What we choose….

Isaiah 7: 3-10 and Matthew 1:18-25

19 December 2010

King Ahaz was a weak leader for the early Jewish people of Judah, a key person in our Isaiah reading.  He lived some 700 years before Jesus was born.   Instead of living in confidence of God, he continually fell into his fears, making one rotten choice after another.   He stole from the temple, taking the offerings and the precious metals that decorated the building.      He followed the sex cults of the time and even sacrificed his own son through some strange process of passing him through fire.  These were not God’s ways of goodness.   

When two countries on Judah’s borders threaten invasion, the young king becomes even more anxious.     So God tells the Prophet Isaiah to go see King Ahaz.  God says: ‘Tell the King to be calm, do not fear, do not be faint of heart.  These two countries really don’t have much power and the threat will dwindle away.’ (Isaiah 7:4)

God suggests that King Ahaz ask God to provide a sign.  But the King ‘wimps out’.    He’s not going to ask God for that.  Here is God offering him a wonderful gift, and the King turns him down.  God gets incredibly exasperated but is gracious enough to still give a sign.      God says that a young woman will have a son.  The son will be called Immanuel  -- God-with-us – and that by the time the child is weaned and is old enough to know right from wrong, the threat of these two nations will fall away.  

 And of course, God is right.  In a few short years, the two kingdoms no longer exist and Judah remains standing.    

Fast forward a couple of centuries.    This passage that was first written down in Hebrew gets translated into Greek and the translator writes down that a “virgin” rather than a “young woman” bears a son who is called “Emmanuel” – God-with-us.  And this is the translation that Matthew uses and here the Virgin Mary tradition that our Isaiah reading is a prediction of Jesus’ arrival.

Two passages – one is 2700 years old and the other, our Matthew reading about Joseph, 2000 years old.  Both are about men who receive visits from representatives from God.    For the King it is the Prophet Isaiah, for Joseph it is an angel in a dream.  Both are told by God:  “Don’t be afraid.”  ‘I am with you.   I am promising goodness to you.’  One refuses to listen, the other, Joseph chooses to follow the dream.  Joseph is a wonderful dreamer and King Ahaz such a totally sad opposite.

When I look at King Ahaz’s refusal to ask for a sign from God, it reminds me of something. 

Have you ever asked someone, ‘What would you like for Christmas?’  And the response you get is:  ‘Oh, I don’t know.  You decide dear.  Really, I don’t need anything.’ 

You know full well you’re not going to ask them a more fuller question like:  What is it that your heart desires from life?  Where do you think God is calling you?  Because if they can’t even reflect back to you that a new pair of warm pyjamas for Christmas would be helpful, chances are they aren’t willing to reflect deeper on the meaning of their life.  

God is asking King Ahaz to go deeper and higher:   “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”  And the King won’t do it.  He won’t go deeper or higher.  But he will empty the coffers of the temple!  He is a very shallow man.

By total contrast, Joseph and Mary say ‘yes’ to God. 

Mike, Shauna and Gabriel, Advent 2009

  We have here “the coming together of God’s ‘yes’ with our ‘yes’.  More spiritual or mystical traditions of Christianity call this ‘Holy desire.’  It is “a launching pad of a transfigured and highly creative life.”   (From Seasons of the Spirit Curriculum, Dec. 19, 2010)

If we reflect deep enough or high enough, our deepest desires match God’s.   Sure for Joseph having the wealth of King Ahaz would be nice, but for him his heart-felt desire was for a better life and well-being for his people.  He knew God was calling him to raise a child who would lead this to come about.

  

  Mary and Joseph made a choice for God.  It was one that matched their heart-felt desires and it was one that changed them.  I finish today with a poem by Jan Richardson:

A Prayer for Choosing

What we choose
changes us.

Who we love
transforms us.

How we create
remakes us.

Where we live
reshapes us.

So in all our choosing,
O God, make us wise;

in all our loving,
O Christ, make us bold;

in all our creating,
O Spirit, give us courage;

in all our living
may we become whole.

from In Wisdom's Path: Discovering the Sacred in Every Season © Jan L. Richardson.  (www.adventdoor.com)

Annual Christmas Pageant with a Twist

Angels Sandra, Christine and Karla

This past Sunday our annual Christmas pageant took a different twist -- a longer Christmas play.  Thank you to Rebecca for choosing the play and for our actors who brought the script to life.  It's about a busy Dad named Frank, who along with his wayward siblings, discovers the importance of family and some of the meaning of Christmas.

Megan, as Frank's sister, gives her excuse for not showing up for Christmas Dinner to Gram (Rebecca) and Pop  (John)

Frank (Allan) and Frank's son, Joey (Lena) and yours truly, as Carl, the wayward brother.  (The photo does not show clearly the brown moustache that was carefully placed on my upper lip and took forever to get off!)

A full angel chorus of all ages visits Frank during what turns out to be a very unrestful nap.

Frank and the Angels

Grams (centre) hopes her adult children will see reason and show up for Christmas Dinner.  And, indeed they all do, with a renewed perspective on Faith and Life.  Thanks also to Carla, who played Frank's wife and Joey's Mom and to Joan, on piano, Joel as announcer and Shawn on camera!

Make a Straight Path

Matthew 3:1-13 and John 11:1-48

 from December 5, 2010

            We have a new puppy in our house.   She’s cute as a button and proving herself much smarter than me.  No matter the barricade we’ve made to keep her on the linoleum in the kitchen, she’s found a way to escape.  With her little nose and using every muscle in her little, four-pound body, she’s found a way around, to pull herself above  so she has a clear path to freedom.

            She shows extreme determination, she is very focused and intent.  She is on a mission and nothing is going to stop her.  She is clearing a path to freedom.

            John the Baptist comes out of the wilderness preaching. He’s telling the people to clear a path to freedom in their lives.     

Wilderness Canadian Style!

John the Baptist is telling the people to set aside the heaviness of the past.  Prepare the way for the Messiah.  The anointed One.    God’s Kingdom of Heaven is coming.

 God’s Reign is coming.

But we read this passage with Resurrection eyes.  As people who have experienced Christ’s ministry, death and resurrection.    Because for us, God’s reign is here!

Christ did come.  Christ taught.  Christ rose to new life.  Death could not defeat him.    Christ lives!  The Spirit of Christ is with us, among us. 

We know God’s reign is here!!  But…are we connected enough to God to see God’s Glory and allow ourselves to experience God’s glory.  Are we still on that clear path that John the Baptist came out of the Wilderness, preaching out, as intent as a little puppy seeking freedom.  Are we on a clear path that connects us with God, upon where we are always aware of God’s Glory?

            What can be roadblocks for us on our path To God or prevent us from even getting on the path, are doubts and fears.

              A young woman wanted to be a nurse.  All through her childhood and teenage  years this was what she desired.  But her father told her she wasn’t smart enough.

She was  likely smart enough to become a good nurse.  But somewhere along the way, she believed her father’s negative voice  that became her inner voice.  When she hit a hard time, those negative voices came back to her and she gave into them.  She dropped out of nursing school.   

God gives to each of us a purpose, an intention.   God multi-gifts each of us.  God wants only goodness for us and to flourish.  If we keep our eyes on God’s glory and God’s desires for goodness for us, we’ll get there.

            We’re going to look at a Scripture story where Jesus remains focused on God’s purpose of glory for him.

Shauna’s going to come up again to read the story of Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead in John’s Gospel.   It’s the passage that our study group looked at on Tues. night.      

Jesus is on this positive, up-beat, full-of-hope mission to raise Lazarus from the dead.  He sees God’s glory and wants others to experience that.    But along the way, along this path towards resurrection, he’s stopped by voices of doubt. 

As Shauna reads, look for who those voices of doubt are.

John 11:1-44

           

In Verse 9, what image does Jesus use that he is choosing to stay in God and not in doubt?

 (“Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world.”)

 Who are the Voices of doubt?

-       Martha and Mary.

-       Thomas in v. 16.  Delightfully, sarcastic.  Doubting Thomas.  Disciples say to Jesus earlier – do you really want to go to Judea – this is where people have threatened to stone you.   And Jesus gives them a response – that he’s going to choose to walk in the light of God, not the darkness of fear.  Thomas’ doesn’t really hear him….says sarcastic, joking way….OK, let’s all go so we can get killed.

We can have voices of doubt and fear in our life.   Sometimes they come from within, sometimes they come from outside of us.   Fearful voices that only speak of doubt and impending doom.   

As we studied John 11 last Tuesday night.  People noticed that any time there was a doubting voice. – there was a pause in the story.  Jesus had to stop.  Reflect.

Happens to us, too, doesn’t it?

I love Jesus’ response to Martha in verse 40:  “if you believe, you will see God’s Glory.”   So apt.  We need to hold on to belief and in that, we will continue to see God’s glory upon glory.   We can do that because God’s Kingdom is at hand, as Jesus came to tell us.  We need eyes to see it.

And then the most beautiful thing happens at the end:  Jesus says a prayer.  And as our Tuesday night group has been studying, it’s a prayer to make manifest.  Jesus prays by thanking God for already having caused Lazarus to rise from the dead.  “Father, I thank you for having heard me.  I know that you always hear me.

Jesus was on an intentional, up-beat mission to witness to God’s Glory and no voice of doubt was going to deter him from his intention.

But going back to John the Baptist, he’s saying:  God’s reign is coming.  And these people went down to the river to be baptized and chose to believe.  If any one had reason to fall into gloom and doom and doubt and not believe, they did.

The average life span in Christ’s time was 20 to 25 years of age.  They had to marry at age 13 or 14 to make sure they had children to carry on.    Most children didn’t make it past infancy.   

Wow, how things have changed.  Average life span in Canada  is 81 years of age

Things have really changed.  We can say that The Reign of God is here and God’s Reign is coming again.   We see God’s Glory.  If things have got this good , then of course, they can get better.  We need to believe that.  

If you believe, Jesus says to Martha, Jesus says to us  “You will see God’s Glory.”

We know there is doubt and fear out there.  We need to deal with that fear within us and outside of us and hold on to God’s glory.  We’ve got to that 81 average years of living because many people and many generations believed that good health was possible, well-being was possible and that there is enough for all. 

More than a week ago we went through an incident where a public official leading an administration bent on austerity in our health system managed to get himself a ¾ of a million dollar payout over a cookie.  

Doubters and fear mongers will tell us there is not enough for all.  Not enough to go around.  But God tells us, Christ tells us to keep our eyes on God’s glory.   There is abundance, there is enough for all. 

Our life is so very bountiful compared to those people who gathered with John the Baptist at the river.  They believed in the coming of God’s Kingdom.  They believed life would get better and better.  And they were right.  So may we believe…

Most wonderful time of the year

So....at times I've thought those Andy Williams' lyrics "It's the most wonderful time of the year, " was rather sappy but I certainly was humming them Monday and Tuesday night.
Truly, one of my most favouite times of the year, is the Oilfields Food Bank Food Drive.  The Volunteer Fire fighters along with the Scouts, Cubs, Guides, Brownies and Sparks head out into our local communities, always the third week of November.  At the end of the evening, all the big vehicles with flashing lights end up at our Church.  Then a line up of adults and children move the food into the basement.    In spite of snow, freezing cold, there were big smiles on children and adults all working together to help others.
   What I also value is the flexibility that all church and partners show in making space for the food hampers to happen.
Thank you all!!

May we be life to one another

             As our American brothers and sisters celebrate Thanksgiving, I wanted to share this experience with you:

      The other night, our five-year-old insisted we thank God for our chicken.  Saying thank you is part of our meal ritual, but the meal on the table was particularly significant to us.

     We enjoyed them all summer, watched them grow from day-old chicks to full grown clucking hens and crowing roosters.    It’s been a good experience for us all to be closer to the food chain, including the day a few weeks ago when we transitioned the chickens from the coop to the freezer.  There were eight households involved.     The adults worked outside while the children were cared for inside the house.  But later some came out and joined us.  This is the cycle of life and any trepidation they had slipped away.  One older boy started to goof around with a chicken’s neck.  His Dad said to him that while it was OK to play, he needed to be careful not to cross the line.  “We show respect for what we harvest.”

“We show respect for what we harvest.’  Wise words.  Ones that were reflected through that day, through our summer caring for the chickens ensuring they had good food and  quality of life (we’ll always remember their leaping in to the air when let out of the pen) and through this winter as they in turn feed us.   

A Thanksgiving Grace

 God, you who gave bread

to Moses and his people

while they travelled in the desert,

come now and bless these gifts of food

which you have given to us.

As this food gives up its life for us,

May we follow that pattern of self surrender.

May we be life to one another.  Amen.

---   by Edward Hays from Prayers for the Domestic church

Living Divinely

Colossians 1:11-20

21 Nov. 2010

         Rick was a big, burly kind of guy in the Southern U.S. who drove a cross-country truck, chewed tobacco, and hit home runs on the softball team. However, he rarely made it to church services.  But some friends told Rick they needed his help putting on a play at church for Vacation Bible School.

             At first, Rick declined saying, "That's just not my bag." However, after some arm twisting, he reluctantly agreed.  Rick was to play Jesus.  

            The first time Mary Hollingsworth saw Rick in his Jesus costume, she almost laughed   because it seemed so out of character for him.   Hollingsworth wrote the play and wrote down this story in her book, Fireside Stories.   However, he appeared to take his job quite seriously; so she contained herself and congratulated him on his unusual interpretation of the role.

              When Vacation Bible School week arrived, Rick played his role to the hilt, yelling in his Southern accent at the money-changers to "Git outta here! . . .You cain't turn my Father's house inta a den a'thieves, ya hear? So, jist git out, and don't chew come back . . . evah!" Then he proceeded to destroy the temple by throwing over the tables of the moneychangers (he actually enjoyed this part) and tossing the crooks out into the street. It was more like a TV cop show than a Bible story . . . but the kids got the point.

            "As planned, twice every night for four nights Rick donned his Jesus suit and cleansed the temple of insincere people. And the children loved it! They voted this story to be one of the best of the whole week.

             "The best part of the story, though, came after Vacation Bible School. Somehow, acting like Jesus …. had a lasting effect on Rick. He began coming to the church services a little more often, coming to the midweek Bible study and staying for fellowship events. But the most powerful impact on him came from the young children…who, for weeks and months after, would point at Rick and whisper, "Look! There's Jesus!"

           Before long, the big, burly truck driver was giving up chewing tobacco, drinking beer less and attending church more.  “He and his wife began team teaching Sunday School classes and leading teens on mission trips…. And, after a few years, he was chosen as a deacon (elder). In short he stopped ACTING like Jesus and began LIVING like Jesus."  

(Mary Hollingsworth, Fireside Stories, Word Publishing 2000, pp. 162-164)

                    This last Sunday before Advent used to be called Christ the King Sunday.  It’s now called “Reign of Christ.  The whole day came about when people in the 1920s, thought the world was becoming too secularized and we needed to remember that   that God incarnate in Jesus Christ rules over us, not with might, but with justice and love.   

               And that’s what Rick discovered in this story.  God’s in charge and he wanted to live his life emulating Christ.

              When I read Rick’s story, it reminded me of Harry in a community where I used to live.    It was Palm Sunday and we decided to do in Church the play that the Curriculum laid out for us.  We asked one man to play Jesus.  He accepted and took the part quite seriously.  In one of the scenes, he dragged a heavy cross up the middle aisle, acting like Christ enroute to be crucified – beaten, hungry, downtrodden.  

              For some of us watching, that scene was particularly moving.  Because we knew that Harry understood what it was to be beaten down by life.  He and his wife worked hard but they’d lost their farm.  He battled depression.   Now, they both worked with seniors and they did their work with efficiency and laughter.  They lived resurrection.  They had walked a long, heavy road, still stayed together and knew new life and possibilities.

             Rick and Harry’s God is not one who lives in a beautiful castle on the highest hill.  Their God is one who walks among us.  Rick’s God is one who legitimately gets angry at the greed he sees in the market place.  Rick’s God expects and demands a just world for all people.  Harry’s God has walked with him during financial loss and despair.  His God has led him back to renewed prosperity and fullness of life.  He knows the experience of going from Good Friday’s devastation to Easter Sunday’s joy and celebration.

             The author of Colossians writes:  “May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled  us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.  He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”  (Col. 1:11-15)

Angels Among us Tea - Nov. 20, 2010

              Jesus is the first born of Creation.  And we are part of that beautiful creation. 

            We are each beautifully created by God.    We are to value the divine in our selves.  Christ being raised from the dead, giving us the Holy Spirit.  Christ is in each one of us.  The Holy Spirit is in each one of us.  We value the Divine in ourselves and we open our eyes to see the Divine in each other.

         We look at each other with Christ’s eyes and see Christ in each one we encounter.

            In our following Wayne Dyer’s The Power of Intention on Tuesday nights, he says what gets in the way of our living connected to our God is that “People go through life looking to be offended.”

             Now, there’s a part of the story about Harry acting the part of Jesus that I still need to tell.  Harry thought very carefully how he could look the part of Jesus as he carried the cross down the aisle.  He had red marks painted on his bare back to symbolize the beatings and he’d seen  depictions of Jesus on the cross in loin cloths.  Harry’s a former Prairie farmer and he’s going to be respectable to himself and others.  He finds a very large white sheet and wraps it around himself so his belly button is covered and the cloth reaches down to his knees.

             A few days later a woman in the congregation spoke to me.  She said she didn’t want  any more intergenerational services and dramas, especially ones where Harry comes down the aisle wearing a big diaper.  It was embarrassing.

             Now the woman entirely missed the personal significance in the enacting of the story of Jesus’ walking to Calvary.    She missed how playing Jesus was important to Harry and though she knew Harry’s history as much as anyone else in the area, she hadn’t seen the connection between Harry’s story and our common story in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

           The woman was a wonderful leader in the community and church.  She just fell into a trap that so many of us fall into and I’m no saint in this either.  We go through life looking for something to offend us and, of course, we’re going to find something to annoy us or irritate us.

         But instead, Christ really wants us to look at ourselves and each other as the beautiful creations of God we are.  We are each divine, carry Christ in us.  And we look for the Christ in each other.  

           When we recognize our own blessedness and see the blessedness in those we encounter, suddenly our world is more beautiful and much larger.  It is much more full of abundant goodness.

             God’s in charge.  Christ’s in charge.  We have a loving, caring God who wants only goodness for us and that we want that goodness for others.

Roses from heaven: Words at a Baby's Baptism

Psalm 145

Sermon from 7 November 2010

            A few years ago, Kaylan’s Great Grandma Irene gave me this rose angel at Christmas.  Irene was at the Lodge in Black Diamond.  She waited until I finished the service and then had this rose ornament wrapped in tissue and in a pretty gift bag.  Her daughter, Laurel, made the ornament.  Laurel is Kaylan’s grandma who died a few months before he was born.  Irene died last December.    When Laurel made this ornament, she was in between cancer treatments.

 There’s a tradition that’s developed around roses and a woman saint from the 19^th century.  It is said that anytime you see roses, St. Teresa of Liseaux is up in heaven showering you with prayers and love.  Apparently before her death in 1896 from tuberculosis she said:  “After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses.  I will spend my heaven in doing good upon earth.”

  Years ago, a lay pastoral assistant at a Catholic Church in a community where I worked, told me about this wonderful tradition about St Teresa:  When we see roses, some wonderful caring, loving woman up in heaven who we never met is showering us with love and praying to God on our behalf. 

I’d like to think today that two wonderful, caring women, Laurel and Irene, are up in heaven and showering us with love and praying to God on our behalf.

Showering us with love.  Sounds a lot like “grace” -- God’s unconditional love for us.  And that’s what baptism is all about.  God’s love pouring out for us.  We use water in the baptism act because water itself is life-giving.  An outward symbol of the continuous love that God gives to us.

 As I go about my week as minister of this church, I find much to give thanks to God—it seems every day there are little miracles happening around us:  Someone getting through surgery well, repairs done to the front stairs, a new volunteer for one of our outreach programs, excitement about the study we’re starting, people responding to what they’ve read on the minister’s blog, wonderful stories our men told in the men’s breakfast yesterday, knowing I’d see Kaylan’s family again today….a lot of many things that for me, add up to much to be thankful for.

Our Scripture reading is all about excitement that God is in the every day and in each moment.

 “All living things look hopefully to you,
      and you give them food when they need it.
                   You give them enough
      and satisfy the needs of all.” (Psalm 145:15-16)

God’s grace – always pouring out for us – if we have eyes to see it. 

I found some wonderful words on baptism this week “After baptism, our entire life becomes the overflow of those baptismal waters, which is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”  Out of the grace of God’s love, flow our lives and we live in the abundance of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.   “Baptism is how we link our lives to the life of Jesus. We bind our lives to his. And we commit to a way of life that gives life—that shines new life, that multiplies life, like Jesus did.”

          Martin Luther said during the 16^th century reformation, “all of Life is Baptism.    All of life is baptism. We are always being submerged in darkness and chaos, the stuff of life that causes despair, but we are always reborn into new life through it all. All of life is baptism. It means that every painful moment that seems like a little death in our lives is also the moment of the outpouring of new life, the overflow of Jesus’ baptismal waters, the movement of the Holy Spirit. All of life is baptism means that God is always creating new possibilities out of the stuff that seems like a dead end. That is the way of our baptism. We are always on the verge of new life, no matter what kind of trouble we’re in.” (“Fully Alive,” by Isaac Villegas, www.rustyparts.com)

 

St. Teresa of Liseaux was not at all famous when she was alive.  She was a nun who lived   a relatively normal life.   It was her spiritual writings that were published after she died that made her famous.  And she was simply writing about finding God in the day to day but it was the simplicity that people desired and made her writings so popular.   Her way to God was simply about grace that she called “the little way.”    She was a determined young woman, fighting her father at age 15 to let her fulfil her heart-felt desire to a nun.        She suffered many years with tuberculosis.  During the painful times, she knew despair and pain – yet what shines through in her writings is the strength and goodness she constantly found in God’s love.    She continued to see the grace and that’s what she held on to and what gave her strength.  (from Robert Ellsberg's book All Saints, Crossroad, 1997)

Henri Nouwen, Roman Catholic priest and writer of many books, wrote this simple poem:  

"The one who created us is waiting for our response to the love that gave us our being.
God not only says: "You are my Beloved".
God also asks: "Do you love me?
And offers us countless chances to say "Yes."

Baptism is God's "Yes" to us.  May we delight in the joy of life in saying “yes” to God all the days of our lives.

A Baker's Dozen!!!

 Down in the Valley blog's first ever Give-a-Way was much fun!

Thank you to people who took time to leave comments or pushed your technological ability to figure out how to become a Blog Follower.  Six people became followers, four people left comments and another three emailed me that they'd at least tried to figure out the technology.  I figured that trying was worth getting your name in the hat!   So 13 names went in.


When the five-year old's hand reached into the big, pink summer hat, the name pulled out was Sherri Gussman.   She has received her copy of Wayne Dyer's Gift Edition of The Power of Intention.  Congratulations to Sherri, trail blazer extraordinaire, who was also the first person to sign up to be a Blog Follower!  She's pictured here, not wearing a pink hat!

The Power of Intention Give a Way was so much fun, I do believe another will be coming in the not-so-distant future!

First Ever Blog Give-a-Way

I have a copy of Wayne Dyer’s The Power of Intention (Hay House, 2010) to give away. All you need to do to get your name in the hat  is to either:

1 ) Sign up to become a follower of the Down in the Valley blog (see on right hand side)

OR

2) Leave a comment on the blog about something you’ve read on Down in the Valley.

Whether you follow us online or join us in worship, you can enter to have your name put into the hat by Nov. 13. This is the latest edition of Dyer's book with beautiful illustrations and just happens to be a resource for our November study, Praying to Make Manifest.

And remember – even if your name isn’t pulled from the hat on Nov. 14– we and God still think you’re really something!
P.S.  One way to leave a comment is to use the anonymous option and then sign it by leaving your first name and an initial.  Or to ensure I've a way to be in touch with you if your name is pulled from the hat, sign the comment by using your email address but put it down in safe internet form where you write out the "at" and "dot" i.e.  Shelleyinthevalleyatgmaildotcom.   

Meeting Erin Karpluk of CBC's 'Being Erica'

Last month Joel and I got to meet Alberta-born actress Erin Karpluk. On a whim I’d entered an online CBC contest and it was a wonderful surprise to get an email saying ‘two tickets are yours!’ We had a marvellous time at Milestones Restaurant in downtown Calgary with Erin and her co-star, Adam Fergus, and twenty some other guests. (Some drove from Edmonton and Saskatoon to be there for the two hours)

Being Erica is into its third television season and the Canadian show has become popular world-wide. I enjoy the series’ themes that our past doesn’t need to define who we are today -- which is a healthy reflection of our own Judeo- Christian beliefs of healing, redemption, new life and new possibilities. At the end of the evening, as we had our photo taken with Erin, we learned she was confirmed in the United Church in Jasper. It was wonderful to meet this talented Canadian actress whose skilled acting can take us through emotions of regret, grief, embarrassment, excitement, delight and out-loud laughter within an hour-long episode. But what Erin makes look easy, as she described for us, takes hours of careful work and deliberation over each script.

Watch for Erin Karpluk in the Hallmark Christmas movie, Mrs. Miracle, based on a book by Debbie MacComber. (The light-hearted novel is available to borrow from the church library)

The Gift of Friendship

Luke 19:1-10 and John 15:5-17

31 October 2010

Last Tuesday for our two seniors’ services, the theme was “The Gift of Friendship” as it is today. I brought a tote-bag full of homeless stuffed animals. We handed the animals out to those present at the beginning of the program as a symbol of friendship. By the end of the day, most of those stuffed animals – big and small – had found new homes.

All of us desire relationships outside of ourselves – even if it’s just a stuffed animal.

So it is with God – but of course, on a much grander scale, beyond our ability to comprehend. God desires a relationship with each one of us, whoever we are. So it’s no wonder then that Jesus walking along the road senses that Zacchaeus is up in that sycamore tree.

Surprisingly, it is Jesus who calls out Zacchaeus’s name and breaches social etiquette by inviting himself to this stranger’s house: “I must stay at your house today” (v. 5). “Must” is the Greek verb dei, which expresses divine necessity.

In the Mediterranean world, it is considered an honour to be the host. In Lebanon today, a host greets a guest by saying…… “you honour us.” Jesus must honour Zacchaeus by being his guest. In turn, Zacchaeus welcomes Jesus and experiences joy. He cooperates with the divine “must” or will by making restitution, symbolizing his repentance. (from Seasons of the Spirit lectionary resource for Oct. 31, 2010)

The encounter with Jesus is transformational for Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is seeking Jesus and God is seeking Zacchaeus. The lost has found his home again in God.

We know our own lost moments of being disconnected from God. Rejoicing happens for ourselves and God when we come home again to God.

God is determined to have a relationship with each and everyone of us. So that in turn, we might be in relationship with one another. That’s true for Zacchaeus. His choosing to return home to God means also coming into relationship with those he’s previously hurt by making amends. Earlier, by taking from his neighbours, he was choosing to NOT be in relationship.

If we are created by a good and gracious God, we are also connected to each person and everything that God has created. To follow Jesus means to value the goodness in one another. And we know, we have been blessed and enriched by the God-given goodness of one another.

That’s what friendship is about.

Author and Theological Wendy Wright says our Spiritual Life is facilitated, encouraged and shaped by people we journey with. It is not a private journey of faith but rather it happens in community (from “A Conversation with Wendy Wright,” Alive Now, Jan.-Feb., 1999, pp. 10-15)

Our journey as Christians is one of awakening love. Friendship is a form of love. And friendships help us grow in our capacity to love.

Friendships are mutual relationships. They are reciprocal. Sometimes one is giving, another time another is giving. Sometimes both are giving at the same time. A relationship between a parent and a child is not a friendship. Yes both love each other, but it is not a relationship between peers.

Christian friendships have at their core a shared love for God. It doesn’t mean that the friends are always talking about their faith. But simply that both know they have a love for God that draws us together. The relationship itself can be one that encourages and deepens their love for God.

One of the blessings of Christian friendship is that it can seem that God has sent us to each other. Together, we challenge, sustain and support one another.

There are challenges to friendships in our culture today. People move frequently. “Good friendships, like any kind of relationship are richer the longer you live with them.” Our busyness gets in the way also. “We’re all so efficient and motivated to produce that friends get left out. We also have a very difficult time feeling as though it’s OK to be drawn to people and love people. We’re afraid of deep love.” (Wright)

“We really do think of ourselves as autonomous individuals….but hyper individualism robs us of the sense that we are interconnected.” (Wright)

It is important that we celebrate our relationships with one another and value them.. Here’s where the church comes in. We hold up an alternative model to the rest of society. We value our connection with God and with on another.

Jesus expresses in John’s Gospel his great love for the disciples of which we are. “This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer because the servant does not know what the master is doing but I have called you friends because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” (John 15:12-15)

Jesus says, ‘I have passed on to you everything that I know about how to be good, faithful friends to one another. Go and bear fruit. Pass on this abundance of love to one another.’

It’s our privilege to go about life bearing witness to God’s abundance, delighting in the relationships that we were given in the past and that are being offered to us today.

Praying to Make Manifest - Nov. 9, 16 and 30

Is it selfish to pray for what we want? Directly, or indirectly, many of us were taught that it is.

This past Summer I was introduced to the practice of praying to make manifest through a course on meditation. Together, let's explore further this positive form of spirituality. Please join me on three Tuesday evenings in November at United Church in the Valley, Royal Ave. at Hubert St, Turner Valley, AB. The dates are November 9, 16 and 30 at 7 pm.

For part of our discussions, we'll be looking at a PBS presentation by Wayne Dyer called the Power of Intention. We'll also be exploring how Christian Scripture applies to the concept of praying to make manifest. Wayne Dyer's book, the Power of Intention (Hay Publishing, 2004) will be used as a resource for our study but isn't a reading requirement. If you'd like us to order you a copy of the book, please email us at unitedchurchinthevalleyatnucleusdotcom.

When the Ego does us in

Luke 18: 9-14

Sermon from Oct. 24, 2010

"Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self.” -- Wayne Dyer

⁹He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ ¹³But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” "

One of my new Lutheran pastor friends from this past summer in Virginia wrote this on facebook on Tues:

“Preparing a sermon for a group of pastors for tomorrow.”

A colleague of his responded:

“You have a good text for that. Hit them hard. They are all pharisees! They are all self-righteous! They ought to be humble - like the tax collector... (by the way, I won't be there tomorrow) :)” And he ended it with a smiley face. (facebook exchange between Eric Hullstrom and Mike Strangeland)

Of course, there’s some truth in what my friend’s colleague wrote. A lot of people think that anyone who is religious i.e. attends church regularly or is a minister, is self righteous. Some people have had a bad experience of religion and they category us all with the label of self-righteous and judgemental. Or they’ve never been to church in their life -- yet still we have this label of being judgemental.

What they don’t know is that we have the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector to keep us humble. God is more jubilant over the tax collector making a choice to change his life, than the Pharisee who follows all the religious laws to the nth degree.

Tax collectors were known for their sinfulness in Christ’s time. They were in cahoots with the Romans who ruled the land. They had a certain, painful amount that that needed to take from all the citizens on behalf of the Roman Empire and they had to add an amount to secure their own livelihood. They could take more money than required from the common citizens because they were backed by the Roman Empire and its army. They were sinful, greedy people.

Of course, the Pharisee could look down upon the tax collector. Yet, the Pharisee is not valuing the man as a person of God and does not know that the tax collector is repenting of his ways. The tax collector is choosing to change his life to God’s ways.

What the Pharisee was dealing with and what we often deal with is the hard shell of ego.

When we are born, God creates us as beautiful pure essence. As we grow up, we can be hurt by hurtful things that are said or done to us. To protect ourselves, we make a defensive shell around us. That’s called the ego. The ego provides a shield that we become comfortable living our life behind – but it separates us from God and from living life as our real self.

Wayne Dyer says ego “is like a ghost that we accept as a controlling influence in our lives.” He says, “I look upon the ego as nothing more than an idea that each of us has about ourselves. The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self.”

Ego can cause us to believe that we are what we have or what we do or what others think of us. It can cause us to think we are separate from one another, not connected “It sends us false messages about our true nature. It leads us to make assumptions about what will make us happy and we end up frustrated. It pushes us to promote our self-importance while we yearn for a deeper and richer life experience. It causes us to fall into the void of self-absorption again and again, not knowing that we need only shed the false idea of who we are. – (From Wayne Dyer’s e-newsletter, “The Ego Illusion” Sept. 13, 2010. )

Ego can cause us to believe that we are what we have or what we do or what others think of us. It can cause us to think we are separate from one another, not connected.

I think ego is the way to look at this passage of the Pharisee in our day and age. God wants us to be adults, of course, but adults who know their true essence comes from God. We know that we can get caught up in letting outer things make us happy – what our possessions are, defining ourselves by what we do in our job or what we do each day. We can become caught up in thinking about in thinking only about ourselves and that we are alone – not that we are connected to each other.

The Pharisee is caught up in a type of selfishness. He builds himself up by putting others down. And he’s not seeing his connection to those he puts down. That he and each person is made by God and so each are his brother and sister. He’s not seeing his own potential to be a sinner as much as the tax collector is. That’s an important aspect of our humility as Christians – that we have an awareness of our own vulnerability to sin.

Part of Dyer’s definition of ego has quite struck me. It’s his words “(Ego) leads us to make assumptions about what will make us happy and we end up frustrated.”

These last months we’ve been horrified by the arrest and conviction of the former Colonel Russell Williams. In recent weeks, the police investigation has unfolded in the media. Somehow a respected military leader develops a fetish for breaking into homes and stealing women’s underwear. He’s not caught, the immoral and illegal habit escalates and two women are brutally killed.

The police set up a road check. But it’s not necessarily to check for drinking drivers as much to match the wheel base to tracks they found near a victim’s home. The Colonel is stopped. The police officer who talks to him, recognizes him and waves him on.

You see, Russell Williams is like a Pharisee. He has a respected position in the community, a position of authority. He is waved on.

But another officer was checking the wheel base. He doesn’t know the status of the man behind the wheel. The wheel base matches the tracks they find. Surely the head of Canada’s largest air force base could not have done such a crime. But as they check into where the Colonel has lived, the locations match where similar burglaries have taken place. The illusion falls away.

The person who was respected for his position of authority turns out to be a deadly criminal. The person who was respected turns out to be a sinner.

On Thursday, Russell Williams spoke to the Court, he told those gathered he is deeply ashamed, that he is aware of the hurt he’d caused.

Not matter how much revulsion we feel at what Williams has down, we

have to know that God is looking upon him, if he is truly repentant with great love. With the love God showed for the tax collector who had violated so many common people over whom he had control.

But the key is this: God’s love won’t necessarily flatter our ego, allow us to live puffed up in ourselves. God’s love for Russell Williams and for us calls us beyond our ego and its falsehoods to authenticity and Honesty. Honesty like that of the tax collector: “God be merciful to me a sinner.”