A Few Thoughts on Isaiah 11:1-10

Isaiah 11:1-10

“A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. .”

Isaiah is an amazing prophet. Let’s listen to those words ready by John again, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and leopard shall lie down with the young goat…and a little child shall lead them.”

What a peace-filled scene. What an incredible image of tranquility, of reconciliation, of hope, of desire, of trust in God.

But this scene of peaceful bliss  was far from the reality in Israel when Isaiah penned these words.

When Isaiah wrote these words, the people of Israel were confronting menacing and constant attacks from the Assyrian Empire. The northern tribes of Israel were conquered. And, although the southern tribes, Judah, did not succumb to the Assyrian invasion there was an omnipresent threat of attack. Safety was not assured and many recalled the golden age of King David as they looked to the future.

 The Book of Isaiah records many prophetic words of warning of impending disaster if the people of Israel did not change their ways. Many of Isaiah’s warnings made him extremely unpopular. But in the midst of his prophetic warnings there are also words of promise, fidelity and hope. In fact, the Book of Isaiah has been so encouraging over the centuries it has often been referred to as the 5^th Gospel.

But Isaiah had a word from the Lord and it goes something like this:

God has been faithful to Israel but Israel continues to turn its back on God. They have turned away.

Listen to these words from the Isaiah 1 “The whole head is sick, the heart faints, from the sole of the foot to the head.” (Is 1:6) A body covered in wounds and sores in need of ointment. What a stark image of a sick body.

And here is another image created by Isaiah, [Israel has been] “left as a booth in the vineyard.” Just think of a beautiful vineyard, a beautiful green oasis bearing much fruit, yet Israel is compared to an empty shack. (Is 1:8)

Isaiah gives us images of sickness and abandon. He warns his people of God’s unending faithfulness and exhorts them to change their sinful ways. He warns them: “Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the orphan and plead for the widow.” (Is 1:17)

And in the next verse it is as if we are brought into the loving heart of God who pleads for his children to be reasonable. God says, “Come now, and let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing you shall eat the good of the land, but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword.”

So, in the midst of the times in which Isaiah is writing. In the midst of all this war, all the madness, all the selfishness, all the sin, all the hate, all the injustices, the abandon of the weak and the needy, the abandon of the orphan and the widow. In the midst of all this human mess. In the midst of all the hurt and pain Isaiah prophesies of this “Rod from the stem of Jesse” and that “the wolf shall lie down with the lamb.”

Peace is coming; we just need to be faithful to God. We need to cease doing evil, we must learn to do good, we must learn to seek justice, we must rebuke the oppressor, we must defend the weakest in our land, the orphans and the widows.

That was spoken nearly 3000 years ago by the prophet Isaiah.

Listen to these words:

[Mr. President your government’s policy] is positively unbiblical, un-Christian, immoral and evil…the Bible teaches that people are created for fellowship and togetherness, not alienation, apartness, enmity and division.”

These were addressed to P.W. Botha in 1988 by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as Tutu laid out a theological argument that Apartheid was unbiblical.

How about these words, “Daddy, I want to go to the swings” and you said with a hallow voice and a dead weight in the pit of the tummy, “No, darling, you can’t go.” What do you say, how do you feel when your baby says, “But, Daddy, there are other children playing there.” How do you tell your darling little child that she could not go because she was a child but she was not really a child, not that kind of child. And you died many times and were not able to look your own child in the eyes becaue you felt so dehumanized, so humiliated, so diminished.

Or how about the gardener in Johannesburg who managed to build a nice home for he and his family. One day it was announced that his home village was to be demolished and the community moved elsewhere. The gardener askef or one favour, which was granted him. He wanted to demolish the home he had worked so painstakingly to build himself. He went back to the home and hanged himself.

But out of these ashes of the defilement of God by racist who hide behind religion, like in Israel, rise prophets. We get glimpses of them every once in a while, even in our modern age and they come from the dignified, glorified, holy use of Scripture to call us to repent from our evil ways and to respond with faithfulness to God as God has remained faithful to us. Dietrich Bonehoeffer, Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandella to mention only a few. Their prophetic voice comes from God but it echoes of the same themes that God has been making known to us since the prophets of Israel.

This is what a modern day prophet sounds like. This was MLK’s last speech before being assassinated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oehry1JC9Rk

These people saw that there are vicious, sinful systems of injustice that are powered by human greed. The Gospel teaches us that humanity is interwined. We are all fallen; we are all sinners saved by grace. We are lifted out of despair by hope. And we are not to participate in the broken systems of the world which lead to the misery of so many, including ourselves.

Oh, and here is Daniel… You know Daniel from the book of Daniel. The prophet of Israel while the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon. When he and his friends were charged for not following the law of the empire which they knew to be unfaithful to God they refused. Here is their response to King Nebuchadnezzar. “We have no need to present a defence to you in this matter. ¹⁷If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. ¹⁸But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.’

You see the Bible is the most inspiring document you can put in the hands of those who suffer from injustice and oppression. If you want people who are in darkness to find the light give them the good book about understanding the darkness and the path to the light. If you want to free someone from slavery, give them the good book that leads all of us from slavery to promised land.

Where is Christianity growing the fastest? In places where people know injustice, where people are poor, where people don’t have material wealth; people who know the real forces of dehumanization and despair. Where people are hurting and crying out to God for hope to the living God who is whispering into their ear saying, “I love you, I have called you by name, pick yourself up, you have dignity because I gave it to you, now listen to me. When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned.” In these parts of the world people are being thrown in jail for standing up for the light in the midst of darkness (Mandela spent 27 years in prison)

Where is Christianity dying the quickest? In places where we are so comfortable in our material wealth that we don’t even think we need a Saviour. All we know is that we got lots of stuff; but what we need to hear is that all that stuff is spiritually killing us. Christianity is dying in the rich part of the world because it is not Christianity that is being preached but some silly notion of self-serving salvation that has been reduced to escapism to heaven instead of the salvation of gracefully getting on with the will of the Father. Grace-filled action now in the midst of the muck of the world is Christianity with muscle, the Christianity of faith, the Christianity where we fear neither life and death every moment of every day because we know the promises made to us by God through Jesus. We know we need to get dirty in the muck of the world just as Jesus did. So that we can get dim glimpses of heaven now knowing that in the last great day we will see clearly. That’s Christianity of trust. That’s Christianity with passion. That’s Christianity of hope. That’s Christianity of the wolf lying down with the lamb.

I don’t know where this Sunday morning country club came from but if the devil doesn’t quiver in his boots every morning when your feet hit the floor you don’t know the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives, to change village, to change cities and to change the world.

Nelson Mandela said, “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who never stopped trying.”

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." — Nelson Mandela

Now, back to Isaiah and the hope he spoke of. Here it is in Is 11:1, “A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.”

Isaiah leads us to visualize another image. The base of a tree. The trunk and the roots of this tree are named Jesse. Jesse is, of course, the father of David the great King. So the image is literally one of a family tree. But our attention is being directed to a new branch from the house of Jesse – evoking the royal linage of David.

The following verses go on to explain the various attributes of this new King: These include “wisdom and understanding” with “counsel and might” “knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”

These attributes are hoped for in a ruler.

This new ruler will rely on the coventanatal qualities of righteousness and faithfulness.

The beneficiaries of these covenant commitments will be the poor and meek and the wicked will be killed by the breath of his lips.

It seems righteousness and faithfulness to doing the will of the Father involves the welfare of the most defensless and marginal.

The Gospel writers, indeed early Jesus followers, assert that this prophesy was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus the Messiah of Israel.

What is the Spirit saying to the Church today?

Do these verses resonate: Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless and plead for the widow

James 1:27, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

Thanks be to God for people like Nelson Mandela who knew God’s plan for reconciliation of all people. Where the wolf will lay down with the lamb.

Thanks be to God for Isaiah and the hopeful prophesy that that wolf will lay down with the lamb. Isaiah went on to write in 12:

You will say on that day:
I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
   for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
   and you comforted me. 

² Surely God is my salvation;
   I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the Lord God is my strength and my might;
   he has become my salvation. 

3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.⁴And you will say on that day:
Give thanks to the Lord,
   call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
   proclaim that his name is exalted. 

⁵ Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
   let this be known in all the earth. 
⁶ Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion,
   for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. 

The root of Jesse has come. His name is Jesus and he has taken upon himself all your burdens. We have a hope, a living hope, an eternal hope. This hope is based on God’s immeasurable love for you. You did nothing for it, it was all done for you, by God. This is God’s gift for you, to make things right again in hopeful expectation of the root of Jesse’s coming again.

Accept this eternal gift.

And do no evil, stand up for justice; protect the orphan and the widow. Amen.

Remembrance Day 2013

Trinity Church Halifax

Thomas Hardy's, "The Man He Killed."

Had he and I but met
    By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
    Right many a nipperkin!

    But ranged as infantry,
    And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
    And killed him in his place.

    I shot him dead because—
    Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
    That's clear enough; although

    He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
    Off-hand like—just as I—
Was out of work—had sold his traps—
    No other reason why.

    Yes; quaint and curious war is!
    You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
    Or help to half a crown.

I stand here as a priest in the Church of God.

I can only understand reality through Jesus Christ.

I am also a former naval officer.

So, there are many conflicting thoughts and emotions that course through my body on Remembrance Day. That is, of course, when I allow this day to be about something that it is not. This is not a day of politics; a day of who was right and who was wrong, or a day of boasting. It is not a day of the moral relativism of should we, or should we not be, involved in this war or that. This is a day of remembrance. A day we set aside to remember those who died in war.

This is a day when we should say, “Thank You” and a day to reflect on the expression “Lest we forget”

There are a great many opinions about wars, just as there are a great many wars for which to hold opinions. Here are a list of some wars many going on: the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Lybia, the war in Syria, the war in Somalia, the war in Egypt, the war in Nigeria, the war in NorthWest Pakistan, the war in Sudan, the war in Yemen, the war in Palestine, the war in Kasmir, the war in Burma, the war in Darfur, the war on drugs.

We live in a wonderful but deeply wounded world.

We must remember. We must remember.

I have been told the trenches of Western Europe had a smell that one never forgets. It has been described as an odour of death.

I have been told that the smell of fuel burning in the mid-Atlantic had a smell that one never forgets. A putrid stench of salt, oil and ash.

I have been told that to hear artillery shells pounding the trenches as young men huddled in tunnels is a sound not to be forgotten. Like a pounding on the heart of the universe.

I have been told the engines of the Motor Torpedo Boats in the English Channel made a powerful reverberating sound as they resonated on the cliffs of Dover.

I have been told the sounds of airplane engines returning from battle was a welcoming sound for ground crews hoping their aircrews were safe.

I have been told by our Merchant Navy sailors that there is nothing like hearing the sound of a torpedo hit a ship in a convoy. The sound came after the flash had focused the hearers attention.

I have been told the taste of victory is bitter sweet. A confused dance of elation, grief and hope.

We feel the consequences of war long after the political declaration of victory. Whatever that even means anymore.

War has a heavy cost.

We must remember.

We must remember them.

We must remember never to glorify war.

I was told a story by a veteran this past Remembrance Day when during the second World War a Canadian place was shot down near Lorient, France. A number of the citizens of Lorient wanted to go to the site of the crash to retrieve the bodies and give the airmen a proper burial. The Nazi regime which was in control of the area forbid this act of compassion. Ten citizens went anyway.

The Nazis shot the ten dead.

We remember the inhumanity of war.

We remember those who gave their lives in hope for a better world.

Give thanks to those who return from it; love them as God commands us to love one another.

But also remember that ….remembrance is not passive.

Remembrance is grounded in the hope that the world can actually be a better place and that it take a tremendous amount of effort.

Remembrance is about bringing hope forward. It is about embracing hope and bringing hope forward.

This same hope motivated so many to give so much.

Without hope we are lost. Without hope our only dance partner is despair.

But Hope involves difficult work.

Lest we forget. Lest we forget that we live in a land of plenty. And from those to whom much is given, much is expected.

Much is expected from us.

Many people have claimed that the world changed on 9/11. The world did not change on 9/11. Technology was used in a new and hideous way, but the world didn’t change. 9/11 is a reminder that the world hasn’t changed enough. The world remains overrun with greed, hatred, envy, gluttony, pride and selfishness. Nothing changed.

We remember the self-sacrifice of war. We do not celebrate war. We remember the dehumanizing injury of war. We remember the inhumanity of war. We remember the waste of war.

And we fall on our knees in praise and thanksgiving of all God achieved through God’s very self, Jesus Christ. The way, the truth and the life.

Take, eat…feed on it in your heart, with thanksgiving.

Amen.

"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was^* in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:3-5)
Here is a video reflection of a man who took great strength from this passage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Q9CTzZ1Mk

Homily to AST – The Octave of All Saints

November 6^th, 2013

Here we are, in the octave of All Saints. Gathered in mystical union. Offering our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to all God achieved through Jesus Christ.

And we have this reading from Matthew – the Beatitudes – As the beginning of the best known sermon every given – the Sermon on the Mount.

And doesn’t the sermon on the mount come at a wonderful point in the Gospel according to Sanit Matthew. It begins at chapter 5.

Let us go back and briefly skim over the first four chapters.

Genealogy; the birth of Jesus, his escape to Egypt and his return. The proclamation of John the Baptist, The baptism of Jesus, his temptations in the wilderness, his calling of the disciples, and two verses on his healing ministry in Galilee. It is as if, as soon as Matthew established who Jesus is, the Messiah; the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, he sets the context of the rest of his Gospel through the Sermon on the Mount. It is as if to draw the Kingdom of God into focus;

It is as if we are asked to put on the lens of Jesus; put on the lens of the Sermon on the Mount.

And then, after the beatitudes, Jesus tells us to go be the salt and the light to the world.

Go and be like Christ.

Go and be like the Saints.

Anyone enjoy SCUBA diving?

I remember going on a diving trip off the coast of Aruba. Early on a beautiful tropical morning we took a small rubber boat, loaded with diving gear to explore a World War Two wreck. The wreck was the former MV Antilla, which was a German supply ship anchored in beautiful waters of Aruba when the war broke out. Rather than surrender to the Dutch government of Aruba, the skipper scuttled the ship.

In the tropics, as the day warms up the wind increases. The afternoons are typically choppy in a steady breeze. Perfect for sailing.

But the early mornings are often flat calm.

On this particular morning, as we headed out to our diving location the light breeze created a gentle ripple on the surface of the ocean. But there were plenty of places where the ocean remained perfectly calm.

As we went along in our boat the calm spots revealed the superb clarity of the water. While sitting in our boat we crossed many of these calm spots. It was lovely making the transition from the rippled areas, where all I could see was the rippled surface of the water, to the calm spots which revealed areas where I could see not only into the water, but all the way to the bottom. It was beautiful. The crystal clear water, the beautiful turquoise colours of the ocean, the sandy shades of the bottom and the occasional fleck of color from the fish swimming below. It was an exquisite delicacy from the deep.

But what was even more amazing was putting on the diving tanks. The regulator. The weights and the mask. And then to make the first plunge.

What looked beautiful from the surface was absolutely spectacular from the vantage point of being in the water; from being immersed in it. Sure, what could be seen from the surface was beautiful but the staggering beauty of being immersed in the water, being amid the reef, and the splendid sea life was breathtaking.

The Beatitudes remind me of this day off to coast of Aruba.

You see, if the Gospel is like the ocean, the beatitudes are like those calm places where you can see clear to the bottom. The Beatitudes allow us to see the very depths of something going on in very deep places.

When you are above the surface, you don’t see the profundity of the beauty, especially when the wind is blowing because of the ripples and waves. But even when you are on the surface, if you have the chance to be in a calm spot, you can get a look into the deep.

But in order to fully appreciate the magnitude of the beauty, one must get out of the comfort of surveying from above, the dryness of being in the boat, and immerse oneself in it. There, the majestic beauty of it all will be revealed, it all its vibrant colour.

Last night I went to the hospital to visit with a man whose body is getting quiet weak. His name is Dr. John Gray. A name well known in many parts of Newfoundland because he was a physician for 25 years with the Grenfell Mission beginning in the late 1950s. The Grenfell mission was a mission of Christian mercy which sought to bring medical care to northern Newfoundland and coastal Labrador during the turn of the last century.

There is no doubt in his mind that the Lord led him on this mission, which lasted 25 years. Today, there is a 47 bed, respite-care hospital in St. Anthony named after him.

During my previous visit with him we read 1 Cor 15 together and we prayed. Last night after I greeted him he asked me in a very weak voice to read Phi 2. I want to read a little of it to you, “If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ²make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. ⁵Let the same mind be in you that was^* in Christ Jesus, 
⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,  but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,  he humbled himself  and became obedient to the point of death—  even death on a cross. 

⁹ Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name  that is above every name, 
¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 
¹¹ and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

This man saw the calm spots, saw the beauty of a calm spot and immersed himself in it.

“The purpose of this world is not to have and to hold, but to serve.” Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell.

As people called to positions of spiritual leadership we need to swim in the mysterious depths of the Gospel; We need to explore the clear bits of our faith and allow those clear bits to inform our understanding of the less-than-clear bits.

Immerse yourself in the splendid ocean that is the Gospel.

And if there is only one piece of advice I would give, it is this; the lifeline to the surface is through prayer. The disciplines of prayer, meditation and contemplation.

I do not intend to be cliché when I say, the three rules of spiritual leadership: Prayer, prayer, prayer

Here is my journal entry from Dec 27, 2011, just about to head into my last semester at AST: “I need to reinvigorate my prayer life. I feel as though I have become unorganized in my prayer life, which is precisely how I feel in general. I am in an unorganized rut. I feel a sense of self-pity which disgusts me. I feel more separated from grace than I have been in a long time. I am coming before God to ask how I can best serve God here, in my lifetime, while I have eyes, feet and hands.”

4 April 2012: “My fist day in the parish and I am feeling anxious. I know I need to focus on activities that sustain me. I will need to build these activities into every day so that I can write and reflect. This seems to be a necessary activity for me.”

26 April 2012: “My first parish council meeting. I was shocked by the emotional tenor at parish council tonight. Two people, [in the midst of a controversial issue] stormed out, promising never to return to Trinity.”

18 May 2012: “My walk in this beautiful faith is one that involves listening yet it is all so very easy to become distracted. My daily walk must involve listening in prayer. As I write this in my office the phone is ringing, again,  yet I need this time. I want to be empty so that I may be filled up with that which I need for my journey; a journey solely motivated by doing the will of the Father.”

“Spiritual mathematics seems to involve a whole lot more subtraction than addition; simplification rather than complication, emptying rather than filling, letting go rather than holding on.”

“Like the deer desires the water brooks, so I long for you, O God.”

Listening, it seems, accomplishes three things:

1.      A deeper appreciation of emotions

2.      A deeper appreciation of passion

3.      Time to rekindle

2 June 2013

I remember hearing Leonard Cohen’s response to being asked about inspiration for writing. He was was asked, “Where do you go to write this stuff; how to do train your mind to go there.” His answer was brilliant, “If I knew” he said, “I would go there more often.”

We are indeed people of revelation.

Always be open to receive.

So what have I learned these past 18 months. Well, I could summerize it all and say what I most learned is this is all about Grace. By grace alone. Not buts. But I am going to break that open through four brief points:

1.      The universe is personal.

2.      Theological Thinking is crucially important.

3.      Your sense of call

4.      Be open to receive.

1.      The universe is not impersonal. It is deeply personal. It is ultimately personal and this personal reality emerges from relationship and love. The spiritual life is all about love. That might sound easy but it is the most difficult task I have undertaken because it is not a task, but the manifestation of a relationship. The first principle of this is God’s love for us; the God who gave us life. Our relationship to God allows that love to flow through us. It takes a self-giving willingness to be led in love.

Example: I had an extremely difficult pastoral situation which had me at one moment in the perpertratior’s  living room and in another moment in the victim’s living room. I thank God that God is the judge and I am not. My job is to be present in love: to re-present love; to speak truth in love and to hopefully work toward healing. This is not naïve work of being everyone’s friend. This is the difficult work of loving the other and always being open to accept an apology. Flexibility does not mean relativism; confronting issues does not mean being offensive. The desired pastoral outcome is that our limited love will be a gateway for God’s unlimited, unconditional love. Power to manipulate a situation must always be abandoned in favour of love.

2.      Theological Thinking: Theology matters [story deleted for this forum]

Henri Nouwen wrote, “Most priests today are being educated in a climate in which the behavioural sciences such as psychology and sociology so dominate the educational mileau that true theology is no longer being learned. Theological thinking must involve the milieu of the mind of Christ. Without solid theological reflection, future leaders will be little more than pseudo-psychologists and social workers rather than Christian leaders. Christian leaders speak and act in the name of Jesus who came to free humanity from the power of death and to open the path to eternal life. Christian leaders need to say no to sentimental attempts that make people develop a spirit of resignation or stoic indifference in the face of unavoidable pain, suffering and death.”

3.      Remember your sense of call to this vocation: Remind yourself of it. Recall it. Pray with it. There is so much pain and so much work to be done. We are not trained psychologists or social workers yet, and although I have no capacity to diagnose anything. My best help to them is to help them find the help they need and to love them and advocate for them as I walk with them along the way.

What is your sense of call to this vocation? Be authentic to your sense of call. And I think the best way you can be authentic is to be grounded in prayer. The clarity of it will wax and wane but go back to it, sit with it.

Pray with it.

 Imagine Jesus is asking you, “Do you love me?” Your most intimate lover is asking you if you love him. What does that loving response from you look like? Be that, whatever that is, be it because it is built on the eternal relationship that sustains all relationships.

4.      Always, always, always be open to receive. Gifts abound.

Spiritual leaders cannot stay in the boat and enjoy looking at the magnificence of the deep through the calm spots. We must be immersed in the water no matter how rough the waters becomes. So, get out of the boat! Because at 40 feet, the surface waves are nothing more than a gentle rocking motion. Enjoy the swim; it’s really awesome.

Feed on this in your heart, by faith, with thanksgiving. Amen.

"Three days until Sunday"

A couple weeks ago, on a Thursday, I greeted someone and asked how they were doing. Their response was, “Only three days until Sunday. I can’t wait to praise God.” No one had ever said that to me before. I wanted to dig a little deeper with this person but, for whatever reason, I didn’t. I was all the more surprised when, a few hours later, in a different setting altogether, someone responded exactly the same to me in response to my greeting them. This time I had to dig a little more deeply.

“I like the music; I like to praise God,” was the response to my question about why wait until Sunday. It was followed by, “I don’t get out much during the week, I am so busy and there isn’t enough time.”

I totally get it. It is hard for me, a priest, husband and father to keep my own life balanced and in some semblance of sanity. I know that many, if not most Christians struggle to honour their relationship with God and their family and friends amid the myriad of demands on their time. This is clearly having an impact on church life and our society in general; our entire walk with God.

We are people of the Sabbath. God created the Sabbath not for God but for us (Mark 2:27). But if soccer is on Monday and Friday and dance is on Wednesday and hockey is, of course, on Sunday morning, how do we bring God into focus? Where is the Sabbath? How can we dial down the busyness to hear the still voice of God saying, “I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.” (Isaiah 43:2)

I am not a very legalistic Christian – much to the chagrin of some – I have enough lists of things to do that remain undone, and have rarely (emphasis on rarely not never!) found following lists of dos and don’ts to be that effective in my ability to be open to God’s grace. I am, however, profoundly fed by the rhythm of daily prayer.

Brother Lawrence gives us a sustaining glimpse of learning how to practice the presence of God in the kitchen as he prayerfully went about his chores. He knew that God has a very long track record of gently and persistently bringing us to life through Jesus Christ. God is intimately inviting us closer to God every moment of every day. It is this intimacy that draws us to focus on the other, our families, friends and those in need around us.

So, what prayer will you say when you are in the kitchen…or in the bleachers at the rink? If the word ‘thank you’ comes to mind enjoy it, hold on to it and then release it back to God. Gratitude is a key to a rhythm of sustaining prayer. Allow this thank you to do its work as you load the dishwasher. It is a thank you that may lead you to sit with a cup of tea, hold onto a verse of Scripture and go for a walk. You will be amazed at how the kingdom breaks in. It may change what you think and feel when you next walk to the Communion rail to take, eat and drink. It may even help you deal better with the chronic stress you have been experiencing.

Thank you will help lead you to the great anticipation of sustaining union with our incarnate God. 

Praise God now… and praise God in three days too.

God and Mammon - A Few Thoughts

Homily Thoughts – Trinity 15 2013 (8 Sep 13)

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Mamonos (Manna) – riches; treasure; wealth; money

For the purpose of vanity, honour, self-indulgence

Let me start by asking a question:

Do you agree that the pursuit of money is a powerful driver of human nature?

But before we get into the divine teaching of Jesus on this text, can we agree with the impossibility of fully serving, of being wholly at the disposal of two earthy masters? Two bosses? Would we not agree that when their commands interfere with each other, the servant, in obeying the one, must disobey the other.

In clinging to one, in essence we abandon the other.

Or, lets tackle this from a different angle…

Maybe we can indeed be able to serve two bosses?

Maybe we can serve three bosses?

But there is a caveat in how many bosses we can serve, it depends on the boss. Each boss must be content with partial service, part-time service, knowing that sometimes when called upon we will not be able to work because we are pre-occupied with the other boss.

Do you agree with that?

This is simply not the relationship we are called into, for we are taught, indeed commanded, through graceful invitation, to love and serve God with all our heart, and mind, and soul and strength. This is, of course, the First Great Commandment, and the second is like unto it; thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

So, first and foremost we are called into deep, loving, self-giving relationship with God who is in His essence deep, loving and self-giving. God is so totally self-giving that He gave of himself on the Cross to make things right.

So, it is clear we should serve God, first and foremost. But this begs the question that we are here to answer, why can we not serve both God and money?

Because, and to state it simply, they conflict with one another: Firstly, the object of their interests are different and, secondly, their commandments are starkly different.

a. Their interests are different:

1. God is interested in freeing us from the darkness; to free us from fear; to free us from corruption; to free us from the greed of ourselves, to the glory of the other we know through Christ. God is in the business of freeing us from the corruption of our self-interests and leading us to the in-corruption of the self-giving gift of eternal life in Christ.

2. John Stackhouse wrote, “There has never been a famine caused by a shortage of food.” There is plenty of food to go around and plenty of means of transportation to get he food to hungry mouths. Famine is caused by corrupt systems of sharing the food. Famine is caused by corrupt leaders, greed, jealously, pride, conflict and war.

The world, our nature, the desire of more money lures us to focus on the short horizon of pleasing ourselves for the mere object of pleasure, as we search for security and control. We want control, we want insurance that our material wealth will be preserved.

There is plenty to go around but we are not sharing as God has taught us to share.

Let me give you an example from my past experience in the Middle East.

- Bahrain

- immigrant workers from Pakistan, Bangaladesh and India

- One step from slave labour

- Atco trailer on the roof

- no air conditioning

- labour laws

- no one cares because they are without dignity

Main interest:

- Money

- secure source of oil

- economic self-interests to maintain a Western lifestyle of vanity and greed.

Every human being has dignity

It is a God given dignity.

b. The Commands are different

            1. God commands us to love Him, to love our neighbour as ourselves and in so doing, shine the great beacon of eternal hope in the world. To make present God among us. We are commanded not to be conformed to the world but to be conformed to Christ.

            2. This is a farce to the world. It is naïve in the eyes of the world to think that an all powerful God would be murdered on a cross as a common criminal muchless that God would actually walk among the muck of the world. Power in worldly terms uses the logic of coercion by means of money and weapons. The strongest win. 1 Cor 1:23 states, “For the Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness.”

But we know…darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can drive out darkness.

Christian power is humility; a humility we know through Jesus. Let us listen to Philippians 2 “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better then himself. Let each of you look out not for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

Christian power is in humility.

I would like to read to you the meditation I pray with on Friday’s and every day I am on retreat:

The goal of our lives is to live with God forever.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

God who loves us; gave us life and gave his life for us.

Our own response of love allows God’s life to flow into us without limit.

All things in the world are gifts from God.

As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God insofar as they help us develop into humble Christians, open to receive love and open to offer love.

But if any of these gifts become the centre of our lives, they displace God and will hinder our growth toward our goal.

In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance.

We should not fix our desires on health or sickness

Wealth or poverty

Success or failure

A long life or a short life

Because everything, wealth, poverty, success and failure has the potential of calling us into a deeper response to our relationship with God.

Our greatest desire and our choices should be this:

To be open to receive the love of God freely offered through Christ.

This is why the first commandement is to love God, because it is the first principle of freedom: The freedom to be open to receive love and to offer love; the freedom to be open to accept forgiveness and to offer forgiveness; the freedom to be served and to offer service; and the freedom to be in an intimate relationship and dialogue with the God.

We cannot serve God and manna.

I want you to know that if you are not experiencing this freedom; if something is holding you back, be it fear, pain, regret for past failures, know in your heart that you are loved by God and He is gracefully inviting you to a peace that surpasses all understanding. Accept the gift. Accept Christ. He knows your fears and your failures and is offering you life; life eternal.

Let not the worries of the world reign over you.

Let the peace of Christ reign over you. Come, just as you are.

Amen.