Sunday, February 23, 2014

Sunday, February 23, 2014

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

The music playing in the background while I write today is “The Ground: Pleni sunt caeli et terra Gloria tua,” by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo. Based on a chorale from his Sunrise Mass, Gjeilo developed an anthem for piano, strings, and choir. The music is both grandiose, and joyful. It puts me in mind of a panoramic scan of the earth while the sun rises, the kind of music that might accompany the finale scene at the end of a movie, as the credits begin to roll. I encourage you to take a listen.

This image of the rising sun, pushing back the dark of night, is, for me, an important metaphor of reconciliation. It is the herald of the new day, pushing back the night, but not forgetting what has come before. The rising sun invites us into the new moment. “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” What a message of joy! And what a challenge: to let the past slip away from being the only thing occupying our mind. This rising sun, this figure of Jesus, is an image that beckons us out of our self-centredness and into the new day. It is a call beyond ourselves; we do not leave ourselves behind, but we are walking ever forward, with others, toward the rising sun.

- Joshua Zentner-Barrett

Saturday February 22, 2014

1 John 3:11-18

John challenges his listeners to be disciples of Jesus who move beyond interior belief about love to visible actions and behaviours.

John says, you believe that God loves you? that you are a child of God?  that you should love each other? Then put it into action.  Make it visible.  Don't be like Cain who took life away from his brother, Abel; be like Jesus who gives life to others.  We may not be asked to lay down our lives for others, but we can still offer what is life-giving to others.  Sometimes this looks like the example John gives of sharing our worldly goods with our brothers and sisters in need and sometimes offering what is life-giving happens in the everyday encounters with our family members, the clerks in the store, our colleagues at work . . .

I reminded of Kahlil Gibran's poem, On Work, in which he proclaims "work is love made visible" and "when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God".  Watch for opportunities today to make love visible!

- Marilyn Malton

Friday, February 21, 2014

Friday, February 21, 2014

Genesis 32:22 - 33:17

Jacob’s struggle with the angel occurs between his flight from his father-in-law and his reunion with the brother he cheated years earlier. As someone who finds family gatherings stressful, I appreciate the story of Jacob. It is interesting that many religious folks are scandalized by family issues, but the Bible is full of family drama. It is a reality of human existence.

The great Jewish philosopher Martin Buber interpreted Jacob’s encounter with the angel as a representation of our wrestling with life’s great existential questions. I see in Jacob’s struggle with God a paradigm of a difficult yet legitimate journey of faith. There are times when, like Jacob in 32:24, we feel all alone. There are times when instead of feeling comforted and reassured, our relationship with God is characterized by wrestling. There are turning points in our lives that leave us forever changed (32:25, 32:28). Instead of feeling guilty about these times when we experience doubt or anger, we should be reassured that God is still there with us, even in the darkest, loneliest nights. It was in this encounter that Jacob realized he was closest to the face of God. 

As we welcome (and hopefully, bring) new people into our churches, many of whom have been raised "unchurched," we need to affirm that their exploring, questioning, doubting, and even honest critiquing is welcome. No matter how circuitous the route, we can still hold on to the hope that, like Jacob, they will find themselves transformed after an encounter with God.

-Matthew Kieswetter

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Psalm 105: 1 - 22

Keep your eyes open for God, watch for his works; be alert for signs of his presence. 

Eyes open - watch - be alert.  I am called to active attention as I live each day.  Not only that, but there is to be a purpose for my attention - God and what He is doing.  It is easy sometimes to get caught up in attention to other things, other people, myself.  Usually that means seeing the bad things, and then wondering where God is.  Perhaps if I look first to see God, I might find that He too has seen the bad stuff, but has not let that stop Him doing good things, whether it be in creation, or in helping me to meet whatever is coming.

The psalm goes on to give the example of Joseph as God making preparation for all the people as famine came.  It certainly would have been hard for Joseph to see his plight - sold into slavery by his own family, wrongly accused and convicted, thrown into prison - as something to be happy about.  In fact, I don’t actually think he did.  But that did not stop him from trusting that God remembered him and was with him.

God’s presence may not “fix” things for me personally; God does not stop suffering here on earth, whether from natural or man made causes.  But that does not mean he is not present, caring and active.  I need to open the eyes of my soul to see the whole of creation as God sees it and then rejoice that He is at the centre of it.

Honor his holy name with Hallelujahs, you who seek God.  Live a happy life.

-Ann Kelland

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

John 10:1-18

The first part of this passage is the nearest thing we have to a parable in the Gospel of John, for otherwise, and unlike the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the Fourth Gospel has no parables. John 10:1-6 makes it clear that the only way to enter the sheepfold is by the gate, and that the shepherd is the one who leads the sheep, who know him by his voice. Then in verses 7-10 Jesus explains that he is the gate, and in verses 11-18, he further elaborates that he is also the good shepherd who lays his life down for his sheep. This is rich imagery, hearkening back to stories and images in the Israelite scriptures, Ancient Near Eastern texts, and Greek and Roman literature. One of the earliest ways of depicting Jesus, moreover, was as a good shepherd as evident in this third century fresco from Italy. Thus early on, the Gospel was communicated by visual means.

[http://timotheosprologizes.blogspot.ca/2006/12/homily-for-feast-of-st-john-damascene.html]

Finally, this is an example of how a gospel writer draws from the lore of traditions that existed prior to the creation of the text, as well as how the text itself then went on to influence art and life within the early church. It is a testament to how religion, culture, and multiple forms of expression intermix and mutually influence one another to form a rich and complex legacy that exists to this day.

-Alicia Batten

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Genesis 29:20-35

Before Jacob wrestles God for one night at Peniel, he wrestles God for fourteen years in the lands of Laban. Laban screws Jacob for fourteen years, but Jacob doesn’t mind so much because he gets Rachel after seven. He gets Rachel who is young and smokin’ hot (as one might say), but he also ends up with Leah who is plain and kind of old. Leah is unremarkable; yet she is quite remarkable.

Jacob wrestles; but Leah withers. This is not a story about gender equality. Jacob is a strong and clever man. Laban changes his wages ten times (Gen. 31: 41), but Jacob has power and uses it for revenge. He takes Laban’s flocks for himself (Gen. 30:31-43). Leah is a powerless and unremarkable woman. She receives no wage and has no power to take anything. Leah is rather herself taken and given as chattel. We should find that offensive. But we should give up our eyes to righteous indignation. We should open our eyes and remark Leah. And God.

Leah is eclipsed by her sister. This story does not tell us that true beauty is on the inside. Jacob loves Rachel and suffers Leah. That Jacob suffers Leah means that Leah suffers. Leah wants Jacob’s love. There is no pain quite like unrequited love, or love requited with contempt, especially in a marriage, especially in a marriage where your husband is also married to your sister, your flashy better-looking, better-loved sister. Leah probably cries a lot. Maybe she wears herself out each day trying to forget. Maybe she eats ice cream. Maybe she has cats. Leah is very human. In a Hollywood movie, Rachel would be mean, Leah would get a makeover, and Leah would get Jacob. Or, in a modern twist, Leah would get a makeover then decide that she was too good for Jacob at which point she would leave him and go off to make it on her own. Hollywood likes makeovers. But Leah doesn’t get one. She remains unremarkable. And yet Leah is remarked. The world’s eyes pass Leah over; God’s eyes take her in.

Our God has a special love for those whom the world rejects. Our God is Hope of the hopeless. This is the point of the story. God has pity on Leah and opens her womb. God gives Leah power—the power to conceive. Yet by her third child it seems that Jacob doesn’t love Leah any more than he did before. She is still asking God to “join” him to her. By the fourth child, Leah no longer asks God for Jacob; her only prayer is thanksgiving. Leah now has four babies and less reason—and little time—for a broken heart. She may or may not get Jacob’s affection, but she certainly gets children and a family. For her this is joy. We get a sort of Hollywood ending after all—motherhood rather than makeover. God lifts Leah up and gives her honour and joy in the world. What God does for Leah is remarkable, likewise what He does for us.

Sometimes God gives us a Hollywood ending. Often He does not. Women and men remain homely, lonely, and barren. Our faith is not that God gives us all the children and the life that we desire. Our faith is that God nevertheless gives us Life—that God gives us a Child: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder…” (Isaiah 9:6) We are created beautiful—whether we are old or young, smokin’ hot or rather unattractive—but our sin makes us Ugly. We women and men are barren and yearning like Leah whether we know it or not. As God gives sons to the humble Leah, so God gives a Son to the humble Mary—and God gives Mary’s humble Son to us. This is true gender equality. This is true inner beauty. Like Leah, we are all saved in childbearing—the bringing to birth of Christ in us. May our lives be humble. May our lives be glory. May we too remark and restore the homely, the lonely, and the barren—those the world finds unremarkable.  Amen.

-David Boehmer

Saturday February 15, 2014

Romans 14:1-23

Conviction, noun:  a firmly held opinion or belief.
Dismissal, noun:  the act of treating something (or someone) as unworthy or serious consideration; rejection.

Folks in the early churches ran headlong into some conflicts among convictions and found themselves "quarreling over opinions" (vs 1) and passing judgement on each other (vs 10).  The specific issues in our congregations today are different from Paul's day and the Roman church but we still quarrel over opinions and convictions and pass judgment, in dismissive ways, on each other.

Lutheran pastor Mary Hinkle Shore suggests that, in this reading from Romans, Paul gives three reasons to refrain from dismissing our brothers and sisters who think and act differently from us.  One, they are "seeking by their actions to honor the Lord Jesus Christ; two, Jesus died and rose again "in order to create community across the most fundamental of differences:  Jew/Greek, slave/free, dead/living!", and three, "God is judge of all of us, and one judge is enough."  This raises questions for me.  Aware of my own limitations in understanding and acting - what are concrete ways in which I can extend graciousness to my brothers and sisters with whom I disagree?  For example, how can I enter into humble and generous interactions with them?

Recognizing that the other is seeking to honour Jesus; that Jesus compels us to create community across fundamental differences; and that God is the judge, not me, is not the same as saying everything goes and that, as Hinkle Shore says, "all behaviour is equally ethical".  There is room for critical thinking but the challenge is to avoid dismissing our brothers and sisters as fools, or at least very misguided, and treating them as if they are without worth.  As you reflect on this passage, ask God how God might be inviting you to respond.

- Marilyn Malton