tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90854412024-03-12T21:53:46.636-04:00Kayko's Archived SermonsThe posts here are (mostly) sermons that I have preached at various congregations.Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.comBlogger339125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-91068280467428148042024-01-18T13:37:00.002-05:002024-01-18T13:37:26.808-05:00January 18, 2024 - Giving Up Hope - LTS Chapel<p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">1 Cor 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near..." "The appointed time has grown short... The present form of this world is passing away."</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Well, if I were Paul, I suppose I would tell you to take all those New Year's Resolutions you may have made just a few weeks ago and throw them in the trash. Also, whatever classes you're registered for this semester, really, don't bother with scheduling the final projects and exams. "The appointed time has grown short," and "the present form of this world is passing away."</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus, too, would probably have given you the same advice. Drop what you're doing and follow Jesus, leave your books at your desk, and follow.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Neither Paul nor Jesus seem to have been long-term thinkers. And it's easy to chuckle, with two thousand years between us and their words. We can't possibly take them seriously, and so we read them somewhat metaphorically - with Paul we spiritualize and contextualize his words, finding ways so that they don't literally apply to our circumstances, and say that they really mean we just shouldn't become spiritually attached to the physical things and situations of this world. With Jesus's words, we turn to liberation theology, which has taught us to see the "now" of the coming of God's reign, where we can act to resist and even overthrow the economic and capitalist powers of oppression, but continue to live in this physical world.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The challenge with these interpretations is that it seems highly likely that Paul and Jesus as he is written in Mark both <i>literally</i> mean that the world is ending. According to Lester Grabbe, a Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism scholar, Jesus and Paul both believed in a Jewish eschatology that understood that "the age of the world is finite and [that] history was being played out according to a pre-determined divine plan." (Grabbe, Vol 4, 282) This physical world was only meant to exist for a certain period of time, and then God would literally intervene and literally destroy Rome. The sufferings that they experienced under Roman Imperial rule were part of the divine plan and a sign that God was about to end the world.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">---</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Did you know that the present form of this world is passing away? Literally. Last year's fires in Canada, last year's global temperature extremes that twice crossed the two-degree higher than historical averages marker that we weren't supposed to cross for another fifty, the shocking warming of the top two metres of the oceans, the loss of biodiversity - these are just waypoints on what now appears to be an irreversible trend of environmental change that will have catastrophic changes for humans. Scientists, agriculturalists, sociologists, even economists are tracing the path from environmental collapse to global food collapse to global economic collapse to global security collapse. The radical changes that need to be made now will only minimize the harm that is coming, they won't eliminate it. According to the two most recent Intergovernmental Panels on Climate Change, as well as the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, there is "great certainty" that our future - <i>our</i> future, not just our children's future - will see global civilizational collapse. The collapse of food networks, the collapse of governments, of infrastructures, of production and manufacturing systems, of banking systems, of the internet, of institutions like ours, whether you're talking about churches or seminaries. All of it. In our lifetime.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now the difference between our situation and Paul's is not that he turned out to be wrong, but that he believed God was in control of all things and had planned the suffering under the Roman Empire in order to display the glory of God when it was overthrown. <i>Our </i>situation is that when it comes to this already-begun climate collapse, the suffering that we are and will experience, along with the suffering of the entire world, is not caused by God, but by our own curved-in-on-ourself-ness. It's caused by our own self-centeredness, which has led us to exploit and consume the resources of this world without hesitation and indeed with divine justification. <i>We</i> are the cause of our own destruction, and it cannot be stopped.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Which is what causes me to lose sleep at night, to feel like I want to throw up even as I say all this, to feel as if my heart stops beating when I face the very real possibility of the actual extinction of the human species before the end of this century - because that is one of the outcomes that is predicted if we continue on this path -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and what makes me wish I was not actually preaching this sermon right now. Because the question that keeps arising is one that Paul didn't ask, and that is "why didn't God stop us?" followed immediately by, "what if God can't?"</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It's not a new question actually - this was <i>the</i> question asked by Jews as the Holocaust unfolded. Elie Wiesel, in his book <i>Night, </i>tells about the tortuous hanging of a boy in a concentration camp: "the [...] rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing... And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished. Behind me, I heard [a] man asking: "For God's sake, where is God?" And from within me, I heard a voice answer: "Where is He? This is where--hanging here from this gallows..."" For Wiesel and other Jews, this was the ultimate blow - the death of God. They had been taught to believe that God was both good and that God was omnipotent. Rather than give up their belief that God was good and God loved them, they gave up on their belief that God had the power to change things - they gave up on God's omnipotence. It wasn't that God would not stop what was happening, it was that God could not.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">---</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So, when Lutherans are ordained as pastors, we are cautioned to "[give] no occasion for false security or illusory hope." At this moment in time, hoping that God's omnipotence will save us from the coming collapse of the climate and civilization is an illusory hope, just as was the Jews' hope that God could save their children from the fires of Auschwitz.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so we are driven to our knees in fear, not just for the future but for our faith. Giving up on God's omnipotence is terrifying in and of itself, because this is the space of hopelessness and it greatly troubles us because we have come to believe that hope is the result of faith. That to be faithful is to be hopeful. That's how we demonstrate our faith, right? By hoping, by trusting, that the God who promises to deliver can indeed deliver. So, as faithful people, hopelessness shakes us to our core.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But hope is not faith, and it can betray us when we hope in <span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><i>something</i></span>, instead of in <span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><i>someone</i></span>. I'm going to say that again - we run into trouble when we hope in something, instead of in someone. Another way to say this might be that we run into trouble when we place all of our hope in an outcome, instead of in the One who is with us.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Paul dos not proclaim that God is going to save this world, or this species, or any species from extinction. Paul is very clear that resurrection is not a kind of spiritual new life <i>while maintaining our old life.</i> Paul is explicit that the new life that God will bring is something completely different from what we know: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." (1 Cor 15:50) This is not some kind of double speak that we are meant to understand metaphorically. Paul is literal - the present form of this world is passing away and God is not going to save it. Paul told the early Christians to give up both mourning and rejoicing, and he might as well also have told them to give up hope.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But here's the thing - giving up hope is not the same thing as giving up faith. To be hopeless is <i>not</i> to be faithless. Miguel De La Torre, a professor at Iliff School of Theology, says in his book, <i>Embracing Hopelessness, </i>"hopelessness engenders desperation and doubt, two needed emotions that serve as the basis for faith." "Hopelessness does not mean faithlessness." Hopelessness is to give up hope in a particular action, in a specific outcome. <i>Faithlessness</i> is to give up believing that there is One who is and remains in relationship with us. Indeed, hopelessness can drive us to faithfulness, where we give up hoping in an outcome and turn instead to God who is with us even unto the cross. To be hopeless is to be freed from illusory hope or false security, to be hopeless is a step to being faithful. Hopelessness is what happens when our belief that God can change the outcome is stripped away, <i>and yet</i> we still reach out our arms in the moment of death and cry out in despair and doubt, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus felt hopelessness. But he was not faithless. A faithless person does not believe there is anyone there to hear him, and so does not even cry out. Faith is what compels us to cry out because we know that there is someone listening. Jesus cried out in hopelessness <i>because</i> he knew God was with him.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we take seriously the reality of climate collapse and the very real possibility of civilizational collapse, these feelings of hopelessness will increase. As fishers of people, we are not called to proclaim that God will or even can make everything okay again. This world that we live in is dying. But we are called to proclaim to them, and to ourselves, the good news that God is with them, that Emmanuel is with us, and will remain with us as this world that we have crucified ends. Together we will cry out, and God will be with us. Thanks be to God. Amen.</p>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-82404317974944358012024-01-18T13:36:00.000-05:002024-01-18T13:36:00.812-05:00November 23, 2023 - Christ the King<p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Matthew 25:31-46</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Listening to this Gospel, anybody feeling overwhelmed? Jesus is talking about how the righteous who will go into eternal life are those who fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, took care of the sick, visited the oppressed. But if you look around the world today, if you watch the news or even if you just drive through the streets, you realize just how many hungry people there are right now, how many sick, how many poor, how many suffering from injustices and violence of all kinds. It's overwhelming. It seems like the world is being overrun by polarization, food insecurity, increasing unemployment, increasing need for social supports even as they are being cut, increasing global violence, really, just increasing injustice.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And here is Jesus, saying that he is coming to judge everyone on the basis of whether we helped or not. And I'm overwhelmed, and I'm exhausted. It's not that I'm not helping, I'm doing the best I can, but it just seems like such a small drop in the very large ocean, and I don't know if it's enough. and I know that yes, we can talk about the grace of Jesus and that we will be counted as righteous by virtue of our baptism, but at the same time, there is this yawning chasm of suffering in the world, there are these massive structures of injustice, and it doesn't sit well with my soul to look at that and say, "oh well, it's okay, I'm baptized and Jesus loves me." And so I'm exhausted.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Have you heard of this thing called compassion fatigue? According to the Canadian Medical Association, "compassion fatigue is the cost of caring for others or for their emotional pain, resulting from the desire to help relieve the suffering of others. It is also known as vicarious or secondary trauma, referencing the way that other people’s trauma can become their own." The CMA talks about it in the context of medical professionals, but I think it applies to all people who yearn for the world to be a better place, and particularly to Christians who want to follow Jesus in helping those who need help and in overcoming oppression in the world. According to the CMA, the flags for compassion fatigue are feeling helpless in the face of suffering, feeling overwhelmed or alternately feeling emotionally disconnected and not caring, increased anxiety, sadness, or irritability. In other words, what many of us are feeling when we watch the news or learn more instances of suffering.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now the CMA offers tips for recovering from compassion fatigue, including good self-care and getting rest, and engaging in mindfulness. But there's one in particular that fits with today, and that's that "if you feel overwhelmed, take a moment to think about what you do have control over and what you can change."</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And here we come back to Jesus' words in Matthew. "And the king said, 'truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." The least of these... What does that mean?</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Well, about fifty years after the Gospel of Matthew was written, a Jewish collection of rabbinic sayings was developing, called <i>Pirkei Avot</i>, or Chapters of the Fathers. And it has some striking similarities to what we find in Matthew - for example, in Matthew, Jesus says, "Where two or three are gathered, I will be there." while in Pirkei Avot it says that where two are gathered to study Torah, the Shekinah (or Spirit of God) is there." So that's interesting.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But for today, there is a passage that says, "You are not obligated to complete the task, but you are not exempt from it. If you have studied the Torah greatly (and here that means studied it and performed its commandments, <i>which are connected to feeding the hungry, taking care of the sick, visiting those who are imprisoned, acts of justice</i>) If you have done these things, you will be given a great reward ... and know that the reward of the righteous is in the world to come."</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You are not obligated to complete the task, but you are not exempt from it. And know that the reward of the righteous is in the world to come.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. ... And .. the righteous will go into eternal life."</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Huh.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It would appear that Jesus is not actually telling us that we need to feed <i>all</i> the people of the world, that we need to help <i>all </i>the sick, that we need to tear down entire structures of injustice, that we need to care for the whole world. Jesus is not demanding of us something that we cannot accomplish. Jesus is not setting us up to fail. Jesus is, rather, offering reassurance that the small things that you are doing, the least of your acts, are still enough to mark you as a sheep, rather than a goat. That small donation you make at the last minute the food bank - that counts. That's enough. That prayer of your heart that goes up when you children sitting amongst rubble - that counts. That's enough. That handful of change you give to the person asking at the curb - that counts. That's enough.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And it's enough because it is all that Christ asks us to do. Christ does not ask us actually to tear down systems of injustice. Jesus never told the disciples to overthrow the Roman Empire. That is not our work. That is the work of the King; that is the work of Christ the King. Christ the King is working through our small acts <i>and</i> through his Incarnation, death, and resurrection, to overthrow the powers and principalities and structures and systems that bring suffering and violence and oppression and death. Our small acts of support are not going to do that, and we are not called to do that.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It sounds strange to say this, but I also think there is grace in what I am going to say: if you are exhausted from trying to battle the injustices of the world, it may be because you are trying too hard to do something you are not called to do. Or maybe I should say, perhaps <i>I </i>am exhausted because I am trying too hard to do something nobody is called to do. We are not called to be the King, we are not called to overthrow the powers of evil. We are not called to replace Christ.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Instead, we are called to support Christ's work, in small ways that we can manage and that will not make us sick with concern for the world. You know, it's interesting in this Gospel reading that Jesus isn't actually doubting whether or not people will care for the least among them. He doesn't say "if" you do it for the least of me, he says, "just as you did it." He recognizes that his followers, that we, that you, are actually caring for the least in your midst. Do not be overwhelmed by the enormity of the world's need, to paraphrase the rabbis. You are not responsible for fixing the world, only for your small deeds. And just as you do these small deeds for the least, you do it for Jesus, our rabbi. "And know that the reward of the righteous is in the world to come."</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God is bringing about the world to come, we're going to start celebrating that next week in Advent. God has <i>already</i>, through Christ, begun to bring about that world, where violence and evil and oppression do not rule, but where the King of love and peace and justice does, and where you will find yourself welcomed and blessed by the Father. Thanks be to God. Amen.</p>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-77964260965901872972023-10-10T19:38:00.003-04:002023-10-10T19:38:41.305-04:00CBC Interview<p> CBC Calgary asked for us to share some thoughts in light of recent anti-trans protests in Canada, so we did. If you feel inspired, please donate to <a href="https://www.skippingstone.ca/">Skipping Stone</a>,which is a non-profit that supports trans kids and adults in Calgary.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="388" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OnvFYAYjwn0" width="467" youtube-src-id="OnvFYAYjwn0"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-2967457898670216942023-01-19T19:25:00.003-05:002023-01-19T19:25:55.281-05:00Resolutions and Remembering One's Baptism<p> <span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">January 8, 2022, the Baptism of our Lord -Hope Lutheran Church, Calgary</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-2dc2823e-7fff-e93f-9808-cd8e39a31f74"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Isaiah 42:1-9, Matthew 3:13-17</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So did anybody make any New Year’s resolutions? How are you doing on that?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have a love-hate relationship with New Year’s resolutions. Or maybe it’s more of a like-hate relationship. I like sitting down once a year and reflecting on the past twelve months and being honest about my failures and shortcomings and thinking about what kind of person I really want to be and thinking about what I can do in the coming year to live into being that person. I appreciate the honest self-reflection and commitment that comes with New Year’s resolutions.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But more and more I have become wary about the way in which resolutions have led to this idea that we should be perpetually dissatisfied with ourselves. That there is something about that us that constantly needs improvement, that we’re not good enough the way we are, that there is something lacking in each of us. I see the ads for fitness programs to start the year with, or fancy home or garage organization systems that will help us live without last year’s clutter, or new systems of daily planning that will help us live our most productive year ever, and I feel unsettled. It’s not that I’m perfectly fit - far from it, or that my house is perfectly organized - that is not true and I definitely have too much clutter, and it’s not that I am particularly productive in my daily life. I absolutely get side-tracked in my day more than I want. I need improvement. And yet, are we really supposed to be </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">this</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> dissatisfied with ourselves?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This question comes up particularly strongly whenever I hear the story of Jesus’ baptism and God’s words, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” It’s an echo of the words we just heard in Isaiah, when God says, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wow. I bet Jesus never wondered whether he was good enough. I bet he never made New Year’s resolutions. If God claims you as beloved and speaks about being well-pleased with you, if God’s soul delights in you, would you feel like you needed to make a new year’s resolution or would you think you’re doing okay?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you have been baptized, then you, like Jesus, are one of God’s beloved. You are one of those with whom God is well-pleased. Regardless of what gurus and advice givers and fitness experts are saying to you, you’re doing okay. More than okay - you are one of those in whom God delights. Now before I explain why, because your instinct is probably to go eh, I’m not so sure about that, just sit for a second and try to believe it.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Okay, here’s why. You were baptized into the same baptism as Christ and that means you are as good as Christ. We know this, Paul says this in Galatians 3:27: as many of you as were baptized into Christ were clothed with Christ. In baptism, you were clothed with Christ. In baptism, God put Christ on you. Your shortcomings, your failures, your sins were exchanged for Christ’s perfection, and accomplishments, and righteousness. This is what God does in baptism. This is why we say baptism saves us, wipes away our sins, effects our forgiveness.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And this is not our doing. This is not </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">our </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">doing. This is an act of God. And this is why you are God’s beloved, and why God’s soul delights in you. Even though we do, in a sense, have improvements to make, even though we may have failed to keep last year’s resolutions, even though our lives might be messy or simply just a mess, even though all of these things - God has given you Christ’s perfection in baptism and God sees you as you are in Christ. Beloved. Delightful. Sufficient. Perfect, even.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But again, perfect because of Christ, not perfect because of ourselves. Being covered by Christ in the waters of baptism does not mean that every decision we make, every thing we do, is perfect like Christ. And that’s because we forget that Christ, who lived for others, who died for others, is how we are made perfect, and instead, we give in to what the world tells us, and we live for ourselves and we die for ourselves and we center ourselves as the reason or cause of our perfection. We start believing that it’s our own attempts at self improvement that make God love us and that delight God. And that’s when we go astray. That’s when arrogance and self-justification and lording it over others takes over. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that’s</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> when we turn to those New Year’s resolutions because that’s when we get that little voice inside of us telling us that something is not right with us. Advertisers tells us that what’s not right is our body, or our house, or our work, but what’s actually not right is that we have forgotten that Christ, who calls us to himself and in doing so calls us to live for others, is who makes us right.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And when we allow God to turn us to Christ, and to our baptism in Christ, then we are turned away from ourselves and recentred in the source of our righteousness and perfection. God says this in Isaiah, “here is my servant whom </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights; I have put </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">my spirit </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">upon them.” </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is the reason we are beloved by God, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God’s </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">spirit is the reason God delights in us.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank God, then, that because of our baptism we can be 100% positive that God’s spirit </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with us. The Spirit that descended from heaven onto Jesus in his baptism descended onto you in yours. And so you are likewise empowered to “bring forth justice” to be “a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon,” you are given God’s strength and wisdom to make the world a better place.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So perhaps this year, rather than making resolutions about becoming a better person, either healthier or more organized or more productive, perhaps you might resolve to remember daily that God has clothed you in Christ and empowered you with the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you might resolve to live into being the person that God has already made you to be in baptism. And to remember daily that because of that, no matter what, you are God’s beloved, and in you God’s soul delights. Thanks be to God, Amen.</span></p><br /><br /></span>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-8797485040117537562022-11-17T10:11:00.001-05:002022-11-17T10:13:58.889-05:00The King Who Serves<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">A joint service between Lutheran Theological Seminary Saskatoon and the Southwest Area of the ABT Synod, hosted by Advent Lutheran Church, Calgary.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Christ the King, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Word who was in the beginning and was with God and is God, full of divine power, and what does he do with that power? He could have used that power to cast down the Roman Emperor or to send all the Roman troops to drown in the Mediterranean as he did with the pigs. He could have called down the angels from on high to bring peace and justice in the blink of an eye. But he didn’t do that. Instead, he submitted to death on a cross. He surrendered his divine power and lived fully into his humanity – into the experience of being a vulnerable human who dies.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now there are many different ways of understanding why he did this, but today I want to look specifically at what Christ’s surrender of divine kingly power means for those of us who yearn to follow him and to be with him. I want us to consider what </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">wants us to do with the small amounts of power that we humans have access to from time to time, and to remember what God is doing for us in those moments when we have no power at all.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what we do we see in Christ the King’s use of power? We see service. Particularly, we see service to those who cannot serve him back. Christ uses his power to feed thousands of people who never fed him back. Those people who received the loaves and fishes from him, they didn’t invite him back to their place to host him in return. They didn’t have the means to host a reciprocal feast for him. And so he fed them </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">because </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">they couldn’t feed him. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We see the same in the miracles of healing that Christ performed. He healed people who were of no use to him. They didn’t serve him in return, most of them didn’t even thank him. It’s true that after he healed Peter’s mother-in-law, she served him food, but she was the exception. For the most part, Christ healed those who were beggars, who had nothing of their own, who had no status or wealth to share with him. He used his immense power to serve those who could not serve him – we hear of unrequited love, for Christ it was more like unrequited service.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is not how </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> tend to use power. We’ve seen how people with power use it to increase their own power. They use their power to help only those who can help them in return, and they refuse to help those who can’t help them back. Our whole society right now is built on serving those who can contribute the most in return. We call it finding efficiencies, or practicing good business, or getting a good return on investment. We make decisions based on what is good for the bank account, which means doing whatever it takes to make our consumers, or our donors, or our supporters happy. We take people who are rich out for lunch so they will donate more, even though they have no need for a free lunch. We spend time and energy catering to people who are already healthy, even though they don’t need our efforts to stay that way. We give carbon offset credits to multinational corporations so they will continue to invest in our country, even though they make so much money they can afford to reduce their carbon emissions without going bankrupt.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But power, whether that comes in the form of money, or time, or energy, is, for us humans, limited. Which means that we simultaneously find reasons </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to spend money or time or effort on those who </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">can’t</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> give back. We tell people who have no income to pull themselves up by their bootstraps rather than putting money into changing social structures, we tell people who are too sick to work to stay home rather than putting money into creating medically safe public spaces, we tell individuals to make green choices rather than putting in the time and energy necessary to make the sweeping changes needed to save the global climate.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can you imagine if Christ used his divine kingship in that way? Multiplied the loaves and fishes for Pontius Pilate, </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">instead</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of the poor? Spent his time in King Herod’s palace, </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">instead </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of with Galilean fishers? Told parables that made Emperor Augustus look good, </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">instead </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of pointing to widows as models for a godly life? He could have. He probably would have avoided death on a cross if he’d done that.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But that’s not what it means to be a king in God’s kingdom. That’s not what it means to have power in God’s kingdom. That’s not how we are called to use </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">our </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">power – our money, our time, our energy, our status. The Spirit of God calls and empowers us to use our money and our time and our energy and our status the way Christ did – to go out of our way to serve people who can’t give back, to take the extra steps needed to support people who can’t offer support in return, to let go of the bottom line so we can grab hold of those falling off the bottom rung.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And thank God for that. Because in God’s kingdom, which means in all those earthly places where Christ is followed as king, everyone who is hungry is fed, everyone who is sick is restored, and everyone who has been pushed to the bottom is raised up, without expectation of what they can give in return. The church, in those holy moments when we are heeding the call of the Holy Spirit and allowing ourselves to draw on her strength, is that place. This is why we are drawn to church, after all. Because we trust, in those moments when we have no power of our own, that we will be fed, and restored, and raised up without being asked to give anything in return. We trust that God’s grace towards us is being granted </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">because</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> we are not able to give anything in return. And we trust that when we have been filled up with that grace, we will be given the strength and the courage to go out and serve others.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today’s readings are a preview of this Sunday’s, which is Christ the King Sunday. We might almost think of it as another chance to celebrate Good Friday, when we call Christ’s death on the cross good because it is Good News for us. Christ our King served, and in doing so shows us what God’s power, and ours by extension, is really for––for using in service to others so that all might experience the life that God gives. Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></p>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-1882050393053646852022-08-19T13:26:00.000-04:002022-08-19T13:26:04.508-04:00Freed to turn the world upside down<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Friday, August 19</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">th</span></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 2022 – Luther Congress, CLU Chapel, Thousand Oaks, CA</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Acts 17:1-9</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also! … They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor!”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just to be clear, “these people” refers to Paul and his Jewish Christ-following cohort in Thessalonica, a city of the Roman Empire two thousand years ago, not anybody in this chapel in Thousand Oaks, a city of the American </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Empire </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> state, today. Hopefully that clarification makes you all feel a bit better, especially those of you who are here without the privilege, or protection, of American citizenship.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was, after all, citizenship that protected Paul in his missions across the Roman Empire. This was not the first time Paul had been accused of treason to the Empire. It happened earlier in Macedonia, and then later in Corinth, and again in Caesarea. Each time, the charge was proclaiming things that went contrary to the laws or customs of the Roman Empire, a contrariness that could be translated into charges of treason, for which the penalty was execution. Each time, however, Paul’s citizenship saved him. Nevertheless, this notion that he and his cohort were “turning the world upside down” followed him, and unsettled those around him, wherever he went.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what it is that he was proclaiming that was so revolutionary? What made his words so challenging to those who wanted to uphold the structures of the Roman Empire?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was nothing more than the claim that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Saviour of the World, the Lord, the Son of God. Which means it was nothing less than the claim that the Roman Emperors, Caesars Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, or Nero – take your pick), were </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the Saviours of the World, or the Sons of God, or the Lords and Fathers of the Empire as they very ardently claimed to be. The proclamation of Jesus the Messiah was a rejection of the imperial cult, an accusation of the falsity of the imperial system, and an attempt to turn the world upside down. While Paul certainly never directed anyone to overturn the Empire, he proclaimed an alternate Messiah, Son of God, and Saviour in a system where there could only ever be one. His proclamation of Jesus necessitated a rejection of all other claims to divinely instituted and justified rule.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul intended to turn the world upside down, as did Jesus in whose name Paul spoke. Paul, in bringing together followers of Christ, intended to overturn social and economic hierarchies and inequalities that functioned to uphold the Empire. While the groups he brought together were not so different from other “clubs” of his day, and I recommend Vearncombe, Scott, and Taussig’s </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After Jesus Before Christianity</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for more insight on that, Paul’s Christ-clubs did bring together people from different social and economic backgrounds into one family whose head was the God of Israel and </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the head of Rome, the </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pater </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">also known as Caesar. The father and head of Paul’s Christ-clubs was the one who protected the poor, the widows, the sick, the foreigners. </span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The father of the Empire, Caesar, Son of God, stepped on those people. The Messiah, Jesus, Son of God lifted them up. Paul, like others of his day who proclaimed Christ, was absolutely invested in turning the world upside down, exactly as accused.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can we say the same about our own proclamations? Particularly as scholars? Does our work in academia, in the world of Luther, either explicitly or implicitly reject human claims to divinely instituted and justified authority? Is our work turning the world upside down? Are the Empire’s people even accusing us of doing so?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I suspect that most of us would answer in the negative, even as we recognize that God is calling us, as Christians, in our vocation as scholars, to the task of this very proclamation, just as God called Paul.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ah, yes, you heard me – the purpose of our scholarly life is proclamation. Now, I do not mean that every piece of scholarly work should be a sermon, to be clear. But we understand proclamation to be more than preaching from the pulpit. Proclaiming the Gospel, proclaiming that God, whom we encounter in Christ through the work of the Spirit, is the one we can fear, love, and trust above all others happens in deeds, and actually, in just living. The act of engaging in scholarship and in living the life of a scholar can be proclamation, when it is done in such a way that our work and our lives point to Christ’s presence in and with and for the world.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what does it mean for our work and our lives as scholars to point to Christ? It means that everything we produce is for the good of the world. It means that the goal of our scholarship is that it serves the most vulnerable, that it helps and supports our most precarious neighbours - human and non-human - in all of life’s needs. That it serves to help the vulnerable to escape the god of Empire, in whatever forms that god and that empire take. It means that our work aims to turn the world upside down.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You see, scholarship is not objective, and has never been. It has always served someone or something, whether that something is “the academy” or “the institution” or “the truth” (whatever that means) or even whether that something is our tenure portfolio or a grant requirement or a publishing opportunity. Scholarship is not objective because it is produced by scholars, and scholars are not objective because while we may as scholars be free to be lords of all, we are also freed to be servants to all. As Luther reminds us, “in all of one’s works a person should in this context be shaped by and contemplate this thought alone: to serve and benefit others in everything that may be done, having nothing else in view except the need and advantage of the neighbour.” (Freedom of a Christian)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ah….. there it is. Scholars who are Christian, and that is the vast majority in this chapel, are also called to be servants to all. We are called in all we do to proclaim the Gospel so that Christ’s work of liberation and new life is felt by those who need it most. We are called to engage in and produce work that empowers others to grasp hold of God’s promise and to push away the devil’s Empire. Even if such </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">subjective</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> proclamation compromises our academic reputation, or our institutional standing, or our vain attempts to position ourselves as objective thinkers. We are called to be subjective. To be subject. To those below us, and through them, to God.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because we are </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> subject to earthly powers or to any earthly empire. Luther again reminds us, “Through faith every Christian is exalted over all things and, by virtue of spiritual power, is absolutely lord of all things.” Before God, through the citizenship we have been given in that kingdom, we are the rulers of our own lives.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was that citizenship that freed Paul to speak against the Roman Empire. Not his citizenship in Rome, but his citizenship in Christ. And it is that same citizenship, given to us in baptism, that first frees us and then calls us to speak against the empires of our day. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You are free, then, to be subjective - to be subject to your neighbour - because you are freed. Freed from aspirations to academic greatness, freed from collegial expectations, freed from attempting to leave a scholarly legacy or protect the future of reformation studies. The empires of this day may demand and demand from you that you produce work to </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">their </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">satisfaction, but you are not in the end obligated to them. They do not own you. </span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your work, then, is also freed. Freed from the expectations of your institution, or your colleagues, freed from being accountable to them, because they are no longer your Lord. Christ is. And Christ is pleased, nay delighted, with you and with your work and with your desire to serve and with your secret yearning to bring the empires down.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So as you go forward from this place, turn the world upside down. As you put together the research and papers that emerge from this rich time together, feel free to write with your head and also your heart. Feel free to let your concern for the vulnerable permeate your work. Feel free to allow your subjectivity, to God and to your neighbour, show through. Feel free to allow your work to proclaim, even implicitly, that the empires of this world should not, can not, and will not stand because Christ, whom we encounter when we are with the empire’s most desperate subjects, is </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">our</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> true Lord. Remember, as Luther did, that “…before tyrants and stubborn people you may exercise that freedom with contempt and without ever letting up at all.” You are free, in your life and in your life’s work, to turn the world upside down. Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-52476673899437796322022-05-22T09:24:00.009-04:002022-05-22T09:24:42.562-04:00Easter 6 - Do not let your hearts be troubled<div> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Acts 16:9-15; Rev 21:10, 22–22:5; John 14:23-29</i></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wish it were that easy. As much as I try not to “let” it happen, my heart is troubled. A year ago, as part of my work with the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, I did a deep dive into the membership numbers of our denomination, along with looking at the numbers of pastors, and the numbers of congregations. I knew all these numbers were going down—we all know that, but I wanted how much exactly. And here’s what I found.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From 2015 to 2020, so pre-pandemic, in the four western Synods of the ELCIC—BC, Alberta and the Territories, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba––the number of ELCIC members declined by 3.5% year over year. And math being what it is, the total loss of members for that time period was over one third. We shrunk by a third in just five years.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But membership doesn’t tell us everything, so I looked at actual attendance numbers. Across the four Synods, attendance dropped by 54%. And remember, this is pre-pandemic. I’ve been sitting with these numbers for a year, and they still shock and trouble me.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now what was interesting, and this is just a side note, is that the number of pastors declined at the same rate as the number of members. But the number of congregations basically stayed the same. It turns out that we don’t have a shortage of pastors, we have a surplus of congregations. Congregations themselves are getting thinner and thinner, but not closing, and so the same number of pastors are still needed, even though the number of actual people they serve is fewer. It </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">feels</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> like a shortage of pastors, because of how many congregations don’t have one, but the ratio of pastors to </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ELCIC</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> members is actually constant. Not that that is any comfort to members of those individual congregations that don’t have one.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, like I said, my heart is troubled, and here comes Jesus saying, don’t let it be troubled, I’m giving you peace, it’s all good. I know he’s right, but gosh it still feels hard. I yearn for that peace, but the reality is staring me in the face, and I find Jesus’ words hard to follow.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I really want is what we hear about in this week’s reading from Revelation. Right on the heels of last week’s beautiful vision of no more crying or mourning or death, we have this glorious promise of the city of Christ, where the trees with twelve fruit means there is no more hunger, the river through the middle means there is no thirst, and open gates because of no night means that there are no wild animals or brigands to threaten the city dwellers. Everyone is at peace, their bodies are at peace, and their spirits are at peace. God comes down to be with them, Christ lives in their midst, and their hearts are not troubled by anything.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s what I want. I think that’s what we all want. We want that city, with Christ as its center, to come down and be among us. And it may be that I lack imagination, but it is hard for me to believe this will happen, for real. I don’t know how to hold the reality we live in with this vision that is promised.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When one of my kids was little, like four years old, they asked me, “Mommy, how can Jesus be on the moon and in my heart at the same time?” And I was like, what? And they said, “Jesus is everywhere, so Jesus is on the moon. And Jesus is also in my heart. How?” And I remember being very grateful to their Christian preschool, for making real for them both that Jesus is everywhere and Jesus is in their heart.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wonder, in this time when our hearts are troubled, if perhaps we might think of the city of the Lamb as in Revelation coming down to dwell, not on earth per se, but in our hearts. Might we imagine, and even believe, that the glorious city of God, with everything necessary to feed and water our spirits, to protect us from clouds of despair so that our hearts can remain open to those around us, and to give us a peace despite our troubles, will come down and even is right now coming down into our hearts?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It seems to me that in these troubling times, when Jesus tells us not to let our hearts be troubled, he isn’t telling us to ignore or deny that times are troubling. Instead, perhaps he is calling us to </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">let</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">him come into our hearts</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, bringing his peace—God’s peace—with him, to be there in the centre of our troubled hearts. He is calling us to let him in, not as a denial of the seriousness of the situations we find ourselves in, not so we can go around saying, “everything is fine!”, but so that he can face our troubles with us, so he can nourish us and give us strength to live with them, so that he can protect us from being overwhelmed by them. “My peace I give to you, I do not give as the world gives.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So let’s take the opportunity right now, for the next few minutes, to open our hearts to let Jesus come in. Now, I know this isn’t very Lutheran, we prefer to let Christ come into our heads, not so much into our hearts, that’s more of a Pentecostal or Pietist thing to do, but I think we can try. So I’m going to invite you to sit up straight, shoulders back, chin up, (and of course, you don’t have to do this if it’s too much). Wherever you are, whether you’re at home or here in the church, go ahead and just kind of settle into that position. And if you’re at home, you are more than welcome to get down and lie on the floor. (You can do that here in church too if you want, why not?) And now I invite you to take a big breath in and out. And as you breathe out imagine the troubles in your heart just settling down, calming down, and then breathe Christ in. And we’re going to sit here for a moment. And remember that we’re all doing this together, and we’re imagining the beautiful city of God, with Christ in its center coming into our hearts. And Christ is filling up our hearts, and shining so brightly that there is no more night, and feeding all those tiny pockets that are yearning for peace, and Christ is building up some protection against hopelessness, and despair, and evil, so that they can’t enter. With every breath in, just keep imagining your heart opening up and Christ coming in.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you feel at peace, even for a small moment, know that this is the peace of Christ, the peace that passes all understanding. This is the peace that Jesus gives to you, that Jesus leaves with you.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And if you didn’t feel any peace, that’s okay. I invite to keep trying, every day this week, even just five minutes a day, wherever you find yourself (maybe not in your car waiting for a red light to change), but really anywhere, and let Christ into your heart, and eventually, sooner or later, he will come. This I believe.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The peace of Christ doesn’t mean we deny the reality we live in. But this peace does let us live with the facts of our reality </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">without</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> being troubled. Which frees us to act in hope and trust to create a new future. I’ll remind you, since we are in Easter, that resurrection life never looks like the old life… Christ’s future that we are acting for is not going to look like what it did before, we are never going back to pre-pandemic times or to the good old days … but again, do not let your hearts be troubled by that. Because Christ is here, in the heart of every person here and at home, and Christ will bring us through this moment to the next, and the next, and the next. But we don’t have to </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">wait</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for the glory of Christ to be revealed, it is revealed now, in our hearts, and it is also real. Thanks be to God, amen.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-54831808218368312492022-05-15T09:00:00.001-04:002022-05-15T09:00:08.716-04:00Easter 5 - Creation’s Visions of Resurrection<div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Easter 5 - Acts 11:1-18, Psalm 148, Revelation 21:1-6, John 13:31-35<br /></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Advent Lutheran Church, Calgary</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What visions we are given today from Scripture! In this fifth Sunday of Easter, when we are over a month past that glorious Easter Sunday, it’s a blessing to be reminded, once again, of the new life that Christ’s resurrection has inaugurated. To be reminded, as the visionary of the book of Revelation says, that “God will dwell with [us] and be with [us] and wipe every tear from [our] eyes,” that “Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.” And to be reassured, through the story in Acts, that God gave Peter a vision of radical inclusion through Jesus Christ and the blessing of the Holy Spirit on all peoples, a continuation of the miracle at Pentecost. And even in our Scripture from the Gospel of John, to hear Jesus, who knows that Judas is about to betray him, continuing to proclaim that love is the way, and that this love is the glory of God. All together, our Scripture readings remind us that resurrection life is real, and that God calls us to live and love in that resurrection world.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s inspiring. But I confess that it has been hard to live into this resurrection world. I read the stories from Acts and think, Where is my vision? Where is my voice from heaven? I receive the words from our second reading, the wonderful words about death being no more, and I think, “How long, O Lord?” The vision in Revelation was given when the Christian church was being persecuted by Roman Emperors, but that was almost 2,000 years ago - we are </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">still </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">waiting for God’s city to come down among us. In just this year alone, it seems we have moved even farther away from “mourning and crying and pain will be no more” than ever: more Canadians are dying from fentanyl poisoning than ever before; the medical journal </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Lancet</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> estimates that we are approaching 20 million COVID deaths (Volume 399: Issue 10334); American legislators are rolling back women’s rights to decide what to do with their own reproductive systems, nevermind attempting to criminalize people like myself, who actively support our transgendered children; more than fifty percent of Ukrainians have been displaced in just two months by Russian invaders; murderous white supremacy is on the rise as the people of Buffalo, NY experienced just yesterday, and, of course, there is the ever-increasing concern of climate change and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s April assessment that we have already blown past restricting global warming to just 1.5 degrees Celsius and are well on our way to blowing past restricting it to only 3 degrees. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of these things is hard enough to live with, but when we take all of them together, along with those things that weigh on our hearts that I haven’t even mentioned, and it becomes difficult, if not almost impossible, to wait with genuine </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">hope</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for the resurrection kingdom to come. And we don’t even need to be following the latest news on any of these issues to feel exhausted by this period of waiting for the Lord. Across the world, there is a general feeling of hopelessness about the future. Maybe you’ve noticed an increase in societal anxiety, polarization, divisiveness? Or maybe the opposite - an increase in cynicism, apathy, exhaustion? These are two sides of the same coin—these are two different manifestations of hopelessness. If you have noticed in yourself a tendency towards grumpiness, or exhaustion, know that you are not alone. This is what hopelessness can feel like, this is what it can feel like when we lost hope that the resurrection world will be a reality for us.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And today we have these Scriptures calling us to live in hope, and more than that, to live as if our hope is real, no matter how long the time between that moment in Acts two thousand years ago and that moment when the new heaven and new earth will finally arrive in fullness. And I confess that while I do find them inspiring, there are many times in these past few years when I have found that gap between two thousand years ago and the fulfillment of the vision in Revelation really hard to live in. The Word of God remains the most important revelation of God that we have, but the written words are not always as alive for us as they were for those twenty centuries ago.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been reading and learning a lot about Christian Indigenous theologies over the last two years, particularly about how our Indigenous siblings receive the Word of God and understand God to reveal God’s self to them. One of the most helpful things I have learned is that Indigenous people believe that God is revealed not only through the stories in Scripture but also through the world around us, through Creation. The animals, the plants, the rivers, even the rocks reveal God to us, because they, too, are made in the image of God. They, too, are recipients of God’s Holy Spirit, proclaiming as much to us about the resurrection world as our Bible does.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so this spring, I have been looking to nature, to the plants and animals that share this Treaty 7 territory with us, to experience the resurrection of Christ in the here and now. And here is the vision that I have been given, the blessings of the Holy Spirit that I see flowing upon us all as we wait:</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I see that the grass is pushing its tiny blades of green through last year’s straw. I see that the trees are sending out their tiny leaves to receive the sun’s rays. When I drove back from Saskatchewan last week, I saw that baby cows are wobbling though the stubbly fields next to their moms. (Yes, I know they’re called calves, but ‘baby cows’ sounds cuter.) I see that the prairie sage in my garden has tripled in number from what I planted last year. And these plants and animals are saying to me, “We will continue to live and to grow, despite what the climate change reports predict about life ten years from now. We will continue to live and to grow in this moment, with this spring that God has given us.” I see them moving into spring trusting that these next few months will unfold as God has intended them to.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I see the little kindergarten children running out of their classroom to clamber on the school playground behind my house, and I hear them laughing and shouting with joy. I don’t know any of them personally, but I have seen their bodies grow from those awkward and timid September days to smooth and confident almost-Grade-1 bodies six months later. And their lengthening, strengthening muscles and bones say to me, “We will continue to grow and strengthen, despite the continuing and even worsening COVID pandemic. We will continue to laugh and rejoice in this sunny day that God has given us.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I feel the sunshine getting warmer and the days getting longer as the earth continues its yearly circling through the solar system and continues its daily turning on our wobbling axis. I saw pictures from the new JW Space Telescope of galaxies upon galaxies upon galaxies, saturated with stars and presumably planets. I saw just this week an actual picture of the centre of our galaxy, of the supermassive black hole, and was reminded that the Milky Way, created by the Word of God that was in the beginning and is now and ever will be, is over 13 billion years old. And these metereological and cosmological wonders say to me, “God’s ongoing acts of creation and new life have continued for billions upon billions of years, and will continue, despite the death and war you humans wreak on one another. We will continue to give birth to new stars and new planets and new life in this cosmic moment that God has given us.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God continues to give us visions and experiences of the living Word in the here and now, in addition to the visions we receive from Scripture. Indigenous theologians are teaching us that God gives us the living Word, the experience of the resurrection life of Christ, in this very moment, in the world around us. God has not ceased bringing new life to us, it just looks different than what we expect, as all resurrection life does. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God continues giving us, as God gave to Peter in Acts and as God gave to the writer of the book of Revelation, ever new visions and experiences of resurrection, not to deny the pain and death in our world, but to proclaim that this pain and death is not the end. We will not be stuck with it forever. And as we wait, inspired and refreshed again by these </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">new</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> visions, we can indeed act for life and newness and resurrection for all of Creation, we can indeed live with hope, because we—and all of creation—have been and still are the recipients of God’s new life. Thanks be to God, Amen.</span></div>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-72137798191609402972022-03-31T14:30:00.003-04:002022-03-31T14:30:33.643-04:00March 31 - A Sermon on Trans Day of Visibility<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">March 31, 2022 - LTS - Trans Day of Visibility (Preaching for LTS Worship)</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1646ed78-7fff-159f-eee3-ac72a9ee4e19"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; John 12:1-8 (Lent 5)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mary and Judas. The one who sees and accepts, and the one who refuses to see and accept. Mary, blessed with strength, is able to accept what Jesus has been saying to everyone for so long - that he is going to die. Perhaps she’s willing to accept this because she‘s already seen in her brother Lazarus what death looks like, and more importantly, that death is not the end. Whatever the reason for her willingness to see, she takes the nard, one of the oils used to prepare bodies for burial, and she anoints Jesus with it. She accepts that he is going to die and she cares for him while he is still alive.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And Judas berates her for it. Now, the writer of the Gospel of John was a little cynical in his description of why Judas did this, and we are always warned as preachers not to ascribe intentions to people, but whatever the reason, Judas refuses to see and accept what Mary does for what it is. He’s heard all of the same words that Mary has, that Jesus has uttered about his death, and about his resurrection, but he rejects it. He does not accept that Jesus will die, and so he does not accept Mary’s death-associated ritual. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead, Judas attempts to redirect everybody’s attention. He tries to stop others from seeing what Mary is doing, from seeing that Jesus is, in fact, on a journey that takes him through death to new life. He says, “Why was this perfume not sold and the money given to “the poor?” He refuses to even acknowledge the purpose of the perfume. He attempts to hide what Mary is doing by pointing elsewhere - don’t look at this act of accepting Jesus’ death, look over here, look at the poor! “The poor” – Judas is not particularly interested in people who are actually poor, in the widow and the orphan, he just waves over in the direction of some generic “poor.” He will not let go of this Jesus he is currently following, and thereby refuses to allow the process to unfold whereby Jesus will be fully transformed into who he has come among Israel to be. Judas refuses to bear witness to Jesus’ death - perhaps he doesn’t trust that Jesus will be resurrected… and he redirects everyone’s attention “over there.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But Jesus does not allow that. Jesus calls out Judas’ redirection. “You always have ‘the poor’ with you.” This is not Jesus saying Judas </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">shouldn’t</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> take care of the poor, or making some point about the eternal condition of poverty in this world. This is Jesus saying, Judas, you are using “the poor” as an excuse to ignore what is happening right in front of you. You are using “the poor” as a reason to hold me back from ne life. You always have “the poor,” you do </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> always have me. Jesus is chiding Judas for refusing to see and accept what Jesus has said over and over again. He is going to his death. He was not sent to earth to continue on living the way he had – to be with them, and heal them, and feed them in a constrained way, limited to this particular part of Israel for this particular set of years. Jesus was being called to die to this finite existence, as life-giving as it was for some, and to be transformed through resurrection into the eternal Son of God who would heal and feed and give life to all people, in all places, for all eternity. God did not take on flesh and become incarnate in order to stay in the way his followers had encountered him up to now. The “old” Jesus that he was needed to come to an end to make room for the new resurrected Jesus, the incarnate Logos who was and is and will be the life of all Creation. Jesus was trying to prepare those who loved him for his leaving, for his death. He wanted them to accept that </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">this</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Jesus whom they knew and loved would soon be gone. He wanted Judas to do what Mary was doing - anoint him, honour him for his life so far, and let him go.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today is Transgender Day of Visibility. It’s a day when we are called, like Mary, to see and to accept. Particularly, we are called to see and accept that there are people among God’s beloved, within our communities, within our families, who are being called to transformation. Who are on a journey of dying to whom we have known them to be, and transforming into whom God has always intended them to be.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At times like Mary and at times like Judas, I have witnessed this journey because I love someone who is transgender. My daughter. My daughter is a wonderful almost-16-yr-old who is proud of being trans, who is a light to those who know her, a wise friend to her peers, and a proclaimer of the Gospel that “God loves you no matter what” to the church, and who has read this sermon and graciously encouraged me to preach it.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But she was not always my daughter. For 12 years she was my son. My gender-nonconforming, dress-wearing son, but my son nonetheless. I raised two boys, both of them he/hims, and although my eldest son was “different,” I still knew him inside and out.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Until the day I didn’t. That is, until the day my child came to me and said, hey mom, my pronouns are she/her.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now I knew the statistics. I knew that 65% of youth who are trans experience mood disorders, and that 45% of them have attempted suicide. I’ve known that number since my child was 4. And I knew that a supportive family and community makes a huge dent in that statistic, and that being supportive means letting children dress how they want to dress, and using the pronouns that align with their gender. I did not arrive at this moment ignorant. I knew that for transgender people, being seen and accepted as the gender they wereare rather than the gender they have been assigned, is necessary for their well-being and even for their life.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And yet I still behaved like Judas. I prevaricated. “Are you sure? Are you sure it’s not they/them? I mean, you’re still a boy in some ways.” I described her to others as gender non-conforming, gender queer, nonbinary. I couldn’t hear her words that this old life that I had loved her in was death for her. I refused to accept that I had to let that old person I knew go. I focused on other things. I talked about how gender identity wasn’t that important anyway, that it was better to focus on being kind, or a good Christian, or compassionate for others. I introduced her to others as “my oldest child,” or sometimes “my oldest,” leaving her gender out completely. I was happy to introduce her as a kind, caring, wise child. But not a girl. Not my daughter. I couldn’t quite let go. I couldn’t see that the path she was on would lead to new life, or resurrection.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But she persisted, like Jesus. (Not that my daughter is like Jesus, just to be clear, she’s a teenager…) But, like Jesus, she continued to remind me, she continued to proclaim to me that the person I knew and loved was leaving, was dying, and that I had to say goodbye and prepare for her transformation, for her new life. I had to allow her “him” to die.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And by the grace of God, truly by the grace of God’s Spirit, I was able to see and accept that. Perhaps it was because I, like Mary, have been given the strength to trust that death is not the end, that resurrection is real. And so I accepted the death of this son I loved. I stopped using he/him pronouns. I stopped referring to my son, or even my non-gendered child. I began using her pronouns, I began calling her my daughter, I supported her in hormonal transition, and I will support her in surgical transition, which permanently ends her capacity to reproduce. As the oldest child of the oldest child of the oldest child going back twenty generations, I accepted the death of that genetic progression, so that she might move into the new life God has waiting for her.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And with the proper pronouns, with the proper hormones, and with the promise of gender-aligning surgery, my daughter is experiencing new life. She has become the wonderful, light-giving, life-giving girl she is today. The way that I introduced her in the beginning, as a light, a wise friend, and a proclaimer of the Gospel? All of that emerged </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">after</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> she began transitioning. After her old self died. Yes, the son I thought I had for 12 years was a delight to us, but this daughter I have now is a delight and a blessing to the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">world</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. She speaks up for those who are bullied, for the oppressed, for victims of racism, for victims of sexism, for victims of religious discrimination. She has a keen heart for justice and now she is bold in proclaiming that God’s love comes in the form of justice for all.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Thus says the Lord … do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old, I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? … for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.” (Isaiah 43:19-21)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this period of Lent, I lament that I was too often like Judas, refusing to allow the promise of resurrection to be real. I lament that I tried to make invisible my trans daughter. And I give thanks that on this day, and every day, Jesus calls us to be like Mary. To see and accept transgender people in our midst, to let their old selves, their old pronouns, their old names, their old bodies die as they move into the new life that awaits them. As they are resurrected, as they receive this new thing that God is doing in their lives, as they fully and truly become the people whom God has formed for God’s self. I give thanks that even when we act like Judas, God acts like Mary, who not only allowed Jesus to go to his cross, but was the first to witness his resurrection. I give thanks for the witness of trans Christians who offer their praise that death is not the end, that resurrection is real, that God is constantly bestowing new life. I give thanks that in their resurrection, they give us hope for new life for all. Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-11520015763318020792022-03-10T13:59:00.003-05:002022-03-10T13:59:51.992-05:00An Anti-colonial Gift of the Land<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Luke 13:31-35 - a sermon preached for LTS Chapel</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-34d734d7-7fff-b1f6-f276-199122cd79fc"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“On that day Adonai (the LORD) made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.””</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1984, biblical scholar Phyllis Trible introduced us to “Texts of Terror,” stories of abuse of women in the Bible that, because of their place in the Bible, were used to support the continued abused of women in communities that consider the Bible an authoritative text: the rape of Dinah, Amnon’s rape of his sister, Tamar, the fatal rape of the Levite’s concubine at the end of the book of Judges. Trible exposed the ways these stories terrorized their women listeners. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would like to suggest this morning that what we have here in Genesis is a different kind of text of terror, one that has been used, along with texts from Exodus and Joshua, to support the colonization of lands in Canada and internationally, and to displace Indigenous peoples. It has been heard with terror as it has been used to foster colonial attitudes toward the land that have done violence to the non-human inhabitants of the land, not just the human ones. Christans in particular have used these texts to argue that God has given land to us, as spiritual inheritors of Abraham, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that God intends for us to take control of that land. Christians, working together with colonial powers, have used these texts to argue that God has given </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">this </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">land to us, to us Christians, to control and use. This is one of the theo/logics behind the ideas of manifest destiny, the Doctrine of Discovery, terra nullius, the exploitation of the environment and its resources, and the tangled mess we find ourselves in today.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But notice the conflation in this theo/logic of what are actually three separate ideas. The gift of the land itself, that the gift is to us alone, and that the gift bestows not just the land, but control of it and its inhabitants. In </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">this </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">text, leaving the stories from Exodus and Joshua to the side, this conflation is imposed. It is not inherently there. This passage can, in fact, be read as an anti-colonial text, an anti-ownership approach in which God gives us land to live </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rather than </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in which land becomes a gift for all, not just some.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shai Held, a Jewish scholar and rabbi, helps us to see this when he points out that this promise of the land and descendants to Abram is immediately followed in Genesis by the story of Sarai and Hagar, wherein Sarai takes her Eyptian slave-girl Hagar and forces her to be a procreational surrogate, and then “deals harshly” with her. Held points out that the word for “deals harshly” is the same word God uses to describe the oppression that Abram’s descendants will experience in the land that is not theirs, and he goes on to note that God does not support Sarai’s behaviour. Rather, the angel of the LORD makes a promise to Hagar, similar to the promise to Abram, that Hagar will be the mother of multitudes. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Held sees a connection between these two stories, not just a sequential relating of events. For Held, Sarai’s treatment of Hagar, told immediately following the gift of land to Abram’s descendants, is meant to be a caution. Abram’s descendants are </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to treat those they encounter they way they would be treated by the Egyptians (the grammatical tense gets a bit muddled here because Genesis was written after slavery in Egypt but tells of the time </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">before</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.) Abram’s descendants are </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to “deal harshly” with the non-Hebrews in their midst. They are not to oppress others the way they would be oppressed. More to the point, for Held, they are </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to enslave or oppress the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites, onto whose land God has directed them.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This idea that one group of people can live on the same land as other groups without one becoming dominant over the other is not unusual. Indigenous peoples here have done it for centuries. In the time of Abram, “nomadic-sedentary symbiosis,” as Lawson Younger, a biblical scholar specializing in the Hebrew and Ancient Near Eastern history, describes it, was a reality. Multiple peoples shared the lands of the Ancient Near East, including the land of Haran, where Abram was before he came to Canaan. Some were nomadic and some lived in more settled habitats, but they lived in patterns and systems that were mutually beneficial to one another.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so when God says to Abram, I give your descendants this land, the land of all these other peoples, there is no indication in this text that God is saying, I give this land to you alone, to subdue it, to eliminate the other peoples here. That may occur in other places in the Bible, but it is not here.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is here is that God makes a gift of God’s land to one people among many, within the parameters of God’s covenant, as Walter Brueggemann emphasizes. Which means that this gift of land becomes truly a gift, which is to say a gift for </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">all</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and not just </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">some</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, when it is understood as a gift to live </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, rather than a gift to live </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a message of Good News that we hear when we pay attention to Indigenous perspectives on this text. Indigenous peoples understand land as something to live with, not on. Land is full of others with whom we live in relation, human and non-human. The Creator calls us to live in mutual life-giving with one another, not conquering or controlling one another, but offering our gifts to them and receiving their gifts in return. The people, the plants and animals, the rocks and rivers, they are all part of this web of relationality that is meant to provide life for all.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so when we hear these words from Genesis with this deeper understanding, we hear God’s covenant with Abram and with Abram’s descendants promise that God will ensure that they––us––will always find a place to live where God brings us into relationship with other communities and helps us to find our place. This is not a promise about territorialism, or nationalism, or statehood. This is a promise about God gifting us with relationship with all, about being given our place as the one amongst the many for abundant reward and blessing.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We know that God yearns for this mutual relationship with others on the land, and not for us to subdue them, in part because of Jesus’ words in our Gospel reading, that he longs to gather the people under his wings as a mother hen gathers her chicks. As he witnesses the deaths visited by people upon one another, “Jerusalem” on the prophets, the eagle of Rome on the people of Jerusalem, he cries out and laments. This is not the way people are supposed to live. This is not how God’s gift is meant to be received.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rather, I would like to suggest that God’s gifts are meant to be received with reciprocal giving. That is, that when God gives us something, we are to give of ourselves in return. Now I realize this sounds like a kind of conditional giving, and very un-Lutheran, but that’s not what I mean. I mean that when God gives us something, we give of ourselves </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to that gift</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In other words, when God gives us land, we give of ourselves to the land. More specifically, to the land and all of its inhabitants, human and non-human.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is, actually, what we see Jesus doing. Jesus understands himself as one of the children of Israel, a descendant of Abram, a recipient of the land. And he gives of himself to the land and the people. He lives with the land, rather than on the land. He gives of himself to the children of Israel, and to the Hittites and the Jebusites of his time––to the Samaritans, the Syro-pheonicians, the Romans. He lives </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the land and its inhabitants, not on or over them.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We, who follow Christ, are called to do the same. We are called to be the reason that others say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.” This land we live on, across all these provinces and territories, this land is a gift to us. But not to us alone. And not for us to live </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This land is a gift for us to live with, along with all the other humans and non-humans to whom God has </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">also </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">given this land as a gift. And we are called to follow Christ in making of ourselves and our descendants a gift to this land and to its humans and non-human inhabitants. We are called to give of ourselves in such a way that those who have lived on the land since before we arrived, and continue to live here still, might join us in the words of the Psalm, “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a few minutes we will celebrate Holy Communion, the gift of Christ to us. We will each do it from our own land, with the fruits of the land. The prayer that Jesus prayed during his last Passover celebration with his disciples would have included the Hebrew blessing, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Baruch ‘atah Adonai, melech ha’olam, hamotzi lechem min haaretz. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blessed are you, Lord our God, ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth. And then, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Baruch ‘atah Adonai, melech ha’olam, borei pri hagafen. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blessed are you, Lord our God, ruler of the universe, who brings forth fruit from the vine. Jesus knew his connection to the land, and then he went on to give himself to others on the land, by making a gift of himself, “This bread that has been given to me is also my body given for you.This fruit of the vine that has been given to me is also my blood given for you.” Weaving together the gift of the land and the gift of himself, he brings us into a sacred relationship with the land, with its inhabitants, and with one another. And so as we, some of those descendants of Abram, receive the gift of land and of Christ, we give thanks that we are strengthened to give of ourselves in return and to be abundance for all our relations as Christ is abundance for us. Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></p><br /></span>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-29062062831945059612022-01-04T10:52:00.003-05:002022-01-04T10:52:54.933-05:00The Light Made Flesh - Christmas Eve, 2021<p>Christmas Eve, 2021 - Zoom service - Advent Lutheran Church, Calgary</p><p><br /></p><p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Word made flesh, the light in the darkness.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a3f5f7c4-7fff-0d90-6b61-a525d4829bb7"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These two things come to us in Jesus of Nazareth, they are what we cling to this evening. These two opposites––material flesh and immaterial light brought together in one individual—have been a source of comfort in this past year and a source of hope in the year to come.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But tonight is not the night for a lecture on Christology, and how in Jesus, the human nature and the divine nature come together in fullness, without compromise, or mixing, or any of those other things. (As much as I love to lecture on that…)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tonight is the night we yearn to *experience* hope, to *experience* the Incarnation of our God’s light. Tonight is the night we want to *feel* that Christ is with us, not just *know* it, as we sit at home, at our kitchen tables, or on our couches, as we sit alone or with wiggly children off-screen. Tonight is the night we turn to God desperate for companionship, especially as we sit in disappointment that here is one more Christmas where we cannot be with one another.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so, in this time, I invite you into something a bit different than listening to me preach. I invite you, in this moment, to experience Christ, rather than just hear *about* him.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let us begin by looking around us. Look around you, at the room you are in. At *your* room and *your* home. Look at, or think about, the kitchen table where you last ate, where food from the earth nourished your body, where you received your daily bread today. And remember that Jesus ate. He got hungry, his mouth watered when he smelled something appealing, he enjoyed a good meal. And now I invite you to take a moment––a real moment, and think of how, as you sit at that table, he sits with you, your companion at all your meals. Your table is blessed, made holy––at every meal––by the presence of Christ, who gives you your daily bread. [wait]</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Look at, or think about, where you sit when you want to relax, or when people come over to visit (in that time when people did…). Think about, or enjoy if you are already sitting there, how nice it is to take the weight off your feet, to breathe and let all your cares out for a moment. And remember that Jesus needed to relax, too. He got overwhelmed by the needs of the world, he enjoyed being with his disciples just hanging out, he liked to sit and just take the weight off his feet. And now I invite you to take a moment and think of how, as you sit and relax, Jesus sits with you, your companion as you watch TV, or read a book, or talk on the phone or by video with your loved ones. Your comfy sitting place is blessed, made holy––at every moment––by the presence of Christ, who is with you through the Holy Spirit. [wait]</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Christ is here. And by “here” I mean with you, in your “here.” In your home right now, wherever your “here” is, and miraculously simultaneously in every single “here” around the world and throughout time. And because Christ is in every here and in every home, and in every darkness, we are not alone and we are not separated from one another. Just as Christ is with each of you, you are each with one another, through Christ. Each person on this zoom screen is here with you, through Christ. In the homes of your loved ones that you are not able to visit this year, Christ *is* and so you are together in Him. This is the glory of God, whose light shines in each of our dark moments and in shining, brings us together with one another so that nobody is truly separated.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I know that this is hard to *feel,* and so I invite you to one more experience. If you are with someone else, I invite you to hold hands. And children, you too, and even you teenagers. AND, if you are alone, or if you don’t want to hold hands with someone else (which is perfectly fine), I invite you to put your hands together, and rest them in your lap, if you like. Now close your eyes, and feel that other hand, even if it’s your own. Feel its warmth. Feel its pressure. Just feel it resting against your other hand. (And children, this is not a squeezing contest…) And remember that Jesus had hands. I know, that sounds kind of silly, but Jesus was God become *flesh*. Jesus held hands. Jesus’ hands were held. He hugged those he loved and yearned for hugs, just as we do. And I invite you now, if you want, to wrap your arms around yourself, or you can just keep holding your own hand, if that sounds a bit silly. Now take a moment and think that as you are holding your hand, or wrapping your arms around yourself, that Jesus is with you. Jesus is holding your hand, Jesus is hugging you. You––your body––is blessed, made holy, by the presence of Christ with you, who became flesh and dwells among us. [wait]</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*This* is what we celebrate at Christmas. That God became incarnate, became flesh, so that we might never be separated from God, in spirit or in body. You, your body, is not separated from God. You are not alone. Christ fills your home, and your very body. Christ is *here,* in you, and in every other person you see on your screen, gathering us all together in one. This is the meaning of Emmanuel––God-with-us, this is the meaning of the baby in the manger who is also God, this is the light in our darkness, this is why the angels sang (and I think still sing), “Glory to God in the highest heaven,” and this is why we say, Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-11563963365187397152021-10-17T10:15:00.000-04:002021-10-17T10:15:08.390-04:00Comfort in Our Digital Diaspora<div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;">Lutheran Church of our Saviour - Calgary - Hebrews 4:14-5:10</span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So this reading from the Letter to the Hebrews is a bit odd, isn’t it? It’s not one we really preach on a lot, or even hear read in church very much. It’s hard for us to relate to, I think. This talk of Christ as the high priest, and offering sacrifices - it doesn’t really resonate with our experiences of Jesus or our understandings of Communion, unless our church backgrounds include the Catholic or Anglican churches.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But this letter </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">was</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> written during a time of deep distress and trauma that has something in common with what we’re going through today in the world with COVID. And it offers us some hope, too, so I thought maybe today we could look at it a little more closely and explore the good news and comfort that God has for us today.<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So. During the time of Jesus and his disciples––even earlier than that, actually––there was this understanding that the Spirit of God - which in Hebrew is called the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shekinah</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - dwelled in the Temple in Jerusalem. This is why the Temple was so central to the religious life of Jews during Jesus’ time, and why everyone went there. Maybe you remember the story of Mary and Joseph taking Jesus there as a baby, and then going there when he was 12 and he stayed there and they thought he was lost? And of course we have other stories of Jesus and his disciples going to the Temple, for various religious events. That’s because the Temple was where the Shekinah was, and so that’s where people went to connect with God and with one another as God’s community. Every Jew, including Jesus, felt that as long as the Temple was standing, they were assured of God’s presence amongst the people of Israel, no matter where they were living. (And you might remember the story of Jesus going into the Temple and overturning the money changers’ tables, and that’s because he was upset about how the Temple was being exploited, not upset that it was actually there.)</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, the Temple is central for the religious life of Jews, and then, in 70 CE, about forty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, around the time when the Gospels and the various letters in the New Testament were being written, the Roman legions occupying Jerusalem burnt it to the ground. And by it, I mean the whole city, and the Temple. That’s the reason there’s actually no Temple in Jerusalem anymore. The Romans sacked the city, and the Temple fell. If you can imagine a city on fire, and the streets running with blood, and people screaming and fleeing for the hills, and total chaos––that was Jerusalem.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Obviously this was a huge trauma for the people. Their homes were gone, families were separated and killed, as bad as you can imagine. But even worse, and here’s where maybe we can begin to relate, is that the house of God, the dwelling place of the Spirit of God, was destroyed. Maybe you remember seeing the roof of the Notre Dame on fire, just two years ago? Or maybe you yourself have seen a church burn down? It’s an awful feeling, to see a house of worship burn to the ground. Now imagine that this is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> house of worship for an entire people. There is no other. This is it. And now it’s gone. When the Temple was destroyed, it was as if God had left. I mean, where would the Spirit of God dwell if there was no dwelling place? The Jews all of a sudden found themselves spiritually homeless. They couldn’t go to the Temple to worship, they couldn’t go to gather with their families before God, they couldn’t engage in the rituals that helped them feel closer to God. They felt thrown into the wilderness. They were dispersed - the word we use to describe it is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">diaspora</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. After the Temple fell, the Jews, including Jesus’ followers, including Paul, were in a diaspora.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-469dfcc1-7fff-3c9e-1341-a330f93312b8" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We, Christians, have spent the last year and a half in a similar diaspora. Ever since the COVID shutdowns of late March 2020, we have experienced being cut off from our gathering places of worship and dispersed. We have not been able to gather together to worship God like we are used to, to be with our families in sacred spaces. The last two Easters were online, if that, for everyone. There were no physical Easter services. Barely any physical Christmas services. We have been in a COVID diaspora. Spread out across distances, unable to gather. I believe that this will be a time of trauma that will have a lingering impact on Christians for years, similar to the way the destruction of the Temple impacted the Jews and Christian Jews. We have struggled to find new ways to be together, just as Jews struggled in their diaspora. We struggle to figure out what it means to be God’s community when we can’t actually </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">be</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with one another. We struggle to understand how God can be with us “online” and not in a building. It has been </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">hard</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It’s been lonely, and depleting, and exhausting. And particularly challenging because every time we think we finally can get back together again, just like before, there’s another setback. Another wave of cases. A new variant to adjust to. We want to know, when will this end? When can we go back to normal? When can we be together again? Where is God??</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;"><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was the struggle of the Jews in the diaspora, of Paul and the first disciples, of the early church community (because remember, they were Jews who followed Christ). And what we see in the letter to the Hebrews, and in this passage about Jesus as the great high priest, and Jesus as the one who sympathizes with our weakness, and gives us mercy and grace, and deals gently with us, is the beginning of an answer to the struggle of how to be together while in a diaspora.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For those early Christian Jews, wondering where the Spirit of God was when the Temple had been destroyed, they began to realize that the Spirit of God had come to rest in Jesus. That </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jesus</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was the dwelling place of God. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, because Jesus had ascended into heaven, that Jesus had extended himself as the dwelling place of God to the whole Christian family. That is why the church is called the body of Christ––this body, this body of Christians, is now the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. Wherever Christians went, God’s Spirit was with them, because Christ was with them. If you remember Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians (6:19-20) that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, this is what he’s getting at. The Temple in Jerusalem was gone––the Jews had given up hope that it would be rebuilt––but Paul, a Christian Jew, came to understand that God’s Spirit was not gone. It had found a new home in the bodies of the body of Christ. For these Christian Jews, in their Temple diaspora, that was an immense comfort. God was not gone! They were not cut off from one another!</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is our comfort, too. Even though we are not all worshipping together in the same space, some people are here, but many more are attending from their own homes, we are not cut off from one another, because Christ is with us. Christ is with each of you, in your home, in your pew, with every single one of you. And because Christ is in you, and you in Christ, as the Bible says, you are not truly separated from one another or from God. Although we are not physically together as we worship, we are together in Christ. We are actually together not just with those who are attending this service today, but with all those across the world who call themselves Christian who are gathered to worship. Across space, and even across the generations. Christ gathers Christians from all around the world, from all across time, and makes us one in him. We are dispersed, but we are not cut off. We are individual, but we are not alone. God––Father, Son, and Spirit––is with all of us.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;"><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, it’s hard to really </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">feel </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">this, especially if we’re worshipping at home and we are the only one in front of the screen. I know that feeling. But God has given us a gift for this time, just as God gave to those first Christians in diaspora, and that is the gift of Holy Communion, the body and blood of Christ. This is why Holy Communion is so important at this time, especially online. The physical bread and the wine here, and the physical bread and wine you have at home, in whatever form that comes in, are all part of the one bread and the one wine that is the body and blood of Jesus Christ. When you hold that piece of bread or cracker in your hand, and when you sip that wine or juice, you are holding the same body that every single other person is holding in Communion, and taking into yourself the very same Christ as everyone else. You are engaged in communion with God, and through the Holy Spirit, with one another, whether you are here in this building or sitting at home. Holy Communion makes us one. Despite the COVID diaspora, God graces us with the Holy Spirit so that we are still one church, one congregation, one body of Christ. So, whether you are at home or here, as we continue through this time of disruption and dispersion, as we seek strength to get through this difficult time, know that through God, in Christ, by the power of the Spirit, we are still together. Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></span></div><p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></p>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-15738201375901731162021-10-03T09:09:00.001-04:002021-10-17T10:15:27.745-04:00The Creator's Good Road - Sermon for Hope Lutheran Church<div><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;">Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16</span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, I’ve never been divorced so I’m not sure I’m really the best one to talk about what Moses’ command means for divorce. On the other hand, Jesus was never married, so I’m not sure <i>he</i> was the best one to talk about it either…</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fortunately, it turns out that this passage isn’t <i>actually</i> about marriage, as far as I can tell. This passage is about receiving the kingdom of heaven, or “walking the good road,” as some indigenous Christian theologians call it.* This passage is about living as God’s children, and accepting the goodness that God has laid out for all of Creation, and not going off on roads of our own making, where we trip and fall and bring others down with us. This passage is about trusting that God is <i>good</i> and that God has made a good road for us to walk.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But to really get that, we need to back up a bit because there’s some stuff to unpack here.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To start, we need to understand that, during Jesus’ time, one of the big religious questions going on in Israel was whether or not God is in charge of our lives. It’s a question of fate: has God planned out our lives in advance and we just follow along, or is the journey of our life up to us? It’s a question we still ask today, especially when confronted with mass suffering and an unknown future. And as you can imagine, some people believe it’s the first thing––God has a plan for our lives and makes that plan happen, regardless of the choices we make. And some people believe it’s the second––God gives us responsibility and free will in our lives and therefore we determine how our life unfolds.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Jesus’ time, there were also two opinions. The Pharisees, whom we hear posing this question to Jesus, held the second opinion––that God gives God’s people the freedom to make decisions about our daily lives. That’s why they allowed divorce––we make choices in marriage and sometimes those turn out to be bad choices, and so divorce is a way to correct those mistakes. The Essenes, another sect in Judaism who don’t show up in this passage, held the first opinion––that our lives are preordained and that our daily choices are irrelevant, and God sets our path the way it is meant to be, and that we should not even attempt to change the situation we find ourselves in.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus, in his response here, is sounding a lot like an Essene. (And I say <i>here</i> because there are other times when he sounds a lot like a Pharisee, actually.) When asked about divorce, Jesus refers to the Creation story, and goes back to God establishing certain relationships, and says, “what God has joined together, let no one separate.” In other words, what God has established for someone’s life, do not undo. If <i>God</i> has ordained that two people should be married, that should not be undone.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But again, the point that Jesus is trying to make is not about marriage. Marriage and divorce are brought up here as an <i>example</i> of what he’s trying to say, not the point. You see, just a few verses earlier, Jesus tells the disciples that “the Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” (Mark 9:30-31) He is speaking again about fate––about God’s plan and path for his life, and that he is not going to undo that plan or stray from that path.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And then, in the passage from last week, Jesus tells the disciples not to put stumbling blocks in front of others, not to interfere with the paths they are walking on, because God has set them on those paths. Jesus tells the disciples to remove the obstacles that are getting in the way of the path God has set <i>them</i> on. And <i>then,</i> after telling his listeners that if God has put them in marriage they should stay in it, he says, “receive the kingdom of God as a little child.” In other words, just as little children automatically open their hands if their caretakers hand them something good, we, too, are to receive what God has given us, and to walk where God is guiding us. Jesus believes that God has made for us a road we are meant to walk and that it is not our job to decide to leave that path.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t know about you, but wow do I have trouble with this. Maybe it’s because I’m an oldest child, maybe it’s because I’ve grown up in a democracy, maybe it’s because I’m still in what I hope is the first half of my life, but wow do I <i>not</i> want to just accept that my life is the way it is and there’s nothing I can or should do about it. I want to be able to make choices about my life, to feel that I have an ability to shape my future, and the future of my children, and the future of those in my community. I want to decide which road I will walk on. I want to believe that I am an adult, not a child. I want to believe that there is a point to me voting in the upcoming election.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And yet, if I am honest, I also believe that even as an adult, I make the wrong choices. I believe that sometimes I choose to leave the good road God would have me walk, and that sometimes I choose to walk the rocky road. Sometimes I have encouraged others to walk that road with me; I have made decisions that have led to a lot of stumbling. And I think we all do that. As much as we want to walk God’s good road, as much as we want to follow Jesus, the reality is that we don’t always do that. We decide to make our own roads. We go our own way. Sometimes because we don’t know any better, and sometimes because we think we do.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-53a6346b-7fff-8929-6b90-e6894711f9af" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So how do we know whose road we are walking? Especially when we come to a fork in the road and must choose one direction over another. When we are faced with a decision that has implications not just for us but for others, how do we know which direction is going our own way and which is following the road Jesus has walked ahead of us? Right now we are all experiencing what happens when those who make decisions lead us down the wrong road––we are dodging stumbling blocks left and right and the vulnerable are getting crushed as they get dragged along. I believe that deep in our hearts, we<i> want</i> to walk the good road, we <i>want</i> to open our arms and receive the blessings of the kingdom of heaven, but it’s not always clear which road that is.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You know, the Pharisees and the Essenes, or in our text today the Pharisees and Jesus, did have something in common. They both believed that God is good, and that God intends goodness for our lives. Jesus mentions the Creation story, and one of the things we know from that story is that when God had finished creating, God called everything “very good.” We know that God created a second person so that the first person wouldn’t be alone, because being alone was “not good.” We know, as our second reading tells us, that God “spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways” and in “these last days” speaks to us by a Son, who<i> sustains</i> all things. Jesus, the Pharisees, us––we all believe and proclaim that God is good and God wants good things for creation.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And so perhaps that is where we start when we decide which road to walk. We remember that God is good, that God’s road is good, and that this goodness is meant for <i>all</i> of creation, not just for a select few. And so we look for the road that is good for children to walk, and the elderly, and the sick. We look for the road that keeps us all together, that is wide enough for us to walk side-by-side, rather than sending us each on our own paths. We make decisions based on what is good for all, not just ourselves.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, sometimes it turns out that we are on the wrong road––that we took the wrong fork. That we chose a road that looked exciting and interesting for our own personal benefit, without considering what it would mean for others. Then we have to engage in the very hard work of making our way over to that other road, over to the road that is good for everyone. If you’ve ever gotten lost while hiking because you tried to take a short cut and then realized you had to make it back to the actual trail, you will know how hard this work is. But here is the good news in that case: Jesus is standing on that good road, shouting out to us and encouraging us and reassuring us that we are now heading in the right direction, and the Holy Spirit is with us, supporting us and giving us strength to make our way back. To push the analogy maybe a little too far, the Holy Spirit is our GPS and our water bottle and our snack and our flashlight, ensuring that we have the energy to get back to the road the Creator has made.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I started by saying that our Gospel passage isn’t about marriage, and it’s not really. It’s about choosing the good road God has laid out for us. And those choices can include the choice to get married, or the choice to get divorced, or the choice to stay single. Sometimes people choose to get married without regard for God's plan––for what turn out to be the wrong reasons, and returning to the good road means getting divorced. Sometimes people choose to get divorced for what turn out to be the wrong reasons, and returning to the good road means choosing to stay married. For some people, walking the good road means never getting married at all. Again, marriage is an example, it’s not the point.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are other examples, other forks, and these days they are coming fast and hard. The upcoming election and the votes you cast––that’s a fork. To vaccinate or not––that’s a fork. To stay home or go out––that’s a fork. Sometimes God’s good road is clear and easy to choose, other times it’s more difficult to discern, but one thing is for sure, there will always be tempting side roads and decisions to be made.<br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And in all of these decisions, we remember that God <i>has</i> made a good road for us all to walk on, God <i>has</i> made a kingdom for us all to dwell in, to use the biblical imagery. And we can recognize it because God’s road is the one that is wide enough to accommodate everyone and smooth enough for the vulnerable to travel. It is a road that keeps children and the elderly and the sick safe. It is a road that is good for everyone, not just a few. </span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most importantly, this road is one we can return to again and again. When we find ourselves off the road, either because we have chosen to leave it or accidentally left it or been led off it, the Spirit will lead us back, where we will find Jesus––welcoming us with open arms, healing us where we got hurt on those other roads, and giving us food and drink for the rest of the journey on the Creator’s good road. Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></span></span></div><p><span style="color: #cccccc;">*The phrase "Creator's good road" can be found in <i>First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament </i>(IVP, 2021), based of the work of Osage and Lutheran theologian, George E. Tinker (p. 478).</span></p>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-58975057698175078972021-09-19T14:02:00.003-04:002021-09-19T14:05:28.383-04:00Letter to Alberta Premier, Minister of Health, and my MLA<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear Premier Kenney, Health Minister Shandro, and MLA Issik,</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am writing to you after having read the AHS triage protocols that will be implemented when the currently expanded ICU capacity reaches 90%, which is currently sitting at 80%. These protocols determine that my mother, due to her age, and the dozens of seniors that I know through my work, will not be accepted into acute or critical care should they have some kind of medical emergency requiring it, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">despite having been fully vaccinated against covid since the spring of this year. </span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been following the news that Alberta will need to airlift ICU patients to Ontario and Quebec, which I note is a four hour plane flight. I have been watching the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Protect Our Province Alberta </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">updates which present the latest actual statistics (and not model projections) of COVID cases alongside the most recent evidence and scientific research of what is known about the delta strain. (Presentations which should have been presented by the CMOH this whole time.)</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These statistics and evidence point to two inescapable realities. The first is that the delta strain of COVID is airborne, highly transmissible, and transmitted by children. The second is that our current measures and restrictions are resulting in needless deaths, with more to come. Alberta needs stronger measures, including a complete shut-down of everything, including schools, a return to contact tracing, and a return to isolating close contacts of positive cases, including those who are asymptomatic. This will not prevent the deaths about to occur, but will prevent this horrific level of death from lasting longer than it should have.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do not say this lightly. My father was admitted to the hospital in March 2020 for scheduled surgery and during recovery the country went into a complete shutdown. I and my mother were not able to visit him in the hospital at that time, which absolutely slowed his recovery. His condition deteriorated and he died in hospice in late May 2020. We were fortunately able to see him during his two weeks in hospice, but from late March until late April his one designated visitor was myself. My sisters were unable to visit him, his wife was not able to visit, his siblings were not able to visit. During that time, my jr high child and my elementary child attended “online school,” which demanded an incredible amount of parental support, which my husband and I struggled to provide while we worked from home. (Noting that I am a pastor, and working from home meant moving church online, where we continue to worship today). It was an extraordinarily stressful time for everyone.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WE WOULD DO IT AGAIN in order to prevent the hundreds of deaths that are about to happen.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your roles in leadership mean that you are responsible for the well-being of the entire province, not just select groups. I continue to be frustrated and now furious that you continue to offer weak restrictions in order to placate those who argue that any kind of shutdown would be too difficult. You appeal to the economic burden of a shutdown. But a province is more than an economy. A province is the people who live in it, and your actions (or lack thereof) demonstrate that you do not count the vulnerable among those whose well-being you are concerned with. You have shown what is either an appalling dereliction of duty or a staggering level of incompetence in handling COVID this year.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Premier Kenney, I know that you are a Christian, and I will remind you of Jesus’ words in Matthew 26 to take care of the sick and that “just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.” You are not taking care of the least among us.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next provincial election is in 2023. I will be taking every opportunity between now and then to remind people that the responsibility of leaders is the well-being of the entire group with priority given to the weakest among us, alongside the words of Mary’s </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Magnificat </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in Luke 1, “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sincerely,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Rev. Dr. Kayko Driedger Hesslein, M.Div., Ph.D.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PS. I have posted this letter to my blog to facilitate easy access and sharing for you.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://kayko.blogspot.ca/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://kayko.blogspot.ca</span></a></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cc: Leader of the Opposition Notley</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-24689267474173261002021-03-03T17:57:00.000-05:002021-03-03T17:57:01.226-05:00MLUC Chapel - Lent 3 - Our Non-human Neighbours<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">MLUC Chapel - Lent 3/UN Wildlife Day - Wednesday, March 3, 2021</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a83a796c-7fff-6485-32dc-d430a37aa489"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Exodus 20:1-17; John 2:13-22</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” Ah… Jesus and the Temple.. One of the very few stories shared between the Gospel of John and in the Synoptic Gospels, it clearly left as much of an impression on the first generations of Christians as it does on us. Then and now, we bristle when holy spaces are contaminated by the marketplace, by commodification. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back then, in Jesus’ time, people understood the Temple in Jerusalem to be the holiest of spaces — the dwelling place of the Shekinah––the dwelling place of God’s Spirit among God’s people. Of course it was important not to turn it into a marketplace, not to commodify it. Access to the presence of God’s Spirit was never something to be marketed, to be made transactional. Jesus was not the first, and certainly not the last, to resist the place of God’s dwelling being reduced to a transactional space. The Temple was the place where God dwelled in the midst of the people for the well-being and holiness of the people. It was a place of shelter - a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">house</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> where people could find comfort in God’s presence. Marketplaces - places of transaction, where the have-nots had to bargain with the haves - they might have had their role to play, but not within the walls of this holy house, not where God’s Shekinah dwelled, not within the Temple.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, what happened through the course of history was that the Temple was actually destroyed. And Jews, and then Christians, struggled to understand what that meant for the Spirit of God dwelling among us. Jews came to understand that the Spirit of God did not leave, but came to be with them in the study of Torah and in the continuation of the people of Israel, while Gentile Christians came to understand that the Spirit came to dwell amongst the Christian family as we gather in the name of the resurrected Christ. Both Christians and Jews came to understand that God’s Spirit moved from the Temple to dwell amongst the people, to dwell in the world.</span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today, which is UN Wildlife Day, I want to invite us to understand God’s Spirit dwelling among us in an even deeper way, which is to see God’s Spirit dwelling amongst </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">all </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of creation, not just among humans. This way of seeing is not new, of course. Christian mystics and theologians have understood the world, and even the cosmos, to be the dwelling place of God’s Spirit for centuries, from Francis of Assisi to Teilhard de Chardin to Sallie McFague. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My own sense of beginning to see the entire world and its web of plants, animals, trees, rocks, bacteria, even viruses, comes from indigenous people introducing me to the indigenous perspective of greeting these things as our “non-human relations.” And so today I invite you to envision God’s Spirit dwelling in the Temple of nature, to find God’s Shekinah dwelling amongst our non-human relations.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what might we notice if we take on this understanding?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, we might again return to Jesus’ words from the Gospel of John, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” Because we are noticing that more and more, our world is being commodified. Land, of course, was the first to be sold and bought, without regard for who else might need it, including especially our non-human relations. The deep parts of our earth have suffered from unrestricted mining, impacting not just the earth but also the waterways vital for fish and animals. Trees are commodified, the waters of the Great Lakes are bought and sold, entire industries are built on animals and even plants. You cannot step outside your door without being impacted by the way our entire relationship with the earth has been made transactional. Everywhere you step, you are on somebody’s land now. There is, at least in Canada, no such thing as unowned land. There is nowhere that God’s Spirit might dwell that is entirely transaction free.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But we know this. And I know that we lament this. Even in the midst of all else that we lament––COVID consequences, personal loss, even just this period of Lent––I know that we also lament that we have allowed this planetary non-human Temple, our Creator’s Dwelling Place, to be made into a marketplace and I know that we yearn to do better. We yearn to find a way to decenter ourselves from this web of God’s Creation, to turn away from anthropocentrism–– our species-wide version of </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">curvatus in se</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is yet one more sign of God’s graciousness in giving and nurturing us in life that God has given us the framework for doing this. This time, I invite you to take our new perspective of our non-human relations as we look at our reading from Exodus––the Ten Commandments.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have, after all, been entirely anthropocentric in understanding these commandments, particularly the ones concerning our relationships with other humans. Honour your mother and father, do not kill, do not steal, do not covet––I, at least, have only ever considered these commandments in my relationships with other humans. I have tried to honour my human parents, I have never killed another human, I have never consciously stolen something that belongs to another human. I’m continually working on the coveting part.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But as I’ve worked on adhering to Luther’s “but instead” of the Commandments, I confess that I have also been anthropocentric in that. Do not kill, which Luther expands to say, “neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbours, but instead help and support them in all of life’s needs,” has been something that I have worked on. For my </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">human</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> neighbours. Do not steal, which becomes “neither take our neighbours property nor acquire it by crooked deals, but instead help them to improve and protect their property,” is another thing I have worked on. For my </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">human </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">neighbours. Do not covet, “so that we do not try to trick our neighbours out of their inheritance or property or try to get it for ourselves by claiming to have a legal right to it and the lie, but instead be of help and service to them in keeping what is theirs.” Again, working on that, for my </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">human </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">neighbours.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But might we not consider these commandments as also applying to nurturing our relationships with our non-human neighbours? Might we not consider these commandments as ways in which we can resist and overturn the commodification of God’s Temple, that we might stop making our Creator’s house a marketplace? Perhaps we might find ways to help and support our non-human neighbours in all of their life’s needs, to help our non-human neighbours to improve and protect their “property,” as it were, to help and be of service to our non-human neighbours in keeping, or at least living on and accessing, what is theirs. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps we might be as zealous in protecting natural habitats and watersheds as we are in defending property lines. Perhaps we might invest as much in our park rangers as we do in our police forces. Perhaps we might advocate that our governments enact legislation that establishes the rights of wildlife as equal to the rights of humans. We would not be the first to think and act on behalf of our non-human neighbours - I thank Tim Hegedus for directing me to an article that described how indigenous peoples around the world have been fighting to establish legal personhood status for various bodies of water, and you may perhaps remember the news from several years ago of a group of 21 children suing the United States government on behalf of the climate. Perhaps it is time for us Christians to see this work as part of the work of following the Ten Commandments.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For as we consider that these commandments apply to our relationships with our non-human neighbours, might we not also understand the blessings to apply as well? Because we know how these Ten Commandments are positioned––with curses to the third and fourth generations who break these commandments, yes, but also with blessings to the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">thousandth</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> generation of those who live by them, because it is the living by them that </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the blessing. Honouring the earth which supports us and the waters which nourish us and the air which sustains us, protecting the spaces and places of our non-human neighbours from commodification, protecting the lives of our non-human neighbours not just so that they might survive but so they might thrive, this blesses them and us and all of this earthly Creation for generations to come.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Through honouring these Commandments, we are ushered into the presence of the Spirit of God, the Shekinah who dwells in this planetary Temple, so that we all, humans and non-humans alike, might experience the blessing of life that God has intended since Creation. We pray that God might empower our efforts, and we so say, thanks be to God, Amen.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/02/24/news/quebecs-magpie-river-first-in-canada-granted-legal-personhood</span></p><br /><br /></span>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-6258506522208895262021-01-28T15:51:00.002-05:002021-01-28T15:51:17.216-05:00LTS/STU Chapel - Love Builds Up<p><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Deut 18:15-20; 1 Cor 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1a837970-7fff-b35d-5bc1-34007deb73ff"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think I speak for all of the faculty members at the STU when I say that I hope that as our Winter term begins next week that we all teach with authority, and that all our students are astounded! Although I also hope that there are no hostile spirits in our online classrooms heckling us….</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is a challenge, though, isn’t it––to know who is speaking with authority, to know which of the people claiming to speak the word of God are actually doing so. There are so many people in the world right now claiming to be prophets, claiming to speak on behalf of God, asserting quite strongly that God wants this, or that, or the other––many of them very earnest in their beliefs, convinced that they have a teaching from God that will change the world.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As people who earnestly desire to take in the word of the Lord and to follow Christ, we get confused and anxious when we hear so many different, and especially opposing, teachings. We don’t want to follow the wrong teacher, we don’t want to end up on the wrong side, we don’t want to be like the “weak” ones in the community of Corinth who end up compromising their own consciences by following false teachings. We yearn for one single “right” voice, one prophet, one teacher who can assure us that our interpretations, our hermeneutics, our proclamations of the Gospel, our social justice actions, our political affiliations are the ones to which God calls us. Instead, we find ourselves challenged, and sometimes exhausted, because there are too many voices, too many bloggers, too many op-ed writers, too many biblical scholars, I might even say too many theologians for us to easily discern who is speaking with God’s authority, to clearly discern whose teachings we should take as our own and, as present and future leaders in the church, pass on to others. How are we to know?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There it is, Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians, our hermeneutical key, our benchmark, our principle for discernment, as it were: love builds up. This is the essence of Paul’s message here: we can identify those who offer true words from God when the knowledge they impart directs us to love for the sake of building up the community. Love for the building up of the community. This is what the voice of the Lord our God is teaching us over and over and over again: to love, not to tear others down, not to build us up individually, but to build up the community as a whole. Teachings that seem brilliant but pit us against one another, that belittle or disparage others, that encourage contempt––these teachings are not from God. Teachings that seem crude but encourage us to walk with one another, to lift one another up, to open our hearts to others––these teachings build up the community in love. These teachings come from God.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prophets from God, teachers from God, they give us words that heal, that give new life. We encounter this most clearly in our Gospel reading for today, in Jesus’ visit to the synagogue in Capernaum. The heart of the action, the literal centre of the pericope, is Jesus casting out the disruptive spirit. The seven verses are presented as a chiasm, to throw a little biblical studies in there. And in the very centre is Jesus and his words that bring new life. When violence threatens, Jesus silences the spirit of hatred, and calls it out––literally out, thereby healing the man, and by extension the community. The people identify him as teaching with authority not only because he rebuked an unclean spirit, but because his rebuke resulted in healing and new life for the one possessed. Jesus’ authority came from his words and actions of love, building up the community.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“All of us possess knowledge,” as Paul writes rather sarcastically. And all of us will possess even more knowledge by the time this semester is over. But the life of a Christian-in-community is not about knowledge, thank goodness, no matter what we professors say about grades and rubrics. In the end, it is about love. It is about the love we share with the world that God shares with us through Christ. It is about the love that builds us all up together, so that we all might be healed.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we begin our winter semester together next week, as you embark once again on the important and necessary work of Biblical analysis, of critical engagement with theology, of learning the ins and outs of preaching and liturgy and pastoral care, as you open your minds to the bottomless pits of knowledge before you, take comfort in the reminder that the teachings that come from God are the ones that assure you that you are loved, that in Christ you are given new life, and that encourage you to share that same teaching with others, for the building up of the entire community. God has not actually left us to muddle through it on our own, but has sent us a true Word, one of love and life for all. Thanks be to God, Amen.</span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-34920070934059238982020-11-24T16:08:00.002-05:002020-11-24T16:08:33.217-05:00Advent 1 - The Darkness of the Womb - Nov 24, 2020 - LTS Chapel<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mark 13:24-37</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b1b2e006-7fff-ec93-c563-632e62737823"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, which means that as the hours of darkness increase, my brain tells me it’s time to sleep. Maybe I was a bear in a past life. Coincidentally, sleep is also what my brain tells me to do when my stress increases, when my emotional darkness increases, if you will. It’s how my brain protects me from being overwhelmed by all of the stresses and anxieties that exist, or that I can imagine. I’m guessing you can guess how desperately I constantly want to be sleeping these days. And you might understand how irritated I am by Jesus’ words to us that, in the middle of the night, in the midst of the darkness, we are supposed to “Keep awake.” I’m trying to pull the covers over my head and hide away from everything, not keep awake.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although I may be alone in my need for so much sleep, I know I’m not alone in experiencing this time as one of increasing darkness and stress, and something that we want to get away from. I’ve stopped asking people I haven’t seen in a while “what’s new?” because I’m not sure I want to hear the answer. We are tired of hearing bad news, we are tired of hearing about death, we are deep-in-our-souls tired of whatever dreadfulness 2020 is going to throw at us next.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And our Gospel reading for today isn’t helping. It’s almost as if it’s written to generate fear and anxiety - from the sun and the moon and stars growing dim, to Jesus’ words “Beware!”, it doesn’t initially seem to be a very reassuring text. This is no lullaby. The light of the celestial objects going out isn’t meant to bring a comforting end to the day’s business, but to tell us that the world is becoming unglued. It’s not meant to bring that calming “hush” that descends on a summer evening as we enjoy a drink on the patio, but a gasp as the power cuts out in the middle of eating supper when it’s dark in November. I hear in Jesus’ words a foreboding darkness; a darkness that seems to me to presage death. A darkness and a death I would rather just sleep through.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And yet… I can’t help but wonder if the darkness </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as dreadful and fearful as I make it out to be. The dimming of the sun and moon and stars in the Gospel of Mark was actually a good thing for Mark’s audience. These stellar objects represented Rome’s emperors from Caligula in 37 CE all the way through to the end of the Flavian dynasty in 96 CE. The emperors frequently utilized the image of the sun in the heavens to represent themselves, to lend themselves divine stature, and these were the same emperors who presided over the destruction of the Israelite people and their Temple in 70 CE. That their brightness and their power should dim was indeed a sign that the world was ending, but a world that had brought pain and suffering to Jesus’ people. The lights of the Roman Empire going out was not a time of fear for the Israelites, but a time for rejoicing. Who among the children of Israel would want to sleep through those lights being extinguished?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We Christians have our own moment of darkness that is meant not to be feared, but to be celebrated, and that is the darkness of Holy Saturday. After Jesus was crucified, after the sun grew dim, he was placed in the tomb and the stone rolled across the doorway blocking all light, engulfing his body in complete darkness, in the darkness of death. And yet I don’t think it would occur to any of us to want to sleep through Holy Saturday as it transitions into Resurrection Sunday. We welcome those sunrise services, we welcome the sun emerging from the darkness, we welcome the Son of God emerging from the tomb. We don’t want to sleep through the darkness of Holy Saturday, because we would entirely msiss the glorious dawn of Easter! No one among us wants to sleep through the birth of new life!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The most stirring articulation of this transformation in how we perceive the darkness that I have ever heard comes from Valerie Kaur. Kaur is from the Sikh religion, and is an activist in the States on issues of racism and gender inclusion, amongst other justice issues. Almost four years ago exactly, two months after Trump was elected, she delivered what I would call a sermon, at an interfaith New Year’s Eve service in New York City. She described how dark the world had become for her, particularly as she contemplated the world her children would live in. She talked about her fear about what the darkness seemed to be bringing, and then she paused and she said, “what if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb?” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb? As Christians, we get this. We know this. The tomb, the place of death on Holy Saturday, the dimming of the Roman Empire––yes, these were moments of death, of the tomb, but they were also moments of the womb, of the entrance into new life, into the light of the true Son, not to be slept through, but to be joyfully anticipated. To watch out for, to keep awake for, so that we don’t miss its arrival.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This emergence from the womb, this </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">new</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> birth is actually what we anticipate in the season of Advent. We’re not retroactively anticipating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth 2000 years ago, we’re not going back in time. We are actually going forward, to Easter, to the resurrection of Christ, and anticipating that time when that resurrection will come to the whole world, when the kingdom of God, rather than the kingdoms of the current empires, will reign. We are waiting for this current suffering to end, for these current empires to grow dim, we are waiting for the One who gathers people from all the corners of the earth under his wings, as a hen gathers her brood, to come into the world again. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is what keeps us awake at night, not waiting through the darkness of the tomb, that would shut us into death forever, but waiting through the darkness of the womb, that will open to the light of God, bringing new life and new light to its darkest recesses. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come.’ It is like a woman going into labour, when she leaves the main room and puts her servants in charge, each with her works, and commands the midwife to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake––for you do not know when the baby of the house will be born, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else the new baby may find you asleep when they come suddenly. And what I say to you, I say to all: Keep awake.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The powers of death are dimming; new life is coming. May the reminder that Advent brings not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb keep you awake in joyful anticipation. Thanks be to God, Amen.</span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-37856279089097196802020-11-10T14:23:00.001-05:002020-11-10T14:23:27.502-05:00Nov 10, LTS Chapel, Investing God’s Resources<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Matthew 25:14-30</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them, ... then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, I want to know who their financial advisers were because - wow - that’s a great return on investment! The investment return these days is so low that sometimes I think </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">would make more money if I buried </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">my </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">money in a hole in the ground! The market right now just seems way too risky to put anything in, and I can’t afford to lose anything.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, it does raise the question, why is Jesus telling a parable about investing money? Shouldn’t he be telling a story about how the kingdom of heaven is as if a rich man went away and the slaves took all his money and gave it away to the poor? Wouldn’t that be more in keeping with Jesus’ basic principle that God is concerned for the poor and the oppressed? After all, it was in this very same Gospel where Jesus says to the rich young man, ”if you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” So why, in this parable, is Jesus lifting up the first two slaves’ actions as models of what to do with a rich man’s money?</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, it turns out that Jesus may have been alluding to how money was meant to be invested in the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">actual</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> economy. You see, the Roman Empire at that time had this idea of what is called a “moral economy.” Now I know that today we might think of that as an oxymoron, but back then it was this idea that the circulation of money and resources was for the good of the whole community. People who were blessed by the gods with riches were morally obligated to put those riches into circulation: to take them to the market and spend them, to pay people for their labour, to have households, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ekonomia</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to switch into Greek, where more than just the immediate family was taken care of. </span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, this wasn’t just a Roman idea. The books of Torah and the story of Ruth make reference to this same idea: a landowner who is wealthy enough to have fields of grain is commanded not to reap every last stalk, but to leave the edges and to leave the grain that gets missed for the needy in the community (Leviticus 19:9, 23:22; Ruth 2:15-16). There is this idea that the entire community is meant to be blessed by the wealth of the individual - that God has created the entire system so that, as a whole, with proper distribution, everybody really does have enough. Those who are born into positions of privilege are morally obligated to share with those who aren’t. If you happened to be blessed enough to have 1 talent, or 5, or 10, then you are expected to put that back into the community, back into the economy, so that everyone can benefit from it. Burying the riches you have, hoarding it, holding onto it means keeping it from others who would benefit from it, and defying God who has given it to you to share.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, since this is a parable, we know that Jesus was talking about more than just money. His audience were his disciples, who were perhaps not blessed with money, but were blessed with his presence among them. They had been entrusted with the riches of Jesus. Not money, but his words of love, his words of wisdom, his acts of healing and forgiveness. They had been given Jesus’ own power to cast out unclean spirits, to cure disease and sickness, to show people that the world was more than what it appeared.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And Jesus, who knew that he was about to leave them, was telling them that they were to take that love and wisdom, to take those acts of healing and forgiveness, and to invest them in the world. Not to limit them to their inner circle, not to share them only amongst others who followed Jesus like they did, amongst those who would pay it back, so to speak, but to go out, into the public market, as it were, and to invest it.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which is, as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, Jesus’ message for us, too. This parable is Jesus’ word to us, his followers today, that while he is away, we are to take the love and forgiveness that he has extended to us, loaned to us, and to extend it and give it to others. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are to take the Gospel and go out, into the public market, and to invest it.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which sounds good, that’s why we’re all here, but i have a slight problem with investing, I’m afraid. And that’s that it’s risky. There is no such thing as an actual guaranteed return on investment. Not with the “moral economy” of Jesus’ time, and not today. We can put our “money” out there, and it might disappear. I think that’s what that last slave was afraid of, actually. I think he was afraid that he would invest that one talent that his master had entrusted to him and that it would be lost. That he would come back empty-handed. He was afraid of losing his master’s money, and so he hid it.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I think we, too, are more like that last slave than we like to admit. We become afraid of wasting the message of love and wisdom and healing and forgiveness that Jesus has given to us to share. Or, at least, I am. I am afraid that if I love my enemies, they will use it against me. I am afraid that if I share Jesus’ words of wisdom, I will be exposed as a naive fool. I am afraid that if I reach out in healing and forgiveness, and am rejected, too many times, that if I do it the “seventy times seventy” that Jesus commands, that I will end up burned out. I am afraid that, in the end, Jesus’ love and wisdom and healing and forgiveness is simply not enough to supply the needs of the entire world, and so I want to hide that love and forgiveness, to bury it, so that at least there’s enough for me and the others who really deserve it.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But where I and that last slave are so mistaken is in our thinking that the master has limited resources. That our master can’t afford to lose in the public market. That our master doesn’t want us to waste what we have been given on those who will just throw it away. Where we are mistaken is in forgetting that what we consider risky, our master does not.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the Good News for today, as we continue to wait for the Son of Man to return in glory, as we continue to wait for the kingdom of God to manifest in all of its fullness, as we continue to wait for the economy of God to fill the hearts and bellies of everyone: the Good News is that God has more than enough to go around. The Good News is that it is impossible for us to waste Christ’s message of love and forgiveness because there is no </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">end</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to that love and forgiveness. We do not need to be careful, we do not need to be afraid of losing what has been given to us to share, because there is more of that where it came from. Christ is not going to be mad if you share his forgiveness with someone who just takes advantage of it. Christ is not going to accuse you of wasting your time and energy when you proclaim his love to someone who refuses to change. Christ is not going to shame you when you proclaim his wisdom and get taken for a fool.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead, regardless of the return on investment you receive, Christ welcomes you into his joy. No matter how effectively, or ineffectively, you invest Christ’s words into the world, Christ is joyful and wants you to share in that joy. His joy––your joy––does not come from seeing the return on investment of sharing the Gospel, which may or may not turn a profit, but simply from the act of sharing. The effectiveness, after all, is not up to us, and whenever we think it is, we are sure to be miserable and afraid. Instead, we are free to put Christ’s message of love out into the world, wherever we like, to share it with whomever we like, like Oprah Winfrey giving away cars––”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> get Christ’s love, and </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">you</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> get Christ’s love, and </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">you</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> get Christ’s love!” And that, sisters and brothers, is a joy.</span></p><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /><p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As you wait for the master to return, as you wait to report to him on what </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">you</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> have done with his resources, have no fear. Our Lord does not jealously guard his resources, but shares indiscriminately from his abundance, and entrusts and empowers you to do the same. So, since it’s not yours to begin with, share Christ’s love, invest it, waste it, with the joy and abandon of God. God can afford to lose it, praise be to God. Amen.</span></p>Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-55927054684482374512020-06-28T08:59:00.001-04:002020-06-28T08:59:45.523-04:00June 28 - Sacrificing the Plan for the PromiseGenesis 22:1-19<br />
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>So, we’re looking at Genesis today, and I wonder what Abraham thought about on his three-day trek with Isaac to the mountains in Moriah. Three days is not a long time to mull over the most momentous act of one’s life, but I’m guessing that what kept returning to mind was God’s promise to Abraham so many years ago. On that day, God proclaimed, “This is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. ... I will establish between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant.” (Genesis 17:4, 7) This must have jumped immediately to Abraham’s mind when God told Abraham to go and sacrifice his beloved son Isaac.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And I’m guessing that the next thing he thought was, “Again?” If you remember, just before this happened, Abraham had been told by God to obey his wife Sarah, and send Hagar and Ishmael, his first-born, away into the wilderness of Beer-sheba. Even though God promised Abraham that God would take care of Ishmael, Abraham didn’t actually know that that had happened. All Abraham saw was the back of his first-born son, disappearing over the horizon and away from shelter and water and protection. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>God had promised Abraham that God would make him the father of nations, and continue in covenant with his offspring for generations to come, and then God encouraged Abraham to send his first-born son away, and was demanding the life of his only remaining son. God had promised a future for Abraham and his children, but how could that possibly happen now? What was Abraham thinking in the midst of this? We know how the story ends, how God would work it out, but Abraham didn’t. We don’t know whether Abraham took every step towards that mountain of sacrifice with reluctance, or with eagerness to witness a miracle, or with confusion, or all of the above. Scripture tells us that Abraham said to his men that <i>both</i> he and Isaac would return from the mountain, and that he told Isaac that God would provide a <i>lamb</i> for the offering. Whether Abraham truly believed this to be the case, or was engaged in deception, either of himself or others, we don’t know. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>All we know is that Isaac embodied the living, breathing future that God had promised, and now God was telling Abraham to give Isaac up. To continue to trust God’s promise, but to let go of any <i>plans</i> for how that promise would come to pass.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>That’s what this story is telling <i>us</i> today. This isn’t a story about <i>child</i> sacrifice, which was actually pretty common in that part of the world at that time, thank goodness we’re past that. This is a story about <i>future</i> sacrifice. More specifically, this is a story about sacrificing <i>our</i> plans of how we think God’s future for us will come about. What the stories of Abraham and Isaac, and of Abraham and Ishmael, tell us is that we shouldn’t hold too tightly to <i>our</i> ideas of how exactly God is going to deliver on God’s promise; we shouldn’t get too caught up in our own plans. Because, as we see with Abraham, at some point, God may ask us to walk a very different path than the one we planned to take to get to where God is calling us.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>I think this is God’s message for us today. As we try to make plans for the future, we <i>know</i> that God promises a future for us, and we <i>know</i> that that future is good, but just how we are going to arrive at that future is a bit of a mystery. And, as so often happens when we’re in uncharted territory, we’re tempted to make a lot of plans. Which is not a bad thing. Plans are not bad. I am a planner. But we go astray when we put our faith more in our <i>plans</i> than in God’s <i>promise</i>. And so God sometimes has to encourage us to let those plans go.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span> Which is very unsettling, especially when we face uncertainty on all sides, and are trying to discern and plan a lot of different things in our lives. From trying to plan how to gather together as a congregation in-person, to trying to plan how the call process should proceed, to personal things like trying to plan how kids will go back to school in the fall, or how work will unfold in the months to come, or travel plans, or plans for retirement, or for family gatherings. For the last three-and-a-half months, we have been living day-to-day, at most week-to-week, and it is exhausting. We want to be able to start planning. Of course, we all trust that God will provide us with a future, and we trust that that future will be good. It’s just that we’re less inclined to trust the process of how that future will come to be. We want to know how exactly that future will arrive, we want to feel some control over our lives. And along comes this story of Abraham and Isaac, and here I am telling you that this story means that we need to sacrifice our plans, that we need to lay our plans on the altar of our Lord, and say goodbye to them. I don’t like this story.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>But we’re only halfway through this story, and we can’t stop here, because this is also a story about how God <i>does</i> keep God’s promises. Abraham had to sacrifice his plans and expectations for how the future would come to be, but Abraham did not actually have to sacrifice Isaac. God did indeed bring about the future that God promised––we are here, after all. And this is also the message of this story for us today. God does have a good future in mind for God’s children––for all of you and each of you––and God will bring it to pass. Not always the way we expect, but in God’s own way. When we sacrifice <i>our</i> plans, when we lay our plans before God and give them up as an offering, as Abraham did with his plans named Isaac, God quickly steps in to provide a plan of God’s own. God offers a new path––God’s own path––for getting to the future God has promised us. And, just as God fulfilled God’s promise by blessing Isaac, and then Jacob, and then Joseph, and the generations that followed, God fulfills God’s promise by blessing you and your children and your children’s children.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>So how do we actually live this out? How do we sacrifice our plans to God? After all, we really can’t just live with <i>no </i>plans whatsoever. That’s foolish and, as we’ve seen in this COVID time, dangerous. But there is a middle-of-the-road way of living that involves planning only a few steps at a time. God <i>does</i> gives us wisdom and discernment for at least a few steps forward, just as God gave Abraham direction to go to the mountains of Moriah. And so we are called to identify those first few steps, and to embark on them with prayer and trust, even if they seem like they’re going in the wrong direction. And as time progresses, God grants us the wisdom to see the next few steps, and then the next after that, just a few at a time, but enough times that we are finally where we are supposed to be, receiving the fulfillment of God’s promise. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And I think we are also called to hold these few-steps-at-a-time plans loosely, as we might hold a kitten or a puppy, ready to calmly release them when they start to wiggle free. Because sometimes we do end up on the wrong path, through honest misunderstandings or through deliberate choice, and God is gracious enough to offer us a course correction. We don’t know why, but it was clear that God needed Abraham to let go of Isaac––maybe he was in danger of worshipping him, as so many parents end up worshipping their children. Maybe Abraham was clinging to Isaac too tightly, clinging to Isaac as the manifestation of God’s promise, and so God asked Abraham to loosen his grip. To hold Isaac, to hold Abraham’s plan for the future, loosely. To let go of him, if need be, so that God could make the necessary course correction and set them on the right path again, and so that Abraham, in addition to trusting God’s promise, could also trust God’s plan. We are called to do the same with our own plans and expectations, whether that be expectations for the call process, or for the resolution of COVID, or for anything in this coming year. To hold the plans loosely, and to offer them to God.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Now this is hard, but it is clear that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you are all capable of doing this. I have seen it over the last two and a half years. It may have seemed that when I first got here, I knew exactly how our time together was going to unfold. But I had no idea. I only knew that God had called me here, and that God promised to work healing of some kind, but I did not know that it would involve going back to the beginnings of this church, or sharing stories of spiritual abuse, or Lenten reflections and Easter healing services. I did not know that God would take the pieces of Advent’s broken history and disrupted plans and make an Easter cross out of them. None of us knew that it would involve what it did. And yet, as we took a few steps at a time together, and then a few steps more, as you sacrificed the expectations of outcomes, as you held our time together loosely, God’s promise of healing was fulfilled, and is being fulfilled, and God continues to bless you. I have seen that you have the trust of Abraham to let go of your plans and to trust in God’s promise. I have seen the Holy Spirit accomplish this in you, and so I know you will allow the Spirit to do it again. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>For the last three months, we’ve been praying the same prayer every time we gather for morning prayer, starting in those first days immediately following the COVID closures. It’s a prayer for God’s guidance, but also a prayer of thanksgiving that God is with us always, leading us along the way step by step, towards the fulfillment of God’s promised blessing. And, with gratefulness to God for all that God has accomplished among us together, it is my prayer for all of you, through the weeks and months and years to come, and I offer it now:</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go [forward] with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen. </i>[ELW, pg 304]</span></blockquote>
Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-20451377937278951752020-06-21T09:04:00.000-04:002020-06-21T09:04:11.380-04:00June 21 - A Sermon for Our Confirmands<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Matthew 10:40-42</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Well, L----, that’s what you’re about to do, isn’t it? In a little bit, you are going to stand up here at the front of the church and streaming live on Zoom, and acknowledge your commitment to following God above all others. You’re going to officially renounce, or reject, all the forces that oppose God, or that try to replace God. You’re going to affirm, or agree, that being baptized was a good thing, and that you are happy to be part of Christ’s family and that you recognize that God claims you as God’s own beloved child. And you are going to announce in front of everyone, in “public,” as it were, that going forward you are committed to “proclaim[ing] the good news of God in Christ through word and deed..., serv[ing] all people...., and striv[ing] for justice and peace in all the earth.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Wow. That’s a lot of pressure! Especially that last bit, serving all people and striving for justice and peace in all the earth. After all, you’re only a few years into being a teenager and already you’re expected to stand up and do the right thing, no matter what anybody says.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And, just to be clear, when you stand up and do the right thing, people are going to say a lot. <i>Adults</i> are going to say a lot. That’s actually what Jesus is trying to warn us about in the Gospel reading we just heard. Following Jesus in doing the right thing often puts us into conflict with others, especially with those in positions of authority over us. Jesus says, “I have come to set a man against his father,” and “one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.” And then he says, “whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” Yikes! Those are harsh words, especially on Father’s Day! I bet you didn’t think you were coming to church to be told that!</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Jesus even says, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Which is weird because when we talk about Jesus we call him the prince of peace, and that he brings peace on earth, and that he gives us the peace that passes all understanding. So how can he be talking about bringing a sword? Well, what Jesus is saying is that God did <i>not</i> send him to earth to support the peace that existed at his time, which was the peace of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire established peace by force. If slaves didn’t like being slaves, and tried to escape from slavery, the Empire’s soldiers just killed them, and look, peaceful again. Jesus definitely did <i>not </i>come to support that kind of peace. Instead, he actually came to expose that peace as a lie and to fight it and to dismantle it. It’s hard for us to believe, but he’s saying that if the government is acting in an unjust way, that establishes peace by force, then he is calling us to stand up to it, no matter what the consequences. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And that’s because the ultimate authority for Christians <i>isn’t</i> the Roman Emperor, or the government, or even our parents. <i>Jesus</i> is our Lord, our Saviour, our Emperor, our King, our boss, and the one that we should obey even if it means disobeying someone else. It’s right there in Luther’s explanation to the First Commandment, “we are to fear, love, and trust God above all things.” Jesus is very clear. We are to follow God as we see Christ do, even if it means contradicting our parents or our teachers or our pastors. “Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” And by cross, he means bearing the disapproval and consequences of standing up for justice and peace. Sometimes when you stand up for what’s right, people with authority will tell you to be quiet or to sit down because you’re just a kid. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Now, I’m not that worried about you sitting down and being quiet. And I don’t mean just you, L----. I think that you and other kids your age are a real gift to the church, because you challenge us to think more deeply about what we really mean by following Christ. You all ask us lots of questions, uncomfortable questions sometimes. And your questions expose where we are being inconsistent between what we proclaim and what we actually do. You all truly believe that God loves everyone, and you call us out when we don’t act that way. You all also bring your Christian beliefs into the world. You want things to be fair and right not just in church, but in school, and where people work, and in the world in general. You lead us by example, and when you say to today that you “intend to continue in the covenant God made with you” by doing all these things, I know that you will, because I’ve seen that you already do.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you do. None of us should be surprised that the babies and children who were baptized in the church are growing up and proclaiming the good news through word and deed, serving all people, and striving for justice and peace. We shouldn’t be surprised because when you were baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon you and filled you, and what do we know about the Holy Spirit? We believe “that by [our] own understanding or strength [we] cannot believe in Jesus Christ [our] Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called [us] through the gospel, enlightened [us] with his gifts, made [us]holy and kept [us] in the true faith, just as the Spirt calls, gather, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>All baptized Christians are called to take up their cross and follow Christ, <i>and</i> all Christians are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do it. The rite of Confirmation is a bit misleading, because it seems like we are asking you to commit to something new, to commit to a new way of being a Christian, to live out a more <i>adult</i> faith, but Confirmation is actually just a reminder of what we have all already been called to do, from the moment we were baptized. It’s not a new way, it’s not a more <i>adult</i> way. It’s just <i>the</i> way. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>More importantly, it’s not a way that you are being asked to commit to and follow on your own. The Holy Spirit carries you and all Christians along this journey, and works in your hearts, and directs your actions, and guides your words. Every time we renounce the devil and all his empty promises, every time we say the Creed and proclaim that Jesus Christ is our Lord, every time that we stand up for what’s right and work for justice and peace, we are doing so with the power and the authority granted by the Holy Spirit. And the power and authority of the Holy Spirit is far greater than that of any earthly authority, even our parents. (And believe me, I’m saying this knowing that my own children are listening and these words are going to come back to me one day... But I’ll also say, as a parent, that as annoying as it is when our children point out to us where we are not living with integrity, we are actually secretly proud of them for standing up for what’s right, no matter what.)</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>This is what it is to follow Christ, because this is what Christ himself did. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he stood up to the Roman Empire which proclaimed that only some lives were valuable, which said that there should be unified obedience to the Emperor at all costs, who even said that the Emperor was God. He stood up for those who were silenced, for those who were injured, for those who were insulted or ignored, for those who were shoved to the side. He knew that he would lose his life for it, that the Empire would crush him just like it crushed those he was standing up for, but he did it anyway.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And God rewarded him with new life. God acknowledged him as God’s own beloved Son, and God raised him to new life. And L----, God will do the same for you. God is already doing the same for you. God sees all the times that your heart is open to the Holy Spirit and you proclaim God’s love for all people in word or deed, and serve all people, and strive for justice and peace. God sees all the times you stand up for others, whether it’s a big thing or just a little thing. God sees all the times you help someone out who needs a hand, and all the times you think, “that’s not fair!” when you hear about an injustice. God sees the cost you pay for all those moments, too. And God rewards <i>you</i>, with peace in your heart, for knowing you did the right thing. God rewards you with the satisfaction of knowing that you are indeed following in Christ’s footsteps. God rewards you by freeing you from “the devil and all the forces that defy God, the powers of this world that rebel against God, and the ways of sin that draw you from God.” And God rewards you with the strength to do it again, and then again, for your whole life, until one day, when you are old and wrinkled, you will look back and you realize that you have walked the path of Jesus for your entire life and have been blessed by your Father in heaven. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Many years ago, God brought you to baptism, L----, by working in the hearts of your parents. Today, God is working in <i>your</i> heart by bringing you to this day. And even though you are the only one standing up here today, you are not alone. All of us who are baptized stand with you, and with one another, in responding to the Holy Spirit’s call to the whole church to follow Christ, no matter what. We will stand with you when you face consequences for doing what is right, and we will be cheering when God grants you new life in the midst of that. But even more importantly than <i>us</i> standing with you and cheering, is that Jesus himself is doing it, on behalf of God the Father, through the Holy Spirit. And so we say, Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></div>
Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-66133390012944132032020-06-07T09:14:00.006-04:002020-06-07T09:14:49.468-04:00The Sin of Racism<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Matthew 28:16-20</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>I remember the first time I became conscious that people saw me differently. because of the way I look. I was actually an adult, which already makes me more privileged than most people of colour, who have experienced this since they were children. But in any case, what I remember was being asked, in a seminary-related interview, “What was it like growing up in an ethnic household?” Now I was confused, because I’d never actually heard “ethnic household” before. And since it was an American asking me, I said, “Oh, Canada’s pretty much the same as the United States.” And the interviewer said, “No, I mean Japanese.” And I sat there kind of stunned. I had never before been identified as “ethnic.” I knew the word, I knew about “ethnic cleansing,” I knew about the “ethnic vote,” as Jaques Parizeau said after the ’95 Quebec referendum. But I didn’t know that *I* was ethnic. And I stumbled through the rest of the interview, talking about eating Japanese food and celebrating Christmas, but from that moment on, I never stopped being aware that, at least in the North American Lutheran world, I don’t look like everyone else.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Now, that was more than twenty years ago. And in the States. But my most recent memory of being treated differently because of the way I look was last year, here in Calgary. I had to do a funeral at a funeral home. And I got there early, as I always do, in my black suit, wearing my collar, and carrying my alb. And I walked into the building, and one of the staff came up to me, and I said, “I’m here for the funeral.” And the staff person did a double-take, and said, “Which funeral?” Which was a bit odd, because there was only one, but I said the name, and this person said, “Just a minute, I have to go check with the director.” Which never happens. Every single other funeral, I walk in the door, and the staff immediately show me to the little clergy office and hand me a bulletin and ask me if I need water, and all that stuff. But not this time. And the staff person was gone for a while, and then a second staff person comes out and says, “What’s your name?” And I give it, and they disappear again. And finally, a third staff person comes from somewhere else, and says, “Can I help you?” And I say, “Yes I’m here for the funeral,” and although they give me a look, they show me to the office, and things carry on. Now here’s the thing. I realized later why they reacted that way. There was another pastor, there as a guest, wearing a collar, and he was white. The staff assumed that *he* was there to do the funeral, even though he wasn’t wearing a black suit and he wasn’t carrying an alb and he was already sitting with the other guests. I didn’t *look* like a pastor, let alone a Lutheran pastor, and the staff just couldn’t believe what I was telling them.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Christians are not exempt from racism. Canadian Christians are not exempt from racism. We judge people on the basis of the way they look. And I have it easy, just to be clear. What I experience is <i>nothing</i> compared to the way others in this country are treated. I’m half-white, I was born in this country, I speak English “flawlessly,” my vocabulary reflects my level of education, I know our cultural jokes, my last name is <i>very</i> European. These are all privileges that protect me from the more overt racism that people experience here. If I go missing, the authorities will not wait to alert the public, like they have for thousands of indigenous women and girls. If I get into an elevator and there’s someone already there, I don’t start whistling or humming music or be sure to say a friendly hello to show that I’m harmless, as black men do. I’ve never had to teach my children how to respond to racist comments, either from friends or from complete strangers, like every Canadian parent with children who are not white has had to do. Racism exists in Canada, among Christians.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image. ...’ So God created humankind in God’s image, in the image of God, God created them.” Racism is a sin. It’s a sin, not just against our neighbour, but against God. I don’t know how to make it more clear than this. Sin is turning our back on God. Racism is turning our back on a person made in the image of God, because of the way they <i>look</i>. Do you understand the connection here? The way a person <i>looks</i> is a reflection of the image of God. God is not white. Or rather, God is not only white. God is Asian, and Black, and Brown, and indigenous. When God became human, it was as someone from the Middle East. When we look at someone, and react to them because of the colour of their skin, we are reacting to God. And when our reactions are demeaning, or belittling, or skeptical, that’s how we are reacting to God. When we hear of violence against people whose skin is different than ours, and we wonder, did they deserve it? was this an exception? was there an excuse? were there extenuating circumstance?, then that is how we wonder about violence against God. God created humankind in God’s image. Racism is a sin of the highest order.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And we are all sinners. Didn’t we start our service that way? With a confession that we have sinned against God “in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and what we have left undone?” The alternate version of the confession says, “forgive us our sins, known and unknown.” Christians especially cannot exempt ourselves from this sin. We are in bondage to sin and we cannot free ourselves. We don’t like to think of ourselves as committing racist thoughts, word, or deeds, and it’s likely that nobody here has ever used a racist slur or committed a hate crime against someone because of their skin colour. But what have we left undone? What have we thought or said or done unknowingly? Where has our failure to act or failure to speak been a sin?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>I remember the first time that I became conscious that I was treating others differently because of the way they looked. I was an adult, and I was walking through a downtown neighbourhood by myself, and there was a group of three or four black teenage boys walking towards me. And I crossed the street. I have two cousins who are half-Jamaican, who would have been the age these boys were at that time, and *I* crossed the street. I wasn’t thinking “racist thoughts;” my sin, which I committed in “deed,” was unknown to me in the moment I committed it. It was only after I had crossed the street that I realized what I’d done. These boys were not behaving in a threatening manner, I think they were even laughing. But I do know that if they had been white, I would not have crossed the street. But they weren’t, and I did. I sinned.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>I confess that there have been times when I have kept my mouth shut when people have said things about blacks, or natives, or Pakis, or Arabs, or Africans, or Mexicans, or immigrants. When I should have defended those people made in the image of God, I left that deed undone. In those moments, I sinned against my neighbour, and against God.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>This is how the sin of racism manifests in our daily lives. In reflexive actions, in failures to speak, in hesitating to give the benefit of the doubt, in questioning motives, in making excuses for acts or words of violence or even just plain intolerance committed against someone. It manifests in our acceptance of the treatment of people of colour that is anything <i>less </i>than the way we would treat God in our midst. We all commit this sin. The sin of racism <i>is </i>systemic. We are in bondage to it.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>But Christ, God-in-the-flesh, God-in-the-Middle-Eastern-flesh, came to free us from bondage. By dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, yes, but <i>also </i>by sending us the Holy Spirit, who moves among us so that God’s will for equality be done here on earth as in heaven. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And the Spirit is moving. That uncomfortable feeling you get when you hear a racist joke? That’s the Holy Spirit, calling you to say something. That prick of conscience you get when you see someone not white being treated disrespectfully? That’s the Holy Spirit, calling you to do something. That lingering feeling of guilt you get when you become aware of all the times you’ve subconsciously reacted to someone on the basis of their skin colour? That’s the Holy Spirit, calling you to repent. The growing skepticism you have when people insist that Canadians, or Christians, aren’t racist? That’s the Holy Spirit, calling you to a deeper awareness of our collective sin. And this Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit sent by Jesus Christ, is acting through pricks of conscience, through feelings of guilt, through growing skepticism, through rallies and vigils and protests, through shared videos of police brutality on social media, to commission you to bring about the kingdom of heaven on earth. It may feel overwhelming and scary. But it is, in this time and in this place, how God is calling <i>us</i> proclaim the Good News for all nations, including our own.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Black and indigenous lives matter, because black and indigenous people are made in the image of God, and their lives are under very real, very physical threat. There have been times in our Canadian history when other groups have been under threat, and I’m thinking particularly of our German communities during World War I and in World War II, along with our Japanese communities. Today it is our black and indigenous communities. Every time this happens, we sin against God, especially when we let it continue. But God is working within us to do better, the Spirit is moving to free all people from bondage to this sin, and Christ will be with us always as we resist this hatred together. And so we say, Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></div>
Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-67790704782211518112020-05-31T09:25:00.000-04:002020-05-31T09:26:16.294-04:00Pentecost - The Spirit of Peace and Justice<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1">Acts 2:1-21; John 20:19-23</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>What does peace look like? I mean, the peace that Jesus sends through the Holy Spirit––what does it look like? Or feel like?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>What comes immediately to my mind is the passage from Isaiah 11:6, “and the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and the leopard with the kid, and the calf and the lion, and a little child shall lead them.” And then I think of Psalm 23, or an of the shepherd images in the bible, and sheep grazing peacefully in the field, warm in the sunshine, safe from all enemies. And then there’s our Gospel reading, where Jesus talks about peace as a state of forgiveness––relationships restored, peace between peoples. Long-standing conflicts resolved, people previously at war standing arm-in-arm. When I imagine the peace of the Holy Spirit, that’s what I picture––calm, serene, restful. The Spirit of gentleness.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>I would love that kind of peace in the world. Especially after watching the news yesterday, and seeing what is going on in the United States. And I want to say, it’s easy for us up in Canada to look down south of the border and shake our heads, and say oh, well, and shrug. But, as Christians, we ought not to be quite so dismissive. For one thing, those are people, just like you and I. They are our neighbours, whom God calls us to love and care for. The peaceful protestors out in the daytime, and even those destroying property after the sun goes down, they are fellow human beings, one with us in God’s eyes. The police officers who are continuing to use violent means––pepper spray, tear gas, vehicles as battering rams, knees on backs and throats, and the black men and women who are bearing that violence on their bodies, all of them are our neighbours, fellow humans, one with us in Christ. We cannot dismiss what is going on to the south of us. And, for another, we are not exempt in Canada from our own forms of racism, against indigenous people, and yes, even against people with different skin colour than our own. And so, seeing all of this, I yearn for the peace that Jesus promises to send through the Holy Spirit. The bringing together of all people from different places, with different languages, into one.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>But I admit that I experience some unease when I hear the actual words from our reading from Acts. Peter says, quoting the prophet Joel, “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” I love those verses. The Holy Spirit comes to all, regardless of status or age or gender. The Holy Spirit does not discriminate. This is why we have children’s Sunday, you know––because the Holy Spirit does not bless only those who have reached a certain age.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>But those aren’t the verses that make me uneasy. What makes me uneasy is what comes after: “And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Those are not descriptions of the kind of peace that we would want. These are not times where lions and lambs lie down peacefully. These are not times of warm sunshine in a field of flowers, or cool clean water to drink. This peace does not sound calm, or serene, or restful. This is a Spirit of upset, of tempest and earthquake.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And yet, to people whose lives have been misery, who have been trampled on and oppressed, who are afraid to leave their houses for fear of being assaulted, maybe these words do bring peace? This was the situation of those early Christians for whom the book of Acts was written. And the situation of those for whom the prophet Joel was writing. And the situation of black people in America, whose grandmothers and grandfathers <i>still </i>remember segregation and various states preventing black voters from registering and their young men being killed by white mobs for not crossing to the other side of the street when a white woman walked their way. This is not ancient history––this is less than 80 years ago. All around the world, actually, there are people whose lives are being made such a misery that Joel’s words of the day of the Lord being preceded by fire and blood and darkness, by the complete overturning of all the structures of the world, sound like the prelude to peace.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>So which is it? Which does the Holy Spirit bring? Which verses embody what happens when the Holy Spirit is present? It is calm or is it destruction? Does the Spirit bring sunny meadows or burning cars?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>I think it’s both. When the Holy Spirit is present, there is both justice and peace. There can’t be one without the other. Peace without justice is peace only for some. It is a fake peace, it is like smiling when you don’t mean it. Peace without justice is like leaving the room rather than continuing the argument, but the feelings still linger and poison the air. Peace without justice is like shunning someone––sure, the conflict has stopped, but there is no true reconciliation.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And justice without peace is justice only for some. It’s a fake justice, like one sibling getting sent to their room for something the other sibling did. Justice without peace is what happens when a government jails political prisoners. Justice without peace is like someone being forced to apologize when they don’t mean it. Again, sure, the conflict has stopped, but there is no true reconciliation.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>True peace requires justice, and true justice leads to peace. This is very hard to accept. It is very hard to accept that the Spirit brings both. We usually tend to fall on one side or the other––it might be easier for us to accept justice, but not peace, or it might be easier for us to accept peace, but not justice. But that is not the new life that Jesus brings, that is not the vision that God has in mind for us. God wants more for us––God wants <i>true</i> peace and <i>true</i> justice for us, and so they must go hand in hand.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Now normally, I like to have something practical in my sermons, but I’m not exactly sure how to do that in this case. The gap between what God wants for us and what we want for ourselves seems too vast to cross in this case. But this is what I will say: if you yearn for justice, try working a bit for peace. Maybe there is a situation in your own life where you are bothered by injustice, where you feel oppressed or wrongly treated. In that situation, maybe the Holy Spirit is calling you to work for peace, as your path to justice. And if you yearn for peace, then try working for justice. Maybe people are around you are fighting, and you wish they would just stop. Maybe the news bothers you, maybe protests unsettle you, and you wish they would just be over and everybody would go home. In that situation, maybe the Holy Spirit is calling you to take steps towards acting for justice, to find out what is actually going on, to engage in the issue, maybe the Spirit is calling you to work for justice, as your path to peace.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>We need both. We need those prophets whom the Spirit calls to speak and fight for justice. And we need those calm voices whom the Spirit calls to speak and plead for peace. When we pray, “Your will be done on earth as in heaven,” this is what we’re praying for. We’re praying for the Holy Spirit to bring peace and justice together. We’re praying for the wolf and the lamb to lie down together, <i>and</i> we’re praying for the blood and fire that precedes the day of the Lord. We’re praying to be filled with the Spirit of Jesus, who flipped tables in the Temple and died on the cross asking for forgiveness for those who put him there. And God will answer. The Holy Spirit will come. Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></div>
Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-24304181484742169162020-05-24T10:00:00.000-04:002020-05-24T10:15:36.122-04:00Easter 7 - Children's Sunday - PrayingActs 1:6-14; John 17:11<br />
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[This is a summary of the children's sermon conversation. It was preached by Pastor Daranne Harris for me.]<br />
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<b>In Acts, Jesus leaves the disciples. They are alone, and so they go to an upper room where they are staying, and they spend time praying together.</b><br />
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<b>What is praying?</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>Communicating with God</li>
<li>Letting God communicate with us</li>
</ul>
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<b>What are ways that people communicate?</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>Talking, sign language, singing, laughing, crying</li>
<li>Non-verbal--faces, hugs, dancing, writing and reading, drawing</li>
</ul>
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<b>What are ways people and God can communicate?</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>All the ways people communicate are ways God and us communicate</li>
<li>That's called prayer!</li>
</ul>
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<b>In Acts, the disciples prayed <i>together</i>. How can we pray together?</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>Aloud together (using our own words, or the Lord's Prayer)</li>
<li>Silently together (listening, reading prayers)</li>
<li>Being still together (sitting, kneeling, standing, holding hands)</li>
<li>Moving together (dancing, waving arms, rocking)</li>
</ul>
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<b>(Do we have to be <i>together</i> to pray together?</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>No! We can pray any time and any where, and God gathers us together.</li>
<li>God makes us <i>one</i>, just like Jesus said.</li>
<li>Of course, you can always call up anybody from church, especially me, and ask to pray together, and we always will.)</li>
</ul>
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<b>Why do we pray together?</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>The disciples prayed together because they felt lonely after Jesus left.</li>
<li>We pray together to feel God with us.</li>
<li>We pray together so others feel God with them.</li>
</ul>
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<b>God gave us lots of different ways to pray together so that we will never feel lonely, and so hat we will feel that God is always with us!</b></div>
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<b>Thanks be to God for prayer! Amen!</b></div>
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Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-38124434252394291842020-05-10T09:31:00.001-04:002020-05-10T09:31:11.937-04:00Easter 5 - God's Love for God's Other Children<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"></span>John 14:1-14</div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Oh, the Gospel of John. Full of so much beauty, and so many memorable verses. “In the beginning was the Word...” “For God so loved the world....” “I am the good Shepherd...” and this, Jesus’ proclamation, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me.” Even those who have not grown up in the church can recite this one––it’s been recited throughout history. But, as I asked last week, with another of John’s verses, what does it mean?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>It seems pretty obvious on the surface. Jesus is the way––the only way––to God. And, as a corollary, it seems to say that the only way that God loves us is through Jesus, particularly when the Gospel says later that the Father is shown in the Son, and the Son reveals the Father. It fits with what we heard last Sunday, that Jesus is the gate, the only way to enter the sheepfold. It certainly supports centuries of the church saying that Christians are the only ones who are walking the way, the only ones who are entering the proper sheepfold, and therefore the only ones who are recipients of God’s salvation.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>But there’s a problem with this surface-level interpretation, not the least of which is that we are no longer quite so comfortable with asserting our Christian superiority. The big problem is in the Gospel of John itself: when Jesus says, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold,” and when Jesus says, in the passage we read today, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.... In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” The problem is that when we look closely, the Gospel has a contradiction in it.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>So what does this mean? How can Jesus say he is both the only way to God <i>and</i> that there are other sheep that do not belong to this fold? How can he say that belief in him is the only way to eternal life <i>and</i> say that there are actually many dwelling places that God has built?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>So today is Mother’s Day. Before I had children, I had this idea that a mother is supposed to love all her children exactly the same. And, as I have siblings, as a child, I would be perplexed that my mother seemed to love us all in different ways. One of us would get a privilege, or a a punishment (they were called responsibilities), that the others didn’t. It was confusing, and a source of feelings of either superiority or inferiority, depending on the situation.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>This is not to say that I doubted my mother’s love––I knew that she loved each of us equally, which is to say with all her heart. But what I didn’t understand, until I had to raise my own children, is that the <i>way </i>a mother loves each of her children depends on the child.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>You see, each child has different needs for love. Some children need a snuggly, cuddly kind of love, with lots of reassurance and hugs. Other kids find being hugged to be too much, and they need more of a challenging kind of love, that encourages them to take risks and go out on their own. Some kids thrive under a quiet, soft love, while other kids need a loud, boisterous love. Some kids do well with gentle cautions, while others only learn what they need to know the hard way. Misreading what a child needs can mean that the love a mother shows is not felt by her child––quite the opposite. Love is not one size fits all. It is one of the challenges of motherhood to figure out what kind of love each child needs, and then to give that to them, and then, as the child grows and their needs change, to respond appropriately. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>This is also true of us in our relationship with God and the love we need from God. Probably one of the worst assumptions anyone can make is that we all relate to God the same way, and that we all need the same things from God. We all need to be loved by God, but how we need that love to take shape is different for each of us. Some of us need God to comfort us, like a mother comforts her child when things are scary. Some of us need a challenging God, who encourages us to take risks on behalf of our neighbours, who pushes us to fight for justice. Some of us need God to be vulnerable with us, to love us by sharing our suffering, while others of us need God to be the mighty protector, taking control of our lives in times of crisis. I would even guess that most of us, throughout the course of our lives, have needed all of these things from God at various times. There is a reason Scripture describes God as both merciful <i>and</i> mighty, as both judging <i>and</i> forgiving, as both nurturing <i>and</i> awe-inspiring. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Like a good mother, like “the best mother in the whole world,” God loves each of us in exactly the way we need. When we need a protecting God, that is how God loves us. When we need a challenging God, that is how God loves us. God doesn’t always love us the way we <i>want</i>, mind you, but God always loves us the way we need. When we say that God is love, this is what we mean. The problem comes, though, when we believe that the way <i>we </i>need love is the way that everyone else should need it, too. The problem comes when we proclaim that <i>our </i>need is everyone else’s need, when we assume that God loves each of God’s children in exactly the same way. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And so we come back to the Gospel reading for today. When this Gospel was written, it was for a very specific group of God’s children, who had very specific needs for God’s love. The original audience of this Gospel was Christians who were gathered together, most probably in Ephesus, which is in modern-day Turkey, at least fifty years after Jesus’ death. It’s highly unlikely that any of them would have known Jesus personally, or that any of them would have experienced worshipping as Jews at the Temple in Jerusalem. The best guess of biblical scholars is that they were a community of non-Jewish Christians who were being told by those outside their community that they could not be loved or saved by God because they were not part of the covenant God made with Moses at Sinai. In other words, they were not Jews, and they would not be saved, because they did not have the love of God’s covenant through Torah.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And so Jesus’ message of love is to these non-Jewish Christians, to reassure them that <i>they</i> don’t need to be loved through Torah to be saved by the love of God. Jesus is telling them that <i>they </i>can rely on God’s love through Jesus. They don’t need to look elsewhere. Jesus is telling them that God loves them in a way that is particular to what <i>they</i> need, which is through Christ, who suffices as <i>their </i>way, and <i>their </i>truth, and <i>their </i>life.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>But while this was Jesus’ message to this particular group of Christians, it doesn’t mean that this message is meant for all of God’s children everywhere. Again, a good mother doesn’t love each of her children the same way, or show that love in the same way. We, as Christians, need the love of God that we experience through Christ. But that is not necessarily the case for those who aren’t Christian. It’s certainly not the case for Jews, whom God continues to love through Torah. After the horror of the Holocaust, Christians finally realized that Christ is <i>not</i> the way, the truth, and the life for Jews. Quite the opposite. God does not show love to them the same God shows love to us. And perhaps this is true for people of other religions, or no religion, as well. The love <i>we </i>need is not the love they need, but they are God’s children, too. And so perhaps God shows love for them differently than God shows love for us.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>So how can we say this? How do we know this is true? Well, there are those other verses in the Gospel of John––Jesus has other sheep, and God’s house has many dwellings. But other than that, we don’t know. I could be wrong. But I do know that a good mother loves her children the way each one needs, and God’s love for all of God’s children is deeper than even the best mother’s love. God loves us Christians through Christ. Nothing else will work for us. Christ <i>is </i>the way, the truth, and the life––for Christians. As for those who are not Christian, who need God’s love in a different way? Well, it’s not a child’s place to tell their mother how she should love her other children. We know that God is full of love for all of God’s Creation, and that God will not turn aside or abandon those who are not of Christ’s fold, just as God has not abandoned us. And so we say, Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></div>
Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9085441.post-14856622702158257292020-05-03T09:15:00.005-04:002020-05-03T09:15:44.601-04:00Easter 4 - What is Abundant Life?John 10:10<br />
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>What makes for an abundant life? Jesus says to his disciples, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” In other places in this Gospel, he talks about coming so that people may have eternal life, and in this Easter season, we talk a lot about resurrection life, and about Easter life, and about new life. It sounds simple, it sounds wonderful, it’s what we need to hear right now. But what is <i>life</i>? What is this thing that Jesus promises in abundance? What does he <i>mean</i>?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Well, we could start with a medical definition of life––life is when our heart is still beating, our brain is still operating, our lungs are still breathing. Those seem to be pretty standard baselines. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>But already we’re in murky waters––what about people who are brain-dead, where these things are all happening but only because there are machines helping. If a machine is breathing for someone, is that life? Is that abundant life? What about people who are able to breathe on their own, whose bodies are functioning well, but who are at the most extreme spectrum of dementia? Who can’t talk or recognize the loved ones who come to them? Is that life? Is that abundant life?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>I suspect that as I ask these questions, you are already beginning to form answers in your mind. And I suspect that even as you do, you may be having second thoughts about your first reactions. The difficult thing about the question of ‘what is life’ is that there is no universal answer to this question. Each of us answers it in our own way, based on how we have lived our own lives up to now, and even now, our answers might change.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>It’s an important question though, because our answers shape how we live right now. We are actually experiencing this. Everyone has their own opinion on what life is, and on what kind of life is the best life to live, and now that we are collectively choosing to limit our lives for the sake of others, we are having to figure out what those limitations should be. What do we need to live, and what makes life worth living? What makes life abundant? What is <i>essential</i>, and what is extra?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Some things are obvious––food is essential. Shelter is essential. I think we have rediscovered that relationships and companionship are essential. I think we can agree on all these things. But what about personal freedom? Is getting outdoors essential? What about a functioning economy? Or meaningful work? Is music? Is art? Are any of these things essential? Would we risk our biological life––our physical life––for them? Do they give us <i>abundant </i>life? These aren’t rhetorical questions, and once again, we are back to each of us having our own answers. It’s just that now, we have to make real-life decisions based on them that impact not only ourselves but those around us, and we don’t all agree.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>We don’t all agree <i>and</i> there are lots of people trying to tell us what the answer <i>should</i> be and promising that if we follow their advice, we will experience abundant life. Some people promise that opening up the economy will give us all new life. Others promise that staying closed is the only way forward. Some people promise that herd immunity will give the whole community true life. Others promise that universal testing and vaccinations are the only way. I like to believe that each group has very sincere reasons for promising what they do, and that each really does believe that they are right. And so the question becomes, who do we trust? Whose promises are reliable? Whom do we allow to shape how we live right now?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>This is really what it’s about. It’s not about whether or not we can agree on what is life, it’s about whom we trust to give us that life, whose promise we trust about how to achieve that life, whatever that life might turn out to be. I don’t think we <i>can </i>ever come to an agreement on the definition of what life is, never mind what <i>abundant</i> life is. I don’t think we can come to an agreement because I don’t think there is one single answer. What life is for me, will not be the same as what it is for someone else. I got life this weekend from sitting on the roof of our deck and taking it apart. That’s not life for everyone. I could promise you that doing the same would give <i>you</i> life, but I would be making a lot of assumptions about what gives you life.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>So, if you don’t trust me, who <i>do</i> you trust to give you life, whatever that life might be? Who <i>do</i> you allow to shape the way you live right now? Well, as Christians, we trust the one for whom we are named, Jesus Christ. We trust the one who says, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly,” even if we don’t know exactly what that means. We trust the Son sent by the Father who created the world and started life. We trust the One who sent the Son, who delivered God’s people from slavery in Egypt, who worked through Elijah and through Jesus to raise the dead, who brought the people back from exile, who sent the Spirit upon Jesus at his baptism, who raised him from the dead. We trust the One who knew us in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139), who sent the Holy Spirit to us at our own baptism, and who has been with us every minute of our lives. We trust God––Father, Son, and Holy Spirit––because we have seen God deliver on these promises of life, and we have experienced that life, however momentarily, for ourselves. We don’t know exactly what the promised life looks like, but we do know exactly who the promise-giver is.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Of course, there are certain things that Jesus said and did that tell us a lot about what kind of life he is promising. We know that, in the Gospel of John, his first miracle was to attend a wedding and turn the plain water into <i>good </i>wine. So there is definitely something there about the <i>quality</i> of life being important.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>We also know that Jesus’ second miracle was to bring back from the dead the child of a royal official, one of Herod’s lackeys. So we know that there is definitely something there about life being for everyone, for our enemies as well as our friends.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>We know that the life Jesus promises is eternal, it is life that comes after death, Jesus does not promise there is no death. This is hard when we’re enjoying the life we have, but it’s also a gift when we realize that death is inevitable. There <i>is </i>something after this.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And, we know that the life that Jesus promises is for all. It’s for the community––it’s not just for the rich, or the privileged, or even the deserving. It’s for each of us <i>and </i>for all of us. The life that Jesus promises is not life for some at the cost of others. It does not require compromise. It is, somehow, through the mercy and might of God, for all. <i>Good</i> life, abundant life, eternal life, for enemy and friend alike.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>And so, knowing that, it turns out that we <i>do</i> have an idea about makes for an abundant life. We live so that life might be <i>good, </i>for ourselves and for others. We love our neighbours as ourselves. We live believing that this life is not all we have, that there is more to come. We live trusting in the promise that Easter is real, because we live trusting the promise-giver himself. We trust the One who laid down his life for ours, we trust the One who was himself raised to new life, we trust the One who sends the Holy Spirit to us. We trust the One, Jesus Christ, who said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></div>
Kayko Driedger Hessleinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15842319764824751784noreply@blogger.com0