find love and support in our common humanity. We’re Canadians and we want the very best for each other, regardless of our sexual orientation or our gender identity or expression. We will support one another in our fight for equality.

What I love best about this is the use of the word "very". Not, 'we want the best for each other' but 'we want the VERY best for each other'. That is what makes us Canadian. That we want the very best for each other. We are not them. We are we and we want the very best for one another. Not just ourselves. Not just our friends and family. But for all of us who live in this world together. For these words and the apology offered to the LGBTQ community by the Prime Minister, I see hope in the here and now. I see the love of Jesus and the work of God reentering our lives in the here and now. An for that, I give thanks. Thanks be to God.

The Kingdom of God is Here

Genesis 28:10-16, Luke 13:20

Jesus asked, “To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened. What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” To what should I compare the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is like people of different faith traditions gathering without fear, on the same land, in the same sanctuary, on their separate holy days so that they may each worship the divine as they are called. The kingdom of God is like a room filled with people of all ages and abilities who are making one sandwich after another so all can be fed. The kingdom of God is like the time when you no longer can leave your residence but someone comes every month to offer God’s words of love and to play the most beautiful music for you. The kingdom of God is like laughing with the kitchen witches who are baking for Sunday’s fellowship and eating the most amazing chocolate chip cookie ever. The kingdom of God is like being wrapped in a quilt made by loving and caring hands and has been signed on the back with prayers of healing by so many who love you and even those who do not know you. The kingdom of God like receiving Christmas stockings and presents from a community of people simply because they want you to know that just because you are living with HIV that does not mean that you are not worthy of being recognized as a beloved child of God. The kingdom of God is being too sick to go to church but church comes to you in the form of a visit and a care package of jam, bread, soup and a Halloween candy or two. The kingdom of God is like being so broke that you can’t pay bankruptcy fees but a small, anonymous group of people pay the bill. To what should I compare the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is like the welcoming person who noticed the stranger in his hour of deepest need, who listened to his story, who wiped his tears and gave him a seat next to him in worship so that he would not feel alone.

God’s kingdom is not about individualism, not about personal gain, not about greed, power or fear. The kingdom of God is a time and a place in which people look out for each other, where the needs of the other are met, where each of us know our neighbour and know them to be as worthy of receiving compassion just as we, ourselves, are worthy. The kingdom of God is that time when know ourselves to be worthy of love just as our neighbour is worthy. It is that time when the hurt of each one of us is understood to be true and the healing from such hurt is essential for the healing of everyone else.

When Jesus speaks about what the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God is like, he speaks of situations that involve moments of growth. Moments of healing. Moments of transformation. What ends the story is not what it was at the beginning. The tree began as a mustard seed. The light and fluffy loaf of bread began because of a small bit of yeast. Here, our community began as individuals and grew into a family. These teachings of Jesus begin with something small and unlikely and becomes more. Becomes bigger. Bigger than ever seemed possible. This growth, this transformation, it is not done alone. The yeast needs the dough. The mustard tree becomes the home to the birds of the air. Those in pain need a listening ear, a hug of many prayers. Those who are hungry need food made by loving hands—a sandwich, a cookie. It is this connection between people, it is this gathering together that allows for healing, growth and transformation to happen. It is these things together that make up the purpose of Jesus’ church.

The business of the church is not to sell religion. Religion is a set of doctrines, structures, systems and rules—these things develop because we are human and humans crave order. But that is all just what religion is—defined order containing what is really important—our faith and our beliefs. When churches try to sell religion instead of living into their purpose of growth and transformation, they become like a corporation. And the business of a corporation is to satisfy people, to get them to spend more, to buy more. We all know, Jesus was not about making people feel satisfied. In fact, most of his ministry was about denying so many the satisfaction of acknowledging whatever earthly power they had for Jesus knew, no one on earth had more power than God. Jesus pushed and pulled his followers to seek new ways of being, to seek new paths to peace and a full life which meant they had to buck the system. His followers needed to stand up against the power of the Jewish and Roman leaders.

No, the church of Jesus was not in the business of satisfying the people. Nor should it be today. Following Jesus today may not have the same life or death consequences that it did two thousand years ago, but there are serious outcomes to being Christian in today’s world. Mercy, generosity, compassion, kindness, honesty, love, vulnerability, these are not easy things to live out in our world which promotes distrust, fear, hate and greed. Being fair and just at the expense of profit and gain is looked upon with uneasy glances in a world where the individual is held up over the community. In a world that has forgotten the gains we make today are because we stand on the shoulders of those people who came before us or because of the hand up from those who travel alongside us. The people of the early Church knew they needed each other for encouragement, support, for wisdom and to remind one another that the teaching of Jesus’ ministry was a truth that could not be denied. They knew that the strength of community was needed so the individual could grow. Could heal. Could be transformed and be the change the world so desperately needed. The church of Jesus Christ was then and is now in the business of making space to create relationships with one another. To create a relationship with God. And to create a relationship with ourselves.

Creating relationships that matter, relationships that encourage transformation, relationships that allow for healing is done best when we see God present in the actions of others. When we can glimpse the divine in the eyes of others. Our experience of meeting God in others gives us courage and frees us to recognize the God who is present in ourselves at the very core of our being. Recognizing God’s presence is essential. Jacob’s experience shows us this. Jacob was running. His past was marked. His future uncertain. In a dream, he sees God and God tells him, “I am with you. I will keep you. I will not leave you.” God was with Jacob. God had been there all along. When he was a fugitive. When he was dishonest. When he argued with his brother. When he begged his father for a blessing that was not his to have. When his mother urged him to take that which was his brother’s. God was there even when Jacob was born, the second twin, holding desperately to the heel of this brother, trying to keep Esau back so that he, Jacob, would be the first-born son. And God was there, in Jacob’s flight from his past to his future. After this dream, you might recall, Jacob goes on to a life filled with responsibility, love and family. His most beloved son, Joseph went onto the fame of starring in Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and he saved a nation of people from starvation.

The story of Jacob’s dream, with angels ascending and descending from heaven and God appearing beside Jacob is referred to as Jacob’s ladder. There is a theological term for such revelations of God. The visible manifestation of God is called a the/off/any. This appearance to Jacob is one of the rare times that God is revealed to humanity. While the Hebrew people felt that God was quite active in their world, they did not actually see God very often. Jesus realized that, in his time, the people of God had stopped directly connecting with God. The Torah Laws and the use of priests, sacrifices and ritual cleansing inhibited people from seeing how God was moving in their lives. And so Jesus reminded them in his stories. He showed them that in their everyday actions—they did not have to wait for a ritual or wait to be cleansed—in the everyday, God was being revealed. He gave to his followers a way to recognize their the/off/anies, their own visible manifestations of God. For Jesus knew, only in the revelation of God to all people could the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of peace, the kingdom of God become known across all of Creation. And so, we notice God in the mustard tree, in the loaf of bread, in the quilt, in a welcome, in a kitchen full of witches baking the best cookies ever.

To what should I compare the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is like when the treasurer of a volunteer run, self-funded, faithful congregation goes to bed at night and wakes rested and energized as she knows the congregation’s bills will be paid because the offertory baskets and the PAR donations—are flowing as if they were the lands filled with milk and honey. There are many reasons to give money away to different organizations. You can get tax receipts for deductions and that’s always a good thing in April. Giving money makes you feel good. You feel like you are helping to find a cure, support an important cause, you aid in feeding or housing someone who is down on their luck, because we all know, or at least suspect, there by the grace of God we go, and it could just as easily be us who’s luck runs out next year, next month, or even next week.

There was a time in our household that we had more time than money. My kids now find it hard to believe but I know many of you here would understand when I say I can remember, quite clearly, of having to take items off the belt at the grocery store checkout because my budget did not allow for things like ice cream that week. Or even that month. In that time of our life, we gave what we could with our time and energy. And when things began to get more comfortable with our budget, when ice cream and going to the movies began to appear in our regular living, we started a concentrated effort to be intentional about not only the time we gave but also the money. Our goal is 10% of gross income. We’ve gotten up to 8%. We give to several hard-working charitable causes—all of which we have a personal connection with—an international orphanage, support for those living with HIV in Africa and another for those here in Calgary, a Canadian micro-lender in South Africa. We also give so that our souls may be fed by art and theatre here in Calgary. But the place that gets more than half of our givings each month is Symons Valley.

There have been times over the years in which we have had a bit extra come in, money that was not anticipated in our household budget. And when those times have come, we have a little ritual in our house. Before anything else is done with the money, I calculate what will be given away and I ask Christopher, where would you like to give it? To Stephen Lewis, to Child Haven, to the theatre? And each time I ask him this, he pauses for a moment and then he says, give it to the church. Each time he says this. I finally asked him—why SVUC and not the others? We know they do good work, why just the church? And this is what he said, “I want to give to the church because I see what good things are happening there. I see what impact our givings make on what the church is doing and what the church wants to do.” For Christopher, this is the living out of our offertory invite: remember that we do not give TO the church but we give THROUGH the church.

I think I would add, the reason why I want to give what we give each month to be used by this church is because I feel that God is in this place. Jacob says when he wakes from his dream, surely God is in this place and I did not know it. Surely God is in this place. The difference I think, for us in this community, is that we know God is in this place. We feel it. We experience it. In this place that we call holy ground, God is revealed each and every day. This community of faith has grown and shifted, it has moved homes and has evolved, this community of faith has a long history of following Jesus, it has been daring and strong, it has been careful and cautious, but always, always, God has been in this place. In this place, we are fed and we are loved so that we may travel the narrow path of Jesus, knowing we have companions in front of us and behind us, encouraging us to be the best we can be, to love the best that we can love, urging us to stand up for what is right and good, and comforting us when we fall down. For we know, the kingdom of God cannot happen without a community surrounding us, holding us, lifting us up and pushing us forward into growth, into healing, into transformations. That is why I give. Why do you?

The Fight at the Bar & John 3:16

John 3:16-17, Psalm 105:1, Isaiah 12:4

A couple of years ago Abigail and I were driving and a song from the Gospel of Keith Urban came on the radio. I don’t always listen to country music but I do when I’m in the car, I do. Maybe you’re familiar with the song—John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16. It is one of those many, many nostalgic American country songs that are being released lately. The kind that talks about how good things used to be—white picket fences, a mom who stayed home and baked apple pie, everyone going to church on Sundays kind of song—you know what I’m talking about. Anyway, the chorus goes like this: 

I'm a child of a backseat freedom, baptized by rock and roll
Marilyn Monroe and the Garden of Eden, never grow up, never grow old
Just another rebel in the great wide open, on the boulevard of broken dreams
And I learned everything I needed to know from John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16

So, there we were, driving along together, singing at the top our lungs and it occurred to me that I didn’t know the reference John 3:16. John Cougar—yes, if you’re my age, you grew up hearing from John Cougar Mellencamp. Jack and Diane, Small Town, Pink Houses… Now that I think about it—his songs too were quite wistful about an America that seemed to be long in the past.  So, John Cougar and then John Deere—even a city girl like me knows this titan of farm equipment. But John 3:16—the clergy person was stumped. So, I said out loud, ‘I wonder what that scripture reading is—I should look it up.” Abigail, at eleven years old, answers from the backseat, ‘You mean John 3:16? It’s the one that goes, God so loved the world that he gave his only son.’

And in that moment, I felt two things. A little embarrassed that she could pull that out of her back pocket at eleven, and I, a trained minister, could not. But I was also impressed that church has obviously rubbed off on this daughter of mine. However, I couldn’t remember that the Sunday School studying this scripture passage, so I asked, ‘You just know that? How do you just know that?’ And she replied, ‘I learned it when we were at the bar and watched the Mayweather fight.’ Which, I have to admit, was the answer I least expected . It turns out that a few months earlier, we were at a nomination party for our local MP—we are good friends with the family and we were anxiously waiting to hear if he had been nominated. I just want to be clear—we were not at a bar that night, we were at a restaurant. The TV near the party was showing the Mayweather fight. The kids were all watching it. That there is some good parenting but I’m thinking that’s just what happens with kid number four. Anyway, I guess Mayweather had the words John 3:16 on the waistband of his shorts…and Abby and the MP’s daughter looked it up.

Signs with the scripture passage of John 3:16 have long been held up at various sporting events. A wingnut named Rollen Stewart—and I know I sound a bit judgmental here but let me tell you this guy is currently serving three life sentences in California because in 1992 he kidnapped a hotel maid and demanded that he have a press conference to warn people about the imminent rapture that was going to happen in six days—anyway this guy began appearing at different sporting events in the Seventies wearing a big rainbow-coloured wig. He even showed up at Prince Charles and Diana’s wedding. Anyway, watching sports games on the television was growing in popularity in the Seventies and Stewart had figured out how to position himself so that he would be on camera when a goal or a touchdown happened. He would show up with a sign with just the words John 3:16 written on it and try to make sure he was caught on camera. So he did this all through the Seventies and Eighties and began a tradition of spectators holding up these kind of signs. The tradition began to wane in the Nineties but there has been a resurgence of people bringing signs to games since football player, quarterback Tim Tebow, wrote John 3:16 on his black eye-patches in college in 2008/9. College football has since created a policy stating that nothing can be written on those patches but signs still appear in the stands.

For many Christians, John’s words, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life” sums up the entirety of what they believe was Jesus’ ministry and God’s purpose in his life. God loves us, God gave up Jesus so that we might be saved and eternal life awaits all who believe in Jesus. Those who take literally the demand of Jesus to make disciples of all nations, will take this scripture with them when they go. When people come knocking on our doors asking if we know Jesus, it is John that they offer to you. When parents send their children to the mall to hand out tracts, it is John they are carrying with them. And, for them, this is the spreading of the Good News. They are evangelizing. They are sharing the Good News of what God did. Past tense. God gave his son. End of story. For many Christians, the Good News begins and ends only with themselves. THEY are saved. THEY will have eternal life. But, as per usual with the Bible, Jesus and with God, this scripture is bigger than just one person.

Let us take a moment or two to look these main sections. I’ll start with the giving up of Jesus. Many are taught that this piece of scripture means that Jesus has atoned for any and all sins of each of one us. As if by dying on the cross, our sins could be wiped away. If only we believed in him. And through him, believed in the one and only God. It would be easy to hear this passage of John’s and think that the giving of Jesus was if he was a gift from God. Handed over through the virgin birth and sacrificed upon the cross. As if a loving and compassionate God would do such a thing. 

But remember that Jesus was the Word made flesh. God gave Jesus to the world so that God could experience life within Creation. All of life. From birth to death. So that God could experience the joys and sorrows of being human. So that God could become part of the world, to be vulnerable to it and could partake of what the world and humanity had to offer. The giving of Jesus was not a transaction between God and humanity. It wasn’t a tit for tat. The story did not end with the giving but rather it continues unceasingly. The giving of Jesus is like the writing of a love poem that carries on still, to this day. Just as the love we have for our own beloveds, for our dearest friends, for our children, for our grandchildren, the love God made manifest through Jesus continues onward, forever into our now and into the future.  For it is through the stories, miracles and actions of this man Jesus that humanity has witnessed the very grace, mercy, compassion and love of God still offers to the world. And it is through the life of this man Jesus that we know God understands the trials and the celebrations of what it means to be human. 

Now onto God loving us and our belief in Jesus. What can be easily overlooked is that John says that God so loved the world that his gave his son. God came for all of Creation, not for one person over another, not for one community of people over another. God did not come for a few, God came for all. All that has been asked in return is to be believe. Not that long ago to believe was to belove. In our near history, our rational, scientific influences want belief to be connected to a truth that can be proven. Unless you’re Donald Trump of course, but I’m taking a self-imposed hiatus from talking about him. Before conservative literalism grew in the mid-19^th Century, to believe in something meant to belove something—to yearn for that something, to pay attention specially to that something, to commit to that something, to be loyal to that something, to value that something above all else. God wants us to believe, to belove. What should we belove? If I say we are to believe in God, to belove God, what would that mean? Jesus taught us. To belove God is to yearn for peace, to pay attention to injustice, to commit to loving others as ourselves, to be loyal to God’s Creation, to value above all else compassion.

Once we belove, once we believe, we find ourselves being transformed by these things. We find trust where before there was skepticism, find connection with those who might only be passing through our day, we find the Divine in those it would be east to dismiss as less-than, not worthy , we seek justice for all people, not just those closest to us. People matter. Creation matters. When we believe, when we belove, our problems don’t disappear, the issues each of us struggle with, the hurt and pain of life, of living and of death, do not simply vanish. Being of faith doesn’t mean you are protected from brokenness. But when you open your heart, when you welcome in others, when you are willing to be vulnerable just as God was through Jesus, when you fully partake in the life that has been given you, you will see how God’s goodness moves in and through us. Amongst us the Holy Spirit moves, reminding us that love always overcomes hate, that choosing to be kind trumps choosing ridicule and scorn, that compassion always, always has a place in relationships, be they long and deep connections or fleeting.

When we feel these moments of the Holy Spirit moving, when God enters in and touches our heart, when the meaning of the words Jesus speaks suddenly rises before us, guiding us, urging us to move, to use our power for good, how can we help but want to share the good news? How can we help but want to run down the road to our friends to tell like Mary did when she discovered the truth of the tomb—not only was it empty but Jesus was right there, he had never left. How can we not tell others like we would tell them about other awesome things in our lives? Like you would when your kid receives an acceptance letter from a university? Like when you find a restaurant that has the best French Onion soup ever?  Or how about when you discover a TV show on Netflix that deserves every award ever made. We have no problem exclaiming these things, do we? I don’t. I’ve been telling everyone lately—and here I am doing it again—if you haven’t seen This is Us on TV yet, you need to get yourself sorted and watch the first season. Don’t watch it alone—or at least set yourself up a discussion group because this show has so much going on, lots of feelings, lots of crying, lots of amazing acting, lots of love between a complicated family that experiences hurt and pain in very real ways, you will need to talk about it. It really is an awesome show. I can talk about this show with anyone, a friend, a person I don’t know in line at Tim’s, my doctor, but I’m pretty sure I would never follow up my synopsis with the show with a story of how God has recently pushed me, pulled me, cajoled me to be better. To do better. To be the hands and feet of Christ. I wouldn’t do that. I might be afraid that the message would be heard as me trying to convert them. Trying to convince them that their way of life is wrong, while I am on the true path. That I am saved and they are not. We bear the weight of those who have gone door to door, who hand you tracts at the shopping mall.

So, what does evangelism mean to us, in this United Church of ours? We are not a converting church. We do not require doctrine or dogma to be declared as truth before we help. In Zambia I was asked if the United Church of Zambia was not prepared to agree that LGBTQ people have rights and freedoms in their country, would we hold back funding and assistance? No, absolutely not, I replied. Because we are not a converting church. However, we didn’t back down from sharing our understanding that God’s love is for all people. That God has made all people in God’s image—white, black, brown, male, female, trans, gay, straight, bi, short, tall, narrow or wide. God’s grace and compassion is never-ending for all who walk the face of this earth. We spoke our truth for the whole of our trip and once in awhile found ourselves in a bit of debate over what God’s thoughts really were. It was never a comfortable discussion and we never told the other they were on the wrong side of loving one’s neighbour as ourselves, but we also didn’t shy away when asked about our beliefs. This is how we evangelize. We talk about what love and connection we experience here together, in this community of faith of ours. We share what good this congregation is doing for the wider community. We talk about how we care about the homeless. The forgotten. The hungry. And we go serve those who live at the margins.  We show how God has moved in our lives through our loving and caring actions. We talk about the need to remain open, we act justly even when the law doesn’t require us to, we speak against racist, bigoted, misogynistic comments and behaviour. We speak of God’s grace as we speak our truth, we show God’s compassion in how we treat others—those we hardly know, our friends and even our enemies and we declare God’s love when through our own willingness to be vulnerable and open, we allow others to be open and vulnerable with us. We do not convert. We do, we show and we speak. And then we let go. We let go and let God. For God is good. All the time.