Friday, May 23, 2014

Friday May 23, 2014 – Leviticus 23:1-22

For those of us who are comfortable with the understanding that Moses did not write the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, this passage from Leviticus is thought to have been written by the Priestly class during the time that the Southern Kingdom was exiled in Babylon, some 500 years before the Common Era (BCE).  The attention to details –dates, times, measurements, and the insistence that no work be done on these holy days, are all giveaways to the probable Priestly authorship.  Be that as it may, what is said in these verses is more important than who wrote them.

This reading sets out what special days – holy days – are to be celebrated, and how they are to be celebrated.  The Sabbath is the first listed, and refers to the last day of creation set aside by God for rest and restoration.  Of all the listed days, the weekly Sabbath is the paramount one.  There follow other important days – Passover, and the Season of Unleavened Bread; and three agricultural festivals: celebrating and giving thanks for the early grain ripening, the harvesting of the first produce, and the final harvest festival of thanksgiving at the ingathering of all crops. 

The final verse is a reminder to the people of how they are to provide for “the poor and the stranger” by leaving a few rows of grain and other produce around the periphery of the fields for their use.

In our world and in our day, we may well have lost sight of the middle celebrations, historical and agricultural in outlook.  It is the first and the last admonishment that stand out for me – how we keep Sabbath, and how we provide for the least, the last and the lost.  I invite you to think on these things today.

-Rev'd Paul Kett

Thursday May 22, 2014

Woody Allen — Image by © Elena Seibert/Corbis

Matthew 6: 25-34 

Today's reading flies in the face of our culture's preoccupation with worrying.  Don't worry! Don't worry about what you will eat or what you will drink or what you will wear?  Doesn't Jesus know that is only the beginning?  To quote from the MACLEAN's magazine article, The New Worry Epidemic (Feb. 5, 2014):

Worry. Never has a society worried about so much—and so little—simultaneously. We’re tied in Gordian knots of worry, every Twitter refresh delivering new fretting points. “Frost quakes” and polar vortex, the scary new term for winter, have been added to climate change fears. . . Everybody has his or her own worry list, which might or might not contain H5NI, vaccine fear, bioterrorism, your kid passing his finals, cyberterrorism, those grey hairs, the grid going dark, drivers who text, stock market collapse, job loss, gluten, debt, that guy eyeing your job, your RSP, E. coli in packaged salad.

Worrying is endemic, mental health professionals will tell you.  The term "worrying" has replaced "thinking" says California-based clinical psychologist Daniel Peters.  "People don't say, 'I'm thinking about this' anymore; they say, 'I'm worrying about this.'

Surely Jesus' advice seems naive at best, even irresponsible.  Don't worry; trust God.  On the other hand, his observation that "who here can claim to add even an hour to his life by worrying?" seems accurate.  

These teachings of Jesus about "don't worry" come in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount. That's the same section as the Beatitudes which boldly proclaim that God's kingdom is different from the kingdoms of the world.  In God's kingdom we are invited to trust rather than worry and our trust is to be placed in God rather than financial security.  In God's kingdom we commit to different priorities - like taking responsibility for the earth and each other rather than obsessive self-interest; like generosity rather than greed; like trust rather worry.  Easier said than done? Of course.  And so we pray that God's kingdom come and God's will be done, on earth as it is in heaven and risk being transformed by God's grace and love.

Marilyn Malton

Victoria Day

Monday, May 19, 2014

Matthew 6:1-6

In his book A Hidden Wholeness, Parker Palmer explores the concept of an 'undivided life' where the inner and outer aspects of one's life are seamlessly integrated.  This is a useful image when considering today's text, Matthew 6:1-6.  The text concerns practicing piety, giving alms, and praying, and is part of a longer discourse that begins with the beatitudes.  In the culture of Jesus' day acts of piety were revered, and the customary practice was to perform good deeds so that the deeds and the performer of the deeds would be seen and praised by others.  The focus was to enhance one's outer appearance and standing in the community.  Jesus' word for this type of person is "hypocrite!"--literally meaning an "actor", one who performs for the approval of others.

Seeing is at the center of this text.  Jesus challenges, not the spiritual practices themselves, but the motivation behind the practices, which is that of being seen and admired by others. He reminds his listeners that we do not need to perform for God, for God already sees us and approves of us.  True spiritual practices emerge from the inside--as an expression of our love and devotion to the One who knows even the secret places within us and loves us.  

Marianne Mellinger

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Luke 4:16-30

“…to let the oppressed go free...”

            Today’s Gospel is a powerful one for me. Jesus emanates such confidence. He knows who he is. He knows whose he is. He is completely convinced of his mission to those in need.

As I read today’s story, my mind goes to a recent encounter. I was in a shopping center and witnessed a scene that, to me, was distressing.  Apparently, a toddler had wandered off from her mother and was running down one aisle. I saw the mother run after her, snatch her up and begin to scold her loudly. “You know better than to run off like that!” She repeated the scolding over and over. The mother put her down, grabbed her arm and pulled her forcefully back to their cart, all the time yelling at her daughter and blaming her for the incident. She quite literally threw her in the cart and yelled, “Now you’ll stay in there forever!” The young girl, of course, was crying uncontrollably.

            I was deeply saddened by this interaction. The whole situation felt very wrong to me. My first impulse was to somehow console the daughter. I wanted to say something to the mother, but what? Was it any of my business? Is it ever okay to intervene in someone else’s parenting? What would you have done?

            When I got home, I sat with the situation for a long time. I tried to understand why I was feeling the way I was. I tried to see the incident through the eyes of both the mother and daughter. I can only assume that this behavior was common between the two. How will this shape the daughter as she grows up? What stresses was the mother under? What was her own upbringing like? Similar events from my past bubbled to the service: times when I felt oppressed by my parents, or times when I’m pretty sure I dished out a little oppression and humiliation of my own. I tried to connect with those deep feelings of frustration, shame and fear that I had known in the past and that, perhaps, the mother and daughter were then experiencing. My favorite spiritual teachers say that this is the best way to grow in compassion: to connect with these deeply-held and shared human experiences.

            This helps me to see Jesus and his mission in a clearer light. Jesus offers good news. He offers freedom and release to captives and the oppressed. In some ways, we are all held captive by our past, by negative experiences that have marked us, by the hold of our own ego that we rely on to protect our vulnerable selves. We all at some time or other can identify with either the mother or the daughter in that mall. But I think we can also all identify with moments when we have experienced God’s unconditional love, the very good news that Jesus offers. It is the succession of such moments of grace that slowly, over a lifetime, frees us from our own captivities and allows us to follow Jesus in bringing that freedom to others.

            I pray that both the mother and the daughter experience this love and freedom.

-David Shumaker

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Saturday, May 17, 2014
Matthew 5:38-48

     Today's selection comes out of Jesus' sayings called the Beatitudes, his radical redefining of behaviour, attitudes, religion, and relationships. Most scholars believe that Matthew's Gospel was written for a primarily Jewish audience, hence the motif on fulfilled prophecy (among other things). If you read the Beatitudes in Luke's Gospel you'll notice that they are set on a flat plain, but in Matthew's interpretation, they are delivered on a mountain or hill (hence the name, The Sermon on the Mount). This seems an intentional act (some would say of the author, others, Jesus) of likening the Beatitudes to the Ten Commandments.

Martin Luther King, Jr., with photograph of Mahatma Gandhi.
http://www.satyagrahafoundation.org/category/martin-luther-king-jr/

  
     It is curious and a little disturbing how many Christians have been so willing to dismiss the Beatitudes as wishful thinking or ideals that cannot be achieved. Some have taken them to heart and lived them out, though usually at great cost.

     There are many interpretations of today's reading, but it seems that a common theme of them is that they are designed to cause the offender to see the victim as a person. The actions are non-violent, but not at all passive. Some scholars say that they are aimed at coaxing the offender beyond the security of violence allowed by Roman law to unjust actions that would get them in trouble with their authorities.

     While our reactions to and interpretation of the Beatitudes might differ, the command to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors gives us much to think about and even more hard work to do. 

-Matthew Kieswetter

Friday, May 16, 2014

Friday, May 16, 2014

1 Thessalonians 3:1-13

After reading this passage three times, I perceived in Paul a sense of despair that is turned to relief. More than that, I feel in him an excitement that the faith of the Thessalonians is keeping them alive. For me, Paul is excited by the prospect of seeing the community, just as he feels they will be excited to see him. 

In my theology course this semester, we used a book by theologian Douglas John Hall called Why Christian?: for those on the edge of faith. In this book, Hall explores seven questions about what it means to be Christian, or, why one would wish to be Christian specifically. In the chapter “Why Church?” he discusses the idea of faith: “faith, which as we have seen before, ‘seeks understanding,’ also seeks community… There is something in faith…that drives one to seek out others” (136). 

In verse ten of this chapter of his letter, Paul expresses the hope of seeing the Thessalonians in order to be able to restore whatever is lacking in their faith. Set against the previous verses – which betray Paul’s relief and joy at the enduring faith of the Thessalonians – I do not see this “lack of faith” as a critique; rather, it is a recognition that faith cannot be perfect at all times, but when people are together in shared faith, they can find the strength to overcome any weaknesses. Paul ends with a prayer that emphasizes the importance of others: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all.”

How do you find strength in being together with others in faith?

- Joshua Zentner-Barrett

Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - St. Matthias the Apostle

Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - St Matthias the Apostle

John 15:1, 6-16

In the Canadian Anglican Church , May 14 now is a day set aside to commemorate Saint Matthias the Apostle. Matthias was chosen by the eleven apostles in that period between Jesus' ascension and Pentecost, to replace the void left behind in their numbers by Judas Iscariot's death. Likely this took place to complete the ancient number of twelve patriarchs of the twelve Hebrew tribes that Moses led out of Egypt into freedom, by helping them to symbolize their sense of a new Israel "in the Spirit". The Apostles were starting to assume responsibility for leadership & direction in the early church. We know little else about Matthias beyond the first chapter of the Book of Acts. He was chosen by lot , by election. Tradition places his burial in Trier , Germany, and also in Georgia.

In a sense, Matthias is like us. We may not be well known, but we are called by God, to assist in God's work on earth. As we read John 15;1 and particularly verses 6-16, ponder "I chose you, and appointed you, says the Lord, that you should go and bear fruit, fruit that will last." We are invited, nudged, and prodded to be part of what God is about , as evident in the way & life , and new Easter Life given to us in Jesus, the Christ.

Years ago, I remember first hearing a Blessing at a service at The Chautauqua Institute, which echos the reading for today, and the mantle and ministry that Matthias assumed. May it speak and resonate with you too!

"And now , go in peace, and remember... that it is through the goodness of God that you were born, and remember.. that it is through the love of Jesus the Christ that you are redeemed. Remember .. that he walks with you every day, he promised that he would.

And remember.. too , that though some would call you servant, he has called you friend.

Go forth then in the strength of that powerful friendship to serve...until we meet again!"

- Archdeacon Ken Cardwell