Moses, Layton and a Call to Love

Scripture Readings for this week: Exodus 3:1-15, Romans 12:9-21, Matthew 16:21-28

Moses was the man who would become the greatest symbol of liberation, the giver of the law and the leader of the Hebrews who in many ways goes unrivaled in the history of Israel.  And it is at this moment, which we read in scripture today, standing before a fire, a flame, a burning bush, when he begins to follow that path.

Before he encounters God in the midst of the burning bush, Moses was raised in the lap of luxury.  A palace brat, he was incredibly disconnected from the lives of his people.  He might have known he was not an Egyptian.  With his birth mother as his wet nurse, it is hard to believe she would not have told him where he came from, if only in whispers and songs.  But still as an adopted grandchild of the Pharaoh, Moses was Egyptian royalty.

Yet he must have felt some attachment to his people.  When he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he killed the perpetrator and hid the body.  One might think this would have made him a hero to the Hebrews.  But the very next day, when he tried to break up a fight, you can almost hear the mocking in his own peoples’ voice, “What?  Are you going to kill us too?”  He’s an outsider.  His people will not accept him, and soon even Pharaoh begins to hunt him for the original murder.  And so he runs away, runs into the desert, hoping to escape his own history, his own identity.

And it is there that he encounters God.  Tending a flock of sheep for his father-in-law, Moses comes upon the burning bush.  And his own fire is lit, a fire deep within his heart.  This is Moses’ moment of conversion.  This is where Moses discovers something beyond himself and within himself.  The voice of God echoes within his soul, telling him who he truly is, telling him that he is one of God’s own, that he is beloved, telling him that he has a place within the world, that he has a place within history.

It is hard to describe a conversion.  For some people it does strike like a burning bush within their hearts, and for others, faith has been with them their whole lives.  Whether it feels like lightning or whether it feels like a warm blanket faith resonates within the heart.  It is that sense that there is something beyond ourselves as individuals, that sense that we are beloved, that we have a place in the world, a place within history.  As Christians that place is expressed in the Gospels.  It is the understanding that we are loved.  It is the understanding that we are not alone, that God, that the universe is on our side, and that we have experienced this love in Jesus Christ.

But it cannot end there.  It does not end there for Moses.  He does not see a burning bush, smile politely and walk away.  The voice of God goes on.  “Ok Moses, you know me!  You have met me!  You have met me within your heart! But you will no longer encounter me in a burning bush, no longer will you encounter me just as a flame inside you!  From now on you will meet me with my people!  You will meet me where my sons and daughters cry out for justice, where my people long for liberation and freedom.  I have touched your very soul Moses, now that you know me, how can you do anything but go?!”

Moses’ conversion did not end at the burning bush.  In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus reminds us that our conversion, our faith cannot end in our hearts. Jesus does not say to his disciples, “Hey hang out for a little while, and think of me fondly.” He says, “Pick up your cross and follow me!” 

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, this path for Christians is quite clearly defined as the path of love, the path of hope, the path of generosity.  It is the path of caring for the poor, of supporting those who are mourning, of seeking peace.  Does any of this sound familiar?

This past week the whole nation has been trying to understand how it feels about the death of the Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, Jack Layton.  People are writing on walls, they are tweeting, they are writing in newspapers, they are crying out that now famous phrase, “Love is better than anger, hope is better than fear, and optimism is better than despair.  So let us be loving, hopeful, and optimistic, and we’ll change the world.”  These words echoed for people because, people long for them.  Regardless of political stripe you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t within their hearts want a world of love, hope, and optimism.  But all too often we cynically advocate for something else.

If these words rang true, if these words resonated, if these words sounded familiar, it is because they are incredibly grounded in the Christian faith.  This is Paul through and through. But since the church in many ways has forgotten to preach and to live those words, Canada has turned to someone else for that fundamental Gospel truth.  People long for that message grounded in love, grounded in hope, grounded in generosity.  Jack Layton, a lifelong United Church member who continued to be active within the church through his adult life is offering up his faith to the world.  Trying to live it in the world around him.

This is what it means to be Christian.  It is not just a matter of believing in Jesus and then washing our hands of the world.  To quote Richard Rohr, if this were the case “One could be warlike, greedy, a racist, selfish and vain, and still believe that Jesus is their “personal Lord and Saviour.” The world has no time for such silliness anymore.  The suffering on earth is too great.”  To be Christian we cannot separate our faith from the world.  We cannot withhold that same love which has been so freely given to us from the world around us.  We cannot say Christianity is only about our hearts, when every prophet, every saint, and Jesus Christ has not only held love, but lived it in the world.

We are Christians, we are part of a holy community, stretching back through history to that greatest act of love on the cross.  With a fire burning in our hearts, a fire, like the burning bush that doesn’t consume but enlightens; it is not our duty, it is our opportunity to embody love in the world.  To not hoard that fire, that understanding of grace, that awareness that we are the beloved children of God, but rather to share it with all we meet.  It is our privilege to join with Christ in offering that self-giving love to the world.  It is our privilege to answer Paul’s call to embody faith, hope, and above all love.  It is our privilege, to walk with Moses with that fire within us, going to places where there is only anger, only fear, only despair, to those places where there is injustice, where there is slavery and oppression, and to shine that light in the darkness.  Thanks be to God, Amen.

Comments

Just a heads up.  The first comment is my own thoughts on the sermon.

Sermon for August 21, 2011 - Should

The scripture reading for this sermon was Romans 12:1-8

In the back of one of my bibles, there is a section that describes which passages to look up in certain life situations.  So for example, passages to read when you’re in a position of responsibility, or if you’re quarrelling with somebody.  I remember going through a rough period of discernment, trying to figure out where I should go in life.  So under the section “When you are seeking guidance from God” it gave this passage from Romans.  “Therefore I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship”.  When I read that, I closed my eyes, and I thought, “Isn’t that wonderful.”  And then I thought, “What the hell does that mean?!”  I mean really Paul?  Give myself to God?  I didn’t see that coming a mile away! Jack Ass!

I’d like everyone to close their eyes.  Take a breath in, exhale… Take another breath and focus on how cold the air is in the nostrils or mouth, and when you exhale focus on how warm the air coming from your lungs is. Do this a couple more times… Now I want you to picture yourself surrounded by fog.  You can only see a few feet in front of you before it gets too thick… Feel the cool mist on your face… Smell the fog with each breath, taste it… The air is cool, and the tiny particles of water deaden all noise… Just experience that for a minute… Ok, open your eyes.

I’ve been meditating with my therapist on this image a lot recently, seeing fog as a metaphor for life.  Picturing myself in the midst of a thick fog, holding onto that experience as I reflect on my own life. 

You see for the past little while I’ve really been really struggling with trying to figure out who I am, where I am going.  At times it occupies my mind to the point of great stress and anxiety.  It is the existential question that resonates at the core of humanity.  In the midst of the fog of life, the question that resonates (for me anyways) is, where does God want me to go?  Where should I go?

This is a question that I think pops up in all our lives in some form or another.  I remember in undergrad trying to determine what my major should be.  Or when I was picking theological colleges, “Which school should I goto?”  But all of us have confronted this question and will confront it many times over.  If we’re contemplating a move, should I move or should I not?  Or perhaps a job opportunity, should I or shouldn’t I?  Even in religion, “What should I believe?”  Does anyone else ever ask questions like this?  Or am I alone in it?  What is the common thread running through all these questions?

Should.  This is the word that runs throughout it all.  Should.  It’s a word that slips into our language so easily and so readily.  Should.  How should I act?  What sort of job should I get?  Where should I live?  And it is such a heavy word, one that ways on our hearts and on our minds.  It dictates an endpoint that we hold ourselves up against, a word that condemns and judges.  It is a very human word.

The reason Paul does not offer much help in the question of where should I go through the fog, is because for him the word “should” is irrelevant.  In Christ there is no should.  As the passage goes on he expands on this, “some people will be teachers, some people will be prophets, some people will govern, and some people will be charitable.”  None of these people are more right than any of the others.  None of these people are more valuable than any of the others.

As we walk through the fog it does not matter what direction we walk in, it only matters how we walk.  With each step do we hold God in our hearts?  With each step are we saying “God, this step is for you” or “This step is so I can make money.”  With each step can we say, “This step is embodying Christ right here and now” or “This step is so that everyone will think I’m fantastic”?  Now discerning our own wants and desires from putting God in front is tricky.  But our own desires and the love of God don’t need to be mutually exclusive either.  What we need to bear in mind is that in God’s eyes it does not matter where we end up, so long as we make that choice holding God in our sights.  We can always ask ourselves, in this time, in this place, how can I be loving God?

And yes, sometimes we will walk into a tree, we will get our feet wet, and tragically, we might even fall off of a cliff.  Sometimes we will stumble upon great joys, or come to a place that is much clearer, where we can see a bit further ahead.  That’s life walking through the fog.  But we don’t encounter God in our destinations, we encounter God in our steps.  And believe me, this is far more marvelous.  If God were only at the destination it would be a lonely walk, especially when we whack our head off a tree branch, or if we don’t make it to the “right” place.  But if God is in our very steps, if God is in the very fog around us, if God is right here, right now, then God is with us, even when we do walk off a cliff.

When Paul says make yourself a living sacrifice to God, he is talking about right here.  He’s not making a prescription to find God at some far away destination, some place that we should go to; he is making it clear that God is present here and now.  Thanks be to God, Amen.

Sermon for August 14, 2011 - Divisions, Divisions, Divisions

The scripture readings for this sermon were Genesis 45:1-15; Matthew 15:21-28; and Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

Has anyone else found this summer to be especially depressing in the news?  We have this horrible situation in East Africa, which is heartbreaking.  Even seeing a quick picture of the ongoing suffering and famine can bring a lump to the throat or raise significant questions.  There were the UK riots, and the response to the UK riots.  The ideological squabbles in the US that brought the nation (and the rest of the world with it) to the brink of economic catastrophe.  And there was that horrible day in Norway where a man, on ideological principle thought it would be best to kill a bunch of people from an opposing political party, (a party that has advocated against the exclusion of people from society based on ethnicity or religion), and his murderous rampage included children affiliated with this idea.

I found my heart being wrenched wide open practically every time I opened the newspaper.  We live in a divided world.  A world that is drawing more and more lines.  White and black, Christian and Muslim, Conservative and Liberal, Rural and Urban, the human world and the natural world, the economy and the environment.  There are so many that it is exhausting just to think about.

Divisions. Divisions. Divisions.  We live in a bitterly divided world, and this is not a new phenomenon.

This theme of division runs throughout our scripture readings for today.  In our Genesis reading, a division exists between Joseph and his brothers.  A division brought about by jealousy, Joseph’s brothers having sold him into slavery.  In the Gospel, there is a division between the Jews and the Gentiles, a division which Jesus initially advocates.  In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he describes a division between the Jews and the burgeoning church.

This divisive nature has continued on through the history of religion, certainly through the history of Christianity.  The church has often emphasized who is on the inside, and who is on the outside.  Who is saved and who is damned.  What is holy, what is unholy.  We have survived and thrived on the idea that we are the gatekeepers and none shall pass but those we deem fit.

We live in a divided world.  Divided on grounds of race, religion, ideology, gender, sexuality, wealth, nationality, even species.  Does anyone else find this tragic?

All of our scripture readings for today describe, not just divisions, but reconciliation.  Through forgiveness, Joseph is reunited with his family.  Paul explains that Jews and followers of Christ are bound within the Grace of God.  Even Jesus, has his mind changed.  He is taught a tremendous lesson from a Canaanite woman, as she reminds him that even Gentiles are not excluded from God’s love.  This is Jesus, remember!  Our Psalm for the day caps it off beautifully, “How lovely it is when kindred live together in unity.”

Every reading for today is a quite simple call to unity, a call to reconciliation.  And this is a call that resonates throughout the bible, throughout the gospels, embodied in the life of Christ, and the call which is made to the church throughout the epistles.  We are a reconciling church.  We are called to embody Christ who came to reconcile the world.  We are called to reconcile the world.

The church has not done well in its mission.  Rather than ending divisions, rather than ending hatred, oppression, ostracization and various bigotries, we have throughout our history advocated for them.  No wonder people are starting to question the legitimacy of the church when we don’t stand by our founding principles!  In many ways I’m surprised it took people so long to start saying, “Wait a minute!”  Because unity, bringing everyone together, seeing the whole world as the family of God, as one creation, is what defines us!

The life that Jesus lived, the life of God is the life that goes out and sees all people, all things in their fullness.  It is the life that says “Anyone who thinks they are morally superior, or better than someone else, MUST… MUST see that God is present in the other.”  He argued to the Pharisees that God was present in the unclean of the day.  He showed to the zealots that God was present in the tax collectors.  And in the lesson from the Canaanite woman, he showed that God is present even outside of Judaism.  This was radical, and it remains radical today!

If there is anyone in the world we think we are better than, the life of Christ invites us to know them intimately and see that God is present.  This is the Torah, the prophets, this is Paul, this is Christ.  If I think I am better than someone because I am able bodied, and they are disabled, I need to see that God is present in disability.  If I think I am better than someone because I am straight and they are gay, I need to see that God is present the LGBT community.  If I think I am better than somebody because I am white and they are first nations, or I have never committed a crime and they are in prison, or because I have one political view and they have another, the life of Christ invites me to see that God is present in them.

Here’s a pop quiz.  Does anyone know what words are written on the United Church of Canada crest?  Ut Omnes Unum Sint.  Does anyone know what that means?  That all may be one.  It’s a line taken from John.  That all may be one.

This vision, held up as the United Church of Canada’s mission in 1925 when the Methodists, the Congregationalists and a large portion of the Presbyterians joined together, today is so important!  And it goes beyond the vision of all denominations coming together.  That all may be one, should be the rallying cry of Christians everywhere, it is a call that we need to embody in our daily lives.

Paul said in his letter to the Galatians that “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  And that message continues today: In Christ there is no liberal or conservative.  In Christ there is no sinner or saint.  In Christ there is no Muslim or Christian, white or first nations, old or young, wise or stupid, cool or uncool, criminal or citizen, able bodied or disabled, human or animal.  All of us are sisters and brothers before God, all of us are of one creation before God.

As we move forward in an ever more interconnected and globalised world, this message of unity must be preached loudly, and must be embodied with great courage.  This is where the church must be present.  This is our tremendous opportunity to shine the light of Christ into a divided world, a world that is struggling with encountering new cultures and different ideas, a world that is trembling under the weight of division and fear.  Now is our time to claim our glorious heritage, to see the union of all things under one holy creation, and to declare that union with tremendous love in our hearts.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

First Blog

I've never blogged before.  I'm somewhat intimidated.  Scratch that, I'm very intimidated.  I don't like putting myself out there too much.  Which is odd, being a minister in United Church of Canada it is part of the job to be in the public eye.  I'm hoping to post all my sermons, and I'm hoping to get feedback.  I'm a bit cautious about it, as for me the sermon is an auditory medium.  Something that is best experienced live.  Sometimes I go way off script, other times, I hardly veer away.  Peace and Blessings to all.