Yr B ~ Easter 5 ~ 1 John 4:7-21

We’ve talked about it before but it bears mentioning again – anytime we try to define God, or explain God, or seek to say anything about God at all we are instantly and necessarily babbling idiots. God is beyond any of our feeble-minded attempts at categorization or explanation. As soon as you think you’ve got a handle on God and start to believe that you understand God you’ve utterly failed. Any god you can understand is not a god worth having. And any person who claims to tell you what God is all about is a fool. And so I begin. And I’m euchred from the start.

But I can’t not talk about God – partly because that’s my job, but mostly because I’m alive! It’s a question that has fascinated humanity since the beginning.
What is God?
Well, let’s start with the basics. Is God animal, vegetable, or mineral? No, no, and no.
Is God solid, liquid, or gas? Nope, nope, and nope.
Is God discernible using any scientific method whatsoever? Negative!
Then doesn’t that mean God isn’t real? No, it just means that God is not discernible using any scientific method! You don’t use a thermometer to measure distance. It’s a useful tool, but fundamentally the wrong tool for certain jobs.

Christians have, from the beginning, made the claim that while we don’t understand God we ‘know’ God – intimately. Anyone who’s ever been partnered in a serious way knows that you can intimately know someone and never really understand them! And in our intimate interactions with this God we know we’ve come to express our sense of God in one succinct, powerful sentence – God Is Love. I’m going to prattle on for another 30 or 40 minutes here (j/k) but I’m never going to say anything better than God is Love – because that says it all.

God is love. That’s the answer to the ultimate question. God is love.
Author Douglas Adams in his Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books humorously suggested that the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything was 42. Well, that was the first answer – later we learned that 42 was actually the answer to ‘what do you get when you multiply six by nine?’ If you just did the math and realized that that doesn’t make 42 you’re right. His point was that life, the universe, and everything had no point. Adams was an atheist – a funny one, but still an atheist.

As much as I liked his books I disagree fundamentally with his premise. Life, the universe, and everything most definitely has a point, and that point is love. Every poet and artist and musician in history has understood that. Every person who looked into the eyes of their lover has understood that. And everyone who has ever marvelled at a sunset, been humbled by the power of the ocean tide, drawn a deep breath of fresh air, been the recipient of an act of generosity or kindness, had a friend, or has witnessed the miracle of birth and the relationship that a family has – everyone of those people has at least subconsciously intuited that life has a point, and that point is love.

Just because you can’t make a rational argument to support love doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Love is not rational, but it’s not irrational either. It’s transrational. It’s not without reason, it’s beyond reason. That’s why we say God is love – beyond reason (transrational) – only able to be known and experienced, and never understood.

Let’s look at 1 John 4:7-8 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love – so you can’t know God if you don’t love.

I’d argue that this doesn’t say that an atheist doesn’t love – what it says is that if they love then on some level they know ‘God.’ Whether their intellect allows them to name it as such is really irrelevant. Every atheist loves, but they don’t make the association that we would, that love and God are one. If you love, you know God on some level, for God is love.

Does it work the other way too? If God is love, is love God?
God is love. Yes! Sounds wonderfully spiritual.
Love is God. Love is God. Hmm.
I’m just going to let you think about that…for like, a year!

Sometimes it’s just language and metaphors that stop someone from acknowledging God’s love, yet language and metaphor are all we have to describe God. read on →

Yr B ~ Easter 4 ~ 1 John 3:16-24

Today we’re continuing our month-long look at 1^st John 3. The basic message of this morning’s reading is simple and clear: don’t just talk the talk – walk the walk!

You might think I’ll start by asking, “So why don’t we?” Well, most of the time I think we actually do! But I do think there are a couple of things that tend to trip us up, or knock us off course. The second verse of today’s reading challenges us to respond if we see someone in need.

1 John 3:17 If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.

It’s one of those scripture passages that means exactly what it appears to mean. And yet, right off the top there’s 3 things we should look at more closely. The first is that this passage – actually the whole letter – is focussed inward. It’s not a sermon challenging the listener to go into the world and show God’s love. Well, not directly. It’s actually talking about perceiving the needs of one’s fellow followers of Christ. Love, love, love means to love God, love others/neighbour, and to love one another. It’s the one another – fellow church folk – who this is aiming at.

So, when you see someone associated with this community of Faith in need, and you have the means to do something about it – you should. Obviously.
But what does it mean to be in need, and what does it mean to have the means to do something about it?

I think we need to define need. In need of what? If I say ‘someone is in need’ we probably tend to automatically think of a poor person, or someone who is hungry or homeless, or someone who doesn’t have work, or a person in a ‘third world’ country. We get an instant mental picture of what ‘someone in need’ looks like.  But surely that’s only one aspect of it.
Not every need is outwardly obvious.

So how do you know if someone is in need?
They’re breathing!
We’re all in need of all sorts of things.

What do people need? Money? Food? Housing? Safety? Absolutely.
We live in a comparatively affluent suburb, of a comparatively affluent region, in one of the comparatively most affluent countries in the world. There aren’t very many classically needy people in Clarington – and even fewer who are part of this community of faith. I’m not saying there aren’t people with serious tangible needs, there are! I’m just saying when you step outside the door of our church – or when you step inside (someday) – you aren’t met with a panorama of poverty, you’re looking at affluence.

What other things might we be in need of? read on →

Yr B ~ Easter 3 ~ 1 John 3:1-7

We’re going to be spending the season of Easter going through the love letter called 1^st John. It’s actually more of a sermon – now turned into a bunch of sermons! It’s meant to be an encouragement to a church that’s having a rough go and needs some love. I thought that resonated pretty strongly in this seemingly never-ending season of Covid-tide. Our reading today begins with a heartwarming affirmation.

1 John 3:1 “What marvellous love the Father has extended to us!”
Let’s just sit with that for a second. God has extended love to us. Extended here carries the sense of a gift. God has gifted us with love. We have love because God gives it. God’s gift is love. You can say it all sorts of different ways and each one sounds better than the previous one as it washes over us in wave after wave of blessing.

Richard Rohr says, “Clearly, you are participating in a Love that’s being given to you. You are not creating this. You are not generating this. It is being generated through you and in you and for you. You are participating in something larger than yourself, and you are just allowing it and trusting it for the pure gift that it is.”

The next words in the translation we’re using today are “Just look at it…”
It’s about awareness. God gives love – look at it – see it – notice it. Not sure how? Close your eyes and breathe deeply and feel it! (deep breath) Drink God’s love in. Let it fill you up. It really is marvellous! “What marvellous love God has given to us!” In fact, we’ve been extended so much love by the Holy Mystery that we name God that we get to be called children of God. We are children of God like a hippie is a child of the 60’s – utterly and completely infused by the source that shapes our being.

1 John 3:1-2 We’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. (all of us!)
But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who God is or what God’s up to.
But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning.

‘Children of God’ is such a rich image. We’re all children, we may not all be parents but we have all been children – at least once! The problem is that not all of us had warm, loving parents. Some people’s childhoods are horrific, or at least unhappy.

But unlike our imperfect human parents God’s parenthood is pure holiness – and all those qualities of a beautiful childhood that one hopes and wishes for are present in God’s parenthood. There is nurture, there is guidance, there is the requirement of obedience, there is comfort, and most of all there is unlimited, overflowing, unconditional love. (Well, I guess there is one condition – you have to accept it and embrace it. I can give you a winning lottery ticket but I can’t force you to cash it in. That’s how God’s love works too – you’ve gotta claim it!)

And here’s the awesome part – the scripture says that all that’s just the beginning. I mean, that’s pretty much enough – that we are unconditionally loved and nurtured by the Source of all Being is pretty spectacular – but verse 2 continues saying “And that’s just the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up!”

I love that the idea that we’re children of God is not the end point of our spiritual journey, but the beginning. Being God’s child is not our goal, it’s our birthright – our starting point – our foundation. And with that as our launching pad who knows where we’ll end up! The future is unwritten – your future is unwritten, it’s not predestined and pre-decided. God hasn’t planned your life out for you. God has planted Godself at the centre of your being, and is inviting you to embrace that and run with it – together – you and God – God in you.

Listen to all of verse 2 now: read on →

Yr B ~ Easter ~ John 20:1-18

We have just come through Holy Week! The week we church-folk ride an emotional roller coaster. This year we’ve moved through the story in John’s gospel. We went from the dinner party of Maundy Thursday that got ruined by a betrayal – then on Good Friday we went through an arrest – and a trial – and a brutal crucifixion – a state-sponsored execution. 

Then yesterday we had the silence of Saturday – and all seemed quiet, and lost. A hard time for us, to be sure – but imagine what it must’ve been like for those first followers of Jesus that first Holy Saturday. They didn’t have the luxury of knowing what you and I know.
I wish I could travel back in time and tell them, “Yeah, I know. This is the worst. It feels hopeless. But wait! There’s more! Sunday’s coming! Easter’s coming! Hallelujah! Yeah, I know – you don’t know what I mean. But you will. And it’s gonna knock your socks off!”

I have jokingly been saying lately, “Man, we need us some Easter this year!” No kidding.
But imagine how deeply they needed it back then! We’ve journeyed through the ups and downs of this Holy Week – perhaps more stressed and stretched than usual because of Covid, and lockdowns, and all that frustrating and challenging stuff. But we’ve made this journey always knowing that this Sunday’s coming – Easter’s coming! So perhaps it’s hard for us to grasp just how shocking and mind-blowing the events of that first Easter morning were.

Let’s look at the way the gospel of John tells the story.

Mary Magdalene arrives at dawn and finds the stone to Jesus’ tomb has been rolled away. She runs and tells the disciples, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

Her first reaction? Somebody stole Jesus’ body! Their minds must’ve been racing. What?!?! Why? Who?
But wait! There’s more!

Peter and ‘another disciple’ – not sure why they’re not named – maybe it’s because they ran faster than Peter and he didn’t like that (!) – anyway, they start running, and Buddy gets there first and looks in, but doesn’t go in. Peter catches up and enters the empty tomb, and stands there flabbergasted. The other disciple joins him. It says they “saw and believed, but didn’t understand.” Of course, it doesn’t say what they believed. And then they went home.

But wait! There’s more!

That’s not the end of the story. Left there it might still seem like body snatchers got Jesus. Confused and mystified the disciples head for home – thinking the worst, no doubt.
Don’t you wish you could tell them not to leave so quickly?
Don’t you wish they had stuck around, like Mary did?

Weeping, Mary peers into the tomb and sees two angels dressed in white, sitting at either end of the place where Jesus had been lying. You know, ‘cuz the day hadn’t been weird enough! Then the angels spoke to her, and asked her why she was crying. She replies – because what else would you do when you’re chatting up angels – “They’ve taken Jesus and I don’t know where he is.” She’s locked in on this idea that his body has been stolen.
The angels don’t answer her – so she turns to go home. Story over.

But wait! There’s more! read on →

Yr B ~ Palm ~ John 12:12-16

If you’re a regular church-attender you’ve heard the story a thousand times. Jesus and his disciples ‘triumphantly’ enter Jerusalem amid waving palms, and cheering crowds, in an attention grabbing parade.
Maybe.
Oh, I’m not doubting the entry, or the donkey, or even the palms (or branches, or coats – depending on the gospel – each witness remembers things in their own way). This year we get the version found in John 12:12-16. But I don’t want to go diving into the details of it this year, and compare and contrast the different versions. That’s interesting and all, but this year I’m more captivated by the context – what’s going on in and around the story.

Sure, Jesus and the gang entered the Jerusalem gates to attend the humongous Jewish festival called Passover…right alongside tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of other pilgrims! That’s the bit the leapt out at me this time. Maybe it’s because we’re so sensitized to the idea of avoiding large crowds in these days of pandemic social distancing. If you watch any of the movies or documentaries that include a Palm Sunday entry you’ll always see it portrayed as Jesus and the disciples strolling into the city – pretty much alone on road. Eventually curious onlookers gather, and some get caught up in the excitement of a parade and either stand and watch or join in. There’s lots of great theology up for grabs in all of that.

The thing is that Passover was such a massive event that the city would have swelled with probably hundreds of thousands of pilgrims attending. That explains why the Romans, and the Jewish religious leaders, viewed it as such a powder keg. I mean, you can’t cram that many religiously fervent people into a hostile situation like a military occupied city and not expect some trouble to bubble up.
Well guess what? All those people had to arrive at the city at just about the same time – so that roadway leading into Jerusalem would’ve been teeming with pilgrims.

Jesus was not alone and making a solo, dramatic entry at the Jerusalem gates. There would’ve been a sea of humanity with him. Yes, there was a donkey, and in John’s version some palm waving – so they would’ve been noticeable, and probably drew some interest – but, well, let’s just say it probably wasn’t like the movies.

It says in John 12:12 that people had heard that Jesus was coming. So, he had a reputation. Word of mouth was the only way to hear about stuff – no internet, no email, no television news – so if folks had heard about him it was because he was making waves. But it also says in verse 16 that in the moment the disciples didn’t really think this day was such a big deal.

His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.
I love that! In the moment, they didn’t get it. It was only later, when they looked back and ‘remembered’ that they realized there was something special going on. I take that to mean that that day it wasn’t necessarily all that big of a spectacle in their minds.

So what’s the story here if Jesus wasn’t a spectacle, but was just one small group among thousands and thousands and thousands? Well, you’ve got to read around the edges of the story. There you’ll find a large group of very committed and convicted disciples moving through the throngs of people – sharing the alternative wisdom of Jesus.

This is really surprising. Not that Jesus’ disciples were convicted, but that this whole story is so low key in John’s telling. The gospel of John is known for being all about signs and wonders. John wants to dazzle you and wow you with amazing things from Jesus – and yet tells the story of the Jerusalem entry in a remarkably subdued way. If there’s no sign or wonder what are we supposed to notice? I think we’re supposed to notice what the disciples are doing – moving through the throng – talking to people. Gee, what do you suppose they’re saying to the people? Probably telling them stories of signs and wonders! And, no doubt, sharing their experience of the Way of Jesus – the alternative wisdom of Jesus.

Ok, I’ve used that term a couple of times now. Let’s look at it. read on →

Yr B ~ Lent 5 ~ Jeremiah 31:31-34

There are only four verses in today’s scripture reading but within those four verses are four distinct movements that describe how our relationship with God works. We have the promise, the problem, the placement, and the payoff.

What’s the promise? Jeremiah 31:31 “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant (a new sacred relationship) with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” The days are coming – which means they may not be here yet – which means that the writer is saying that we’re living in in-between times. I think we feel that way a lot. Especially in this long pandemic season. But while we have to wait for vaccines and whatnot to get through Covid-tide, we don’t have to wait for God’s promise.

What’s the promise? A new covenant – a new sacred relationship.
And what’s the problem? Why do we need a new covenant?
Um, how about because we keep breaking the old ones?!
Jeremiah 31:32 “It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt–a covenant that they broke, though I was their (spouse), says the LORD.”

That’s a really interesting verse. It references the various covenants that the people of Israel have broken over the years. And the metaphor of God being our spouse is fascinating. It’s like saying that we’re married to God and God stayed faithful to us but we cheated on God by making love to other deities – like the deity called materialism, and the deity called consumerism, and the deity called greed, and the deity called self-interest, and the deity called privilege, and the deity called white supremacy, and, and, and. So God keeps God’s end of these bargains, and we keep screwing up our end of them, and yet God keeps trying. Thank God!

The promise is a new covenant.
The problem is that we keep breaking the old ones.
So what will be different this time? The placement and the payoff!
But before we get to that we need to consider something about God’s character.

One of the things I really love about this scripture passage from Jeremiah is that it helps to put the lie to the idea that the God of the Hebrew Scriptures is an angry, vengeful, distant God and the God of the Christian Scriptures is a loving, compassionate, personal God. As you’ve heard me say before, there is only one God. The difference isn’t that God changed but that the people writing about their experience of God evolved.

What we have in passages like this is not an evolution of God. That’s important to get. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. God is a universal constant, and that constant is love and holiness. What evolved here is how humans understood God. In the beginning God was out there – powerful like nature, and weather, and stars because those things are so far beyond us and mysterious. But as humans grew in knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and experience we evolved, including our spirituality. We began to realize that God isn’t just out there, God is also in here. That’s what this passage in Jeremiah is wrestling with.

Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law (my Way) within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

This is why ‘written on our hearts’ is such a great image – why the placement of this covenant love is so crucial. Compare the idea of being ‘written on our hearts’ to where the law was originally written – externally – on tablets of stone, even. What’s the difference?  read on →

Yr B ~ Lent 4 ~ Numbers 21:4-9

Ok, let’s say it right from the start. The scripture reading this week is horrific! I mean it’s awful. It’s in a book we almost never look at: Numbers 21:4-9 – and it’s all about snakes. Except it isn’t.

It’s a story that never happened – and it’s a story that ALWAYS happens! In fact, it’s happening right now! (No, not the snakes part. Well, kinda.) Once again we’re bitten (pardon the pun) by our tendency to read the bible as some sort of objective, historical record that takes the place of a documentary video camera. So when we come across stories like this – where the people whine and complain about God so God seemingly sends poisonous snakes to punish them, and then when they convince Moses to intervene Moses comes up with a magic trick that miraculously cures them – well, what do you do with it? You say to yourself – “Hey, wait a minute. That doesn’t sound like God at all. God is Love. And faith isn’t magic. The story must mean something other than it appears.”

And you’d be right. Truth is, it’s a great story!
And by the end of my sermon I’m going to make you love it! (I hope.)

Let’s start with some context. Numbers is the fourth book in the Hebrew Scriptures (or Old Testament). It comes right after Leviticus, which follows Exodus. This is the story that shapes the identity of the people of Israel. They escape slavery and servitude under Pharaoh and find themselves wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. Numbers continues to tell that story. I’m not sure exactly when this is supposed to have taken place but it seems to be describing a time near the end of those 40 years of wilderness wandering.

I hope you remember that in the bible the wilderness is usually a metaphor for a time of transformation. That’s certainly the case here – being transformed from Pharaoh’s slaves to God’s children (which, of course, they always were – but they didn’t really understand themselves to be so).
40 years in the desert. A generation is generally said to be 20 years so we’re talking about 2 generations worth of time. Folks back then didn’t live as long lives as we do now – so the harsh reality is that many of the people who escaped from Egypt would die before they reached the Promised Land. And that includes Moses, by the way. The people who arrive in the Promised Land will be a whole new people! That’s a great image – unless you’re one of the old people!

The book of Numbers was written down during the Babylonian Exile – when the people of Israel once again found themselves oppressed and displaced. So this snake story is actually most likely referring to the Exiles and their situation, and calls back to their archetypal identity story for inspiration and guidance. From the beginning this was a teaching story to help people in trouble.

Do you love it yet? Ok, I’ll keep trying.

In the story God’s people are frustrated and complaining about the horrible and seemingly hopeless situation they’re in. They’ve been in the wilderness for generations, and people are dying. The snakes in the story are ‘time’. Time is what’s biting them, and killing them. They take their exasperated grievances to their religious leaders, who do their best to pray about a way forward – a way through the hardship. Moses fashions a symbol to give the people something to focus on – to remind them that if they keep their eyes and hearts on God that they will get through the calamity. It’s not magic – it’s steadfastness. Faithfulness. Trust.

It’s important to notice that the ‘snakes’ don’t actually stop biting them.
You can’t stop time.
But they get through it all because of their great faith and steadfastness.

Whether it’s about the Exodus crew in the wilderness, or the Exile gang in a foreign land, the message is the same. “Yes, things are not great – but God is with you. God loves you.” It never says that God directly sends the snakes, but it does say that the people understand their trouble to be caused by their mistakes, their ‘sin’. So God offers God’s Loving Presence in the midst of their trouble – because God remembers God’s covenant love – that God is their God and they are God’s people – and if the people can stay focused on that truth they will find their way through. In the story Moses makes God’s Presence tangible. Time still marches on, people will still die of old age and illness, but the people KNOW they are not alone. We are not alone.

Do you love it yet? Closer? How about this?

I said at the start that this story never happened but that it always happens, and that it’s happening now. Let me explain.
Consider the North American mainline church in the early 21^st century. Us. A couple of generations ago we were flying high – millions of members, new buildings springing up everywhere, full churches with hordes of kids, and a societal expectation that church was a good thing and you really should go. I’m not saying folks were more faithful or more spiritual back then – I’m just saying there were lots more folks!

Fast forward to today. The snakes of time are biting us again. Our denomination went from a few million to a couple hundred thousand. We’re closing about one church every 10 days or so. Churches are for sale everywhere. Empty churches teeter on the edge of survival, with no kids, and no societal expectations. In fact, there’s a general societal prejudice that churches are irrelevant, or at best quaint.

And what is the reaction of God’s people? read on →