Hope Responders

Sermon on Holy Trinity Sunday, Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, Romans 5:1-5 and John 16:12-15

 

Are you hopeful? Think carefully – listen to your thoughts and your feelings. Look around. Are you hopeful? (pause)

 

When I was much younger I used to feel hopeful on many fronts. My hockey team won Stanley Cups. The church was often full. Our country had a pristine international reputation as Peace Keepers. Youth were quite idealistic. They cared about what happened around the world even taking part in public protests and peace marches. They certainly voted when given the opportunity. Many adults looked out for their neighbors, not only knowing not only their names but regularly laughed with them, ate with them, celebrated and even ached with them when the occasions called for it.  

 

To be sure there were many challenges in those days. The nuclear arms race raged. The clock seemed to be approaching midnight. Nevertheless,  as a young man in those days I often felt hopeful. Jobs were plentiful. In North America most people could buy a house in 25 years. There was even a feeling among some that as human beings we could eradicate poverty and disease. That felt hopeful

 

Now, over 40 years later I often feel less hopeful. Churches aren't full. Say what you want about that, I feel a deep disappointment attached to such reality. Do we realize what we are missing when so many others are not here or in any place of worship? Do those who are gone or who were never part of a worshiping community have any idea of what they are missing– a deep sense of belonging as you are, of praising God, of entering into deep questions, of weeping with those who weep and dancing with those who dance?

 

Regarding Canada, our reputation as a peacemaker, as a place for refugees, as a welcoming and caring place has been taking severe hits. On occasion I still experience our youth being idealistic, and caring. But ours is a time when almost anyone can observe suffering and pain from around the world nearly instantaneously. Such pain, such losses are significant and seemingly never ending. The bombardment of our senses – particularly our feelings of compassion and at times anomie, can feel overwhelming, Can anyone blame our youth or even ourselves for only or often plugging in to twitter, to our faves, to disconnecting from that which is right in front of us and around us?

 

But then some things happen to kindle fires within us. Just this week I arrived home from being away for only a day and discovered that someone had cut my lawn. I was nearly reduced to tears. Even 6 days later I am still am not sure exactly who was the Good Samaritan. It could have been my next door neighbor or a young friend entrusted to caring for the dog or...In any case when I first saw my grass cut – I was blown away. Someone else had not only thought about me, but had done something on my behalf.  I felt hopeful....

 

But then in the next day or two came the news also of the Oklahoma tornado, of  another suicide bomber blowing up a bus, of hatred beyond my understanding,  of Mikhail Lennikov's fourth anniversary of sanctuary at First Lutheran in Vancouver. Again  my feelings plummeted.

 

If ever anyone had reasons not to feel hopeful it had to be St. Paul. He had been investing his life in sharing the good news of Jesus' life, death and resurrection with all kinds of people. For all of Paul's efforts, sacrifices and "spiritual" experiences  he often had been shunned by other Christians, rejected by some of his closest friends and on numerous occasions been tossed into jail, and beaten. Surely he must have had his ups and downs. Nevertheless, here he is writing to a group of Christians in Rome, people he hadn't even met. What does he write to them about? Hope! . Listen, "We boast (rejoice, glory) in our hope of sharing the glory of God." Sounds like he's thinking about some grand and glorious day in the future when suffering, pain, chaos and mystery may all be things of the past.

 

But listen further: "And not only that, but we also boast (rejoice, exult) in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint (nor disgrace) us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that God has given us."

 

Has Paul lost it? Have all those beatings, imprisonments, rejections caused him to uncover or project an alternate personality?....  I don't think so.

 

What I do think, what I am now convinced of is that Paul has come to realize that hope is neither a feeling nor something that comes out of anything that we or any other human person can accomplish – as amazing or as wonderful as that may be.

 

Instead Paul has learned through his journey of following Jesus that hope comes from the reality that God is with us, that God is working to bring about a new reality always even in and through us. Indeed–nothing can separate us from this love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! This is hope that is real, here and now, neither a wish nor even a longing, but a gift, experienced now yet only increasingly revealed as we journey. Such hope is birthed and brought to fruition in and through the promise of this One who has suffered, died and been raised from the dead. He is with us and for us in all things. 

 

As Frederick Buechner says in his book Now and Then, A Memoir of Vocation – "Listen to your life. Listen to what happens to you because it is through what happens to you that God speaks. It's in language that's not always easy to decipher, but its' there powerfully, memorably, unforgettably."

 

I think my struggles in not sensing or feeling hope is not that God isn't working, isn't promising hope and new life. Instead I am sometimes sucked into the vortex of our age that we can help ourselves, that we have no need of assistance from God or anyone else – or worse yet that there isn't help available from God or anyone else. When I am there, when we are there, our darkness is deep. We desperately need the light, the very light of God that comes to dwell with us in Jesus the Christ and then sends His Spirit so that we can be guided into the truth – the truth that God loves us, that God can and does overcome death and suffering not by avoiding them, nor by denying them but rather by entering into them and leading us through them.

 

So look to the cross dear people and glimpse our Saviour working not only for the future but for here and now. He it is who leads us beyond ourselves to God and then back to ourselves and the world so that we can love as we are being loved, forgive as we are being forgiven and live with hope not as illusion or magic but in the God who dares to take on our frail flesh and die. It is in his suffering, death and resurrection that we are realized, captured by hope both for the future, but also in whatever grasps at us right now. Indeed God pours  His love into our hearts through the Holy spirit.

 

Hope then is never merely a feeling or an emotion – but life lived in response to the love and hope of God for us and for the entire world in Jesus Christ. May we so live, for Christ's sake. Amen.

 

 

Can't Get No Satisfaction?

The Day of Pentecost, May 19, 2013 (John 14:8-17, 25-27) with Acts 2:1-21 in b.g.

I speak to you only by the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord, through the Holy Spirit.

 

Sometimes its crunch time. Sometimes it's that time when we find out what really matters, what we truly believe in. Jesus has told the disciples that he soon must leave them. He will soon die. It is then Philip says to him, "Show us the Father and we will be satisfied!"

 

 

It's a monumental demand. Philip asks Jesus to somehow put God in a small enough "box" that he and the other disciples would then be able to "see" or comprehend God. Then they would be satisfied.

 

 

Ah yes, SATISFIED. Fill our stomachs and we will be satisfied (for a moment or two). Titillate our minds, tickle our curiousity and we will smile. Stroke our egos and for an instant we will feel good. Scratch our backs and like my chocolate lab we may utter a contented moan. But is satisfaction what we need? Is satisfaction what the world needs?

 

 

As we hear Jesus speaking in John's Gospel today, He has just told His disciples that He will soon leave them. He is going to suffer and be killed. The disciples are beside themselves. They are afraid, unsure of what to do. What will it be like without him? How will they be able to live. It is then that Philip makes this demand of Jesus: "SHOW US THE FATHER AND WE WILL BE SATISFIED!"

 

 

But Christ doesn't seem to be interested in such satisfaction. Rather Christ's intention (in John's Gospel) is for all to know God the Father, for all to somehow live in and from God the Father. To that end Christ promises that He will ask the Father. After Jesus has died the Father will then give the disciples the "Spirit of truth."

 

 

So we face this stark contrast. Philip wants to be satisfied. He wants this satisfaction, even gratification now! But Christ is about something very different. Christ wants Philip and all people to experience the very presence of God. From God being present they will begin to know God. There is a huge difference, a chasm greater than the regional disparities in Canada between these two realities of satisfaction/gratification and intimate knowledge.

 

 

My grandmother came to live with my father, my mother and me when I was 8 years old. Now my grandmother was old school. At her table each person was expected to take  something of everything. Once you had something on your plate, you ate it. In fact you remained at the table until everyone there had eaten everything on their plates.

 

 

Nor did my grandmother's stickiness relegate itself merely to the kitchen. She refused to tolerate sloppy grammar, lack of respect for others or lies. Truth telling was near the top of my grandmother's list of important things to be and do. Whenever I was dishonest or disrespectful I would experience her hand on my bottom.

 

 

She stretched me in other ways too. As I grew older she would quiz me about my understanding of world events. We would then engage in a sometimes heated dialogue.  In retrospect I suspect that her goal was to teach me to think clearly, to be able to express both my thoughts and feelings while providing logical support for them.

 

 

My grandmother loved me dearly. I could tell this both by what she said and what she did. Her words and actions usually hung together. I later figured out that much of her "stickiness" was for my own good.

 

 

When my grandmother died at the age of 96 I was 30 years old.  Despite her death so long ago, I continue to remember her. In some ways it is like she is still present. After all I am using her relationship with me as an illustration of a strong, ever-present love even now. She often refused to satisfy my whim. Nevertheless she most certainly loved me. I am partially who I am because of her strong, unfailing love for me and for this world.

 

 

Now Jesus didn't come to satisfy Philip or us with magic or even miracles. Nor does Jesus come to prove some philosophical truth, so that we might feel we know something that others don't. Rather Jesus comes to introduce us to, to enable us to trust and experience God. Just as Jesus promised his earliest followers – after His death they will be gifted with His Spirit, the very spirit of God.

 

 

Through the Spirit we experience God's calling in our lives. Jesus keeps His promise. He prays to God the Father that God's very Spirit will inhabit us, live within us and among us.

 

 

It is God's Spirit that has brought us to this place this morning. It is that Spirit that invites us again and again to "see" Jesus, to trust Christ, to dare to obey Him. It is that Holy Spirit that commands us to share Christ's dreams of justice and mercy for all: where all people will have adequate food, shelter, educational and health care opportunities. It is that Holy Spirit that causes us to examine our own lives in this regard. Are we doing what we can to advocate for, to help others? Could we, should we change some of the ways we live to better serve others? It is God's Holy Spirit that causes us to honestly turn to God for forgiveness when we fail. It is God's Holy Spirit that then enlivens us and sends out with new energy, hope and perseverance to be an active part of Christ's dream.

 

 

That's what Pentecost was. That's what Pentecost is – the very Spirit of God coming to so many different people and uniting them in service to and praise of God. These people are often far from satisfied, frequently confused, sometimes terrified, even often unable to imagine that God could work miracles in and through them. Nevertheless God does work in and through them!

 

 

May this Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of God, blow like a rushing wind on us and among us. It is God's Spirit that can move us beyond selfish demands for satisfaction to a different reality – a reality that is marked by a deep hunger to know and obey God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such obedience will serve the well being of all! Amen. 

Freedom Is Coming

Sermon for Mother's Day and Easter 7, May 12, 2013

(Acts 16:16-34 with John 17:20-26 in the b.g.)

 

I want to have us wrestle with 2 questions this morning. The first is "Do you, do we want freedom?" What do you think? Do we really have to wrestle with this? Of course we want freedom! Freedom is good. It's even part of our national anthem, 'TRUE NORTH STRONG AND FREE'.

 

I remember being 16 years old. Those of you who are older than 16, do you remember that experience? And those of you who may be younger than 16, do you look forward to being 16? When I was 16 I knew that I could "get" my license to drive. Then I would be free. I could go anywhere I wanted. I could take anyone with me that I wanted. And in some ways I did. But along the way I learned that freedom also entails responsibility. I gathered a few speeding tickets, had more than a few close encounters – and on occasion was spared and others were spared from my irresponsibility by ... the grace of God.

 

Freedom isn't exercised in a vacuum. Our freedom comes in relationship with others, with creation and with God. With freedom comes responsibility. So, are you sure you want freedom?

 

Paul was beginning to exercise a freedom that was beyond comprehension. He no longer was compelled to hate anyone – or even to prove anything to anyone. So, off Paul goes, hither, thither and yon, telling others about the Lord who encountered him on the road to Damascus. How, he Paul had been turned around. While on his way to Damascus to persecute some followers of the Way (i.e. followers of Jesus) he experienced a vision and everything changed. During the vision he was asked, "why he was persecuting Jesus?"

 

Now to make a long story short, Paul is attempting to tell others about Jesus realizing that the old boundaries he once felt were the bedrock of his existence were melting away in the love and forgiveness of this Jesus. He not only wants to tell, he is compelled to tell.  

 

But all is not rosy for him in this freedom. Some other Christians refuse to accept that non Jews could be welcomed by God without the earlier traditions. Many are not happy about the barriers literally falling around them. Today's first lesson is a case in point. A woman is following Paul and Silas on their way to prayer. She is loudly declaring that they are slaves of the Most High God who proclaim a way of salvation. Much of what she is yelling is absolutely true. They are slaves of the most high God, bound in Him and so freed to love others. They are proclaiming a way of salvation – the way in fact. But after a while this frequent yelling and being followed irritates Paul. Then he acts – casting whatever it is that has ensnared this young woman out of her. She stops screaming. But not everyone is rejoicing. As she stops screaming, discerning spirits, she also ceases making money for her owners. They are not impressed! They have been living off the avails of this woman's oppression. Now they, the "owners" of this woman are out to get Paul and Silas.

 

So, the opposition to Paul and Silas' freedom is real – and the freedom that they bring to others, including this woman. As a result Paul and Silas are beaten and thrown into jail,  into the innermost cell. It's far from pretty.

 

We next observe them at midnight. Are they lamenting their plight, complaining or cursing? NO. Instead they are praying and singing hymns. The other prisoners are enthralled. What kind of freedom is this – that when things look very bleak these 2 followers of Jesus are enabled to pray and sing. Are they deluded, out of touch with reality? No!

 

What happens next furthers their freedom and the freedom of all who would follow the Christ. They are miraculously delivered from being that temporary prison. If that had happened to us, we probably would have hightailed it out of there as quickly as possible. On occasion Paul needed to do just that. But not on this occasion. Paul and Silas remain in the jail.  They do so to prevent the jailer from committing suicide. The jailer's immediate future would have been one of extreme punishment, even death if his "prisoners" had escaped. As he comes to them they dialogue with him. Then he is moved to ask them – how can they have such freedom, such life? What must he do to be so delivered?  

 

This brings us to my second question – a two sided question: Do we want prayers? If so, do we pray? Once again the answers seem obvious. Of course we want prayers! Jesus commands us to pray. The early Christians were encouraged to pray without ceasing. Being enabled to speak with and listen to God, is one of the very greatest privileges, freedoms of life!

 

But know this. Prayer changes things! In fact prayer often first changes the one(s) praying. If you doubt me, observe the many occasions of Paul's prayers and Jesus' prayers.

 

It amazes me that Paul and Silas could pray for others that night and sing praises to God while they themselves were locked up in prison. I have heard similar stories about South African Christians who while imprisoned during the so-called reign of apartheid in South Africa continued to sing and even offer prayers for their jailers. How could any jailer remain hard hearted when he heard his so-called prisoners praying for his well being and the well being of his loved ones – or when he heard them singing joyfully while they were locked up? It just isn't logical or reasonable.

 

You see there is something else going on here. That something else is the activity of God – the One who brings freedom out of oppression, life out of death, hope out of despair. This God works to overcome barriers and knock down walls of imprisonment for all, so that all might be freed – freed to love and not hate, freed to trust and care instead of being filled with suspicion and apathy.

 

We are privileged to live in an amazing world in an incredible time. There are so many we know, who do not know the love of God in Jesus Christ, the incredible freedom he brings and the joyous responsibility to care and live by God's grace.

 

We are called through our baptism by the Holy Spirit to bear God's creative and redeeming word to the world – with our own unique personal and communal gifts. But we will not be strong enough to do this – unless by God's grace we act with the discipline that God gives us and all his  people from time immemorial – disciplines of song and prayer, of gathering together, of continually seeking God's guidance and help not just for ourselves, but for the world.

 

On this mother's day and in the coming days, let us not be afraid of freedom ever realizing that true freedom comes from God and is intended not just for us or even only for those like us, but for all people. Such freedom moves us to love, to give, and to forgive. May our prayers propel us beyond ourselves to at least a partial vision of God's hope and dream, the well being of the entire world, for Christ's sake. Now such living is freedom! Amen.