Rev. Miriam: November 2013

Monday 25 November 2013

Seek The Welfare of the City

The prophet Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet because there is so little good news to share. Jeremiah is the prophet during some difficult times in the history of God’s people. We know his words well. In chapter 8 he cries out, ““Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my people not been restored?” (Jeremiah 8:22) Throughout the book of Jeremiah God calls us to look at our lives and our world. Daily life is a complicated and filled with a mixture of experiences both good and bad. Jeremiah helps us to remember that God is present with us through all the ups and downs of life.

The reading for today is no exception. At this point Jeremiah has probably been a prophet for 30 years – warning of difficult times ahead. And now here they are. The first wave of exiles have been taken to Babylon. These are the upper class – the priests, the artisans, the elders and people responsible for keeping the tradition alive. Jeremiah is still in Jerusalem and he writes them this letter, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:4 – 7)

Jeremiah is warning the people not to listen to the false prophets who are promising that they will be home soon. Jeremiah says it’s not going to happen. You need make the land of your enemies’ home. It is no easy task to build a new life in Babylon and to pray for the wellbeing of the city where they are captives. But says God, in working for the health of this new city, the people of Israel will find their own health.

Exile is a hard place – especially when there is no end in sight. It is a challenge to trust that God is with you when the world as you once knew it was gone. It’s a challenge to praise God in new ways. Here is what is most striking about the passage from Jeremiah. The Lord says, “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile.” Jeremiah is saying that it is God who sent them into exile. That somehow God is at work even in the land of the enemy. That somehow God will be with them as the build new lives.

As I pondered Jeremiah’s words it made me think of the church. In so many ways it seems that church is no longer what it once was and that we find ourselves in a strange new land. I’ve heard the stories of the days when this church was full, when there were 300 children in Sunday School. I’ve heard the stories of the days when key leaders within the church had ready access to the prime minister’s and premiers offices. I’ve heard of days when the church was influential in society and how in times past nothing happened on Sunday except church.

The world has changed and those days are long gone. In some ways it is like the church is in exile. Sunday morning at 11 is no longer the domain of the church. So many different things happen on Sunday morning along with church. I admit that I was surprised the first time a birthday party invitation came home from school for Sunday morning. But I shouldn’t be. The world has changed. As the church we have a choice. We can complain about it or we can find new ways to be church. It is challenging times to be a person of faith and sometimes it can feel like we are lost.

So what can we do? Jeremiah says it so well, “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. …seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:5, 7)

That is our calling – to seek the welfare of this new place we find ourselves as a church. It’s what God’s people did in ancient times and we can do that again today. We can get to know our neighbours and make their well-being a priority. We can get involved in community activities. We can be advocates for those who need our support. We can find new ways of sharing the ancient story of God’s love for us and we can show that love at work in the world. That is what Jesus and the first disciples did.

I do not know what plans God has in store for our church here and across Canada. The world is changing and this is a time of uncertainty. In the midst of all this change one thing does not and that is God. Keith Anderson in his article, “Stop Complaining about Sunday Morning Sports” concludes with these words of hope, “We risk making the same quick judgements in our time – that this is just godlessness all around – for we too would be wrong. While the church and its clergy may have been displaced in our culture. God has not. God is where God has always been – embedded in the lives of God’s people.” http://pastorkeithanderson.net/item/pastors-stop-complaining-about-sunday-morning-sports

And this is God’s promise to us in every age, “For surely you know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) It was true in Jeremiah’s day and it is true in our day. As the church moves into the future, seeking the welfare of the place where we find ourselves, let us never lose sight of God’s promise. “For surely you know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) Amen.

Wednesday 20 November 2013

November 17

Prophets in the bible serve many purposes. They can, like last week with Amos, be called by God to call people back to God and God’s ways. Other times, the words of the prophets needed when things are bleak. That is certainly the case with Isaiah. Things are looking pretty bad for the people of Israel both because intern problems with injustice and external problems because they are under siege. The Assyrian armies are attacking the land. The northern kingdom is taken. Judah is on the verge of being taken. Isaiah says this, “the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor …. For all the boots of the tramping wars and all the garments rolled in blood.” (Isaiah 9:4 – 5) You can almost hear the drumbeat of war and the hardship

With war comes all sorts of other problems. The land is dry and water is scarce – having a water supply that can be safely guarded is a matter of life and death. Then there is the matter of defending the land which means injuries and deaths. Shortage of food and social unrest are part of the challenges faced by the people Isaiah was speaking.

It is easy to dismiss the problem saying that was then and this is now. In many ways it made me think of the devastation that is happening in the Philippines. Aid is simple not arriving fast enough and people are starving. Part of the problem is logistics – roads were and still are in some places impassable. Which means that help can’t get to where it is needed. This is like a bar across the shoulders. There are other places in the world that are living with such hardship – people in our community who do not have enough food or proper shelter, people who in countries around the world who live in garbage dumps, people who live in constant fear because of war or corrupt or oppressive governments. The yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulder was not just in Isaiah’s time.

We do not only struggle with social injustices but there are things that challenge us in our personal lives. Cancer, relationship struggles, caring for aging parents, the challenges of being parents. Sometimes these and other things can be like that yoke of burden and the bar across their shoulders that Isaiah spoke of.

It may seem to people both today and in the time of Isaiah that there is no reason to hope. Sometimes prophets speak a word of challenge and sometimes they speak a word of comfort and hope. In the midst of a difficult present Isaiah says, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; … you have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, … for the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders you have broken as on the day of Midian)” (Isiah 9: 3 - 4)

Isaiah is reminding people that even in the midst of trouble God can and does do amazing things. The day of Midian is likely a reference to an event it in the book of Judges with Gideon. The people of God were trying to escape from the rule of the Midianites. God heard their cry and Gideon was commissioned to deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. So Gideon assembled an army but the army was too big. The Lord tell Gideon with such a large army they would surely win and then the people would get the credit and not God. So Gideon sent home anyone who was afraid. Still there were ten thousand and still too many. So God tells Gideon to take the army down to the water and divide the troops between those who lap water like dogs and those who put their hands in the water and drink from their hands.

There were 300 hundred who lapped the water like dogs and they became the army. Not because they were the brightest or the best but because they would remind people of God’s power to act. So Gideon and the three hundred lead them into battle. The Israelites were free and God led the way. The promise of Isaiah is that God can and does do amazing and unexpected things. The God who freed them from oppression once can do it again.

Listen to Isaiah’s words: “For a child has been born for us; authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually and there shall be endless peace for the Throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with righteousness form this time on and forever more. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” (Isiah 96 – 7)

Now that is a promise! Most of the time we hear this passage at Christmas or Easter because for Christians that promise of the child born for us becomes real in the person of Jesus. For the people hearing in the time of Isaiah it was a promise of a future made in God’s image. It is a promise of peace, justice and righteousness.

Isaiah speaks a word of hope in the midst of a difficult present. It would be easy to dismiss Isaiah’s words saying things like, “Oh, he’s looking at the world through rose coloured glasses.” Or we can dismiss the promise by saying, “He’s pretending like everything is going to be okay when it is not.” We he know too much of living in the world today to believe that everything is going to be hunky dory because we have faith because we’ve heard the promise from God. Life can be hard and challenging with faith and without it.

Here is what God does. God offers us a vision, a dream, a hope for a new kind of future. One where all God’s children have abundant life. Hope is the light shining in the darkness. Years ago I found this illustration of hope. A reminder that hope is a way of seeing the world “Two oncologists, cancer doctors, were overheard conversing about treatments in a hospital cafeteria. One complained bitterly, "You know, Bob, I just don’t understand it. We used the same drugs, the same dosage, the same schedule and the same entry criteria. Yet I got a 22% positive response rate and you got a 74% one. That’s unheard of for cancer that has spread from the original site to other organs. How do you do it?" His colleague replied, "We’re both using the drugs Etoposide, Platinum, Oncovin and Hydroxyurea. You call yours E-P-O-H. I tell my patients I’m giving them H-O-P-E. HOPE. As dismal as the statistics are, I emphasize that we do have a chance."

All of us long for a chance – something to hope for. When life is hard sometimes hope that tomorrow will be better and that is enough to get us through today. Sometimes, hope is found in unexpected places. Hope is the first time you can laugh over a memory without crying. Hope is the person who hold us up in when the world is turned upside down and we do not know where to turn. Hope is the person who gives their lives to make the world better for others. The motto for Stella’s Circle is “Hope lives Here.” And it is true because though their work people get second, third, fourth, or all the chances they need to make a new life. Hope is something that gets us through the hard times.

Karl Rahner reminds his readers of this: "And now God says to us what he has already said to the world as a whole in his grace filled birth: "I am there. I am with you. I am your life. I am the gloom of your daily routine. … I am the blind alleys of your paths, for when you no longer know how to go any farther, then you have reached me. This reality — incomprehensible wonder of my almighty love… I am there. I no longer go away from this world, even if you do not see me there... I am there." (O Holy Night ed. A. Jean Lesher page. 135)

God calls each of us to be hope bearers to our friends, to our neighbours, to strangers and as we do this the promise of God’s future foretold by Isaiah so long ago becomes a reality. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them a light has shinned.” (Isaiah 9:2)Thanks be to God. Amen.

November 10 Sermon Offierng -- Lest We Forget

The prophets in the bible have a way of getting right to the heart of the matter. It can be jarring and difficult to hear. It is amazing how they can do that even though they speak of places and times so many years ago. Yet even today their words echo true. Amos is just one of those prophets. He was a prophet but not descended from a line of prophets. Which is just another way of saying that he wasn't part of the religious elite. He was a shepherd – called to a special job. God sent him to speak a word to the wealthy northern kingdoms of Israel. God was roaring like a lion from Jerusalem inviting, calling begging for the people to return to God – “seek good, not evil, that you may live.” (Amos 5:14) The people of the northern kingdom with all their prosperity did everything they were supposed to but justice was scarce and worship did not come from the heart.

So Amos proclaims this word from the Lord: “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.” (Amos 5:21 – 23)

Pretty harsh words. I despise your festivals and songs and do not want listen to the melody of your harps. Amos’ words echoed in my mind all week as I prepared for worship as I thought about the Veterans who gave their lives that may I have the life I do today. Every time I saw an ad for Christmas selling the idea that if we buy more, if we have the perfect decorations, if we have more things, we will be happy and the world will be right. And then the word from Amos roars like a lion, “I hate, I despise your festivals.” And I wonder what God would say about us shopping til we drop when there are people who are hungry and have no homes and in there is war and destruction in many parts of our world. And I wonder if I, if we have done all we can do for those who are hurting, who are suffering.

Prophets speak challenging words. They call us to look at our lives and our relationship with God – to seek good that we may live. God proclaims a word of life for all. God dreams of a day when there will be peace in all the lands and when all will have what they need to live. Amos cries out, “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24) It is an invitation to lean on the heart of God and to let God’s light shine in the world.

Martin Luther King Jr. quoted this passage from Amos in two of his most famous speeches – “I have a Dream” and “I’ve been to Mountain Top”. Each of these speeches in their own way has helped shaped a new way of living and the reminder that beyond the colour of skin, beyond all those things that divide us one from another, we share a common humanity. Whether it is Amos calling for justice, people fighting for freedom or Martin Luther King Jr. dreaming of the day when all are judged by the content of our character, the call is for us to live into the dream of a world where there is justice, where there is compassion, where there is peace for all.

Last night Newman Sound helped us to pause, remember and give thanks for those who fought in wars on distant shores. They sang one song that reminded me of what it the world looks like when justice rolls down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. It was called, “Christmas in the Trenches.” It is a song that tells the story from WWI of two enemies refusing to fight one another on Christmas Day. Enemies singing carols, sharing stories of their families and learning that in the end they are the same. Listen to the words:

“Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night
Whose family have I fixed within my sights.

Twas Christmas in the trenches and the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed, the songs of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
had been crumbled and were gone forever more.
Oh my name is Francis Tolliver, from Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas comes since World War I have learned its lesson well
For the one who calls the shots won't be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we're the same.” (Christmas Eve in the Trenches)

The call of the prophets both ancient and modern day was lived out as for one day in one battle as soldiers on both sides of the trenches paused in peace and shared their common humanity. That is our calling today as we remember:

In the lonely, echoing call of the bugle;
We must stop and remember.
As the flowing flag furls above our heads;
We must stop and remember.
Through the war-etched faces of veterans young and old;
We must stop and remember...

In fields of crosses row upon row;

We remember stop and remember

Remember the price of war.

Remember the Prince of Peace.

Remember.

(https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pictou-United-Church/65164741971)

Amen