Choosing Joy...1Thessalonians 5:16-24

Words of Joy, as the third part of our Advent Luncheon series, December 7, 2011.

In conversation with a friend this past Monday, we reflected together on the many challenges facing ministers and the church as we seek to faithfully live out our callings in a world that is constantly changing and presenting us with paths to choose.  It left me thinking about those choices and how God leads us as the church through them in order to faithfully live out the Gospel.  For me, these choices come down to two fundamentally shifting paradigms.  We can either choose despair, or we can choose joy.  What does it mean and how does it change us when we choose joy?

                In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he is encouraging them to do the same, in a world much like ours, where despair is rampant and can so easily shape decisions.  In the verse just before where we picked up our reading, Paul writes:  See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.  And then he says, “Rejoice always.”  So if we hold our lives and all our decisions in the light of joy, how does that shape how we make them? 

                To live in joy and rejoice in all that is does not mean to deny sorrow, hide grief or extinguish pain.  However, it does call us to live in the moment with these feelings, in the knowledge that even these feelings hold possibility.  For from Mary’s situation, which I’m sure included much fear and even grief, came a message of light and joy and changed the direction of her life and ours, forever.  These feelings hold possibility for us when we live beside each other and comfort each other as we share in our humanity.  In acknowledging that God is at the centre of this humanity, joy bubbles to the surface and surrounds us wherever we go.  The world is still tough, as it was for the early church, but we choose to live in God’s joy that cannot be extinguished by the despair of the world.  So in all of the feelings of this season, allow them to be true, encourage them to be real…do not hide who you are, in the knowledge that God’s joy will surround you.  Live in the moment and choose joy.  Amen.  

Some words for Peace: Isaiah 9:1-7

Words of Peace given to the River John Community, as part of our Ecumenical Advent Luncheon Series (given in 2010)

Today calls us to dream about Peace...as Isaiah's people dreamed about peace. Peace is one of those attributes of God that seems, in so many ways, unattainable, something to which we cannot measure. But can we? Isaiah names the many places in which his people were in great darkness. But he also presents them with the places into which a great light will burst. Isaiah is teaching that peace is not merely the absence of war or violence, but is a feeling, an action, that is buried deep within, an action that is contagious, a feeling, that when spread, can have great result.

This time of year presents us with an interesting challenge. It is so easy to think of ourselves as the people without light, as the people who are doing everything wrong, as the people who are in so much trouble that we cannot see our way out. But then God calls us to something different. God has called us this day to dream about not only what we can be, but to focus on what we are. Yes, there are lots of places in our lives for improvement, but there is also lots in our lives and community that we are doing right, that is full of peace, that is full of God's light. As we prepare this day for the coming of Emmanuel into our midst, the child who is the Great Light, we are also called to see ourselves in a different light—the light that reminds us that we, here in this community, can work for peace and do work for peace—those who know deep peace. We are called to live out that peace, and do that by the ways we reach out to others, by the ways in which we celebrate each others strengths, by the ways we live intentionally toward our environment.

This scripture is our confidence. Confidence that this community is blessed and will continue to be blessed by God's peace. If we continue to live in ways that are true and honest, acknowledging God's zeal, the light of peace as contained in the Christ Child will spread into the darkness with passion and furry. Isaiah deeply believed this...but the question for us this day is, How can we celebrate the places where light dwells, while believing that the gift of peace will continue to burst into the dark corners of our lives? Do we believe in God's zeal? May God's peace continue to be with you this day. Amen.   

Some thoughts on hope: Isaiah 61:1-3

These are some of my thoughts on Hope for our Ecumenical Advent Luncheon...a four part series that is starting today.

What does it mean that we wait in hope?  In many ways, our world seems to speak of hope as something that is, well, hopeless.  So many things to do, not enough time.  So many people to help, not enough hands.  So much peace to be had, but so much fighting.  Many of these situations do, and can, leave us rather empty and hopeless.  But we as followers of Jesus know a different type of hope:  The hope that is deep within, the hope that is not fleeting, the hope that comes from knowing a loving and gracious God.  The prophet Isaiah speaks of such hope that turns the world around.  The hope that seeks to not only change situations, but reverse them.  Can we imagine such a hope that turns ashes into garland?  Or mourning into gladness?  Or a faint spirit into praise? 

It can be said that Advent begins in darkness…but a spark of light breaks open that darkness to bring us the gift of hope.  That spark of light is full of anticipation and wonder and waiting, and lives deep within us.  This time of hope is God’s calling to us to remember who we are and to whom we belong.  Hope does not equal happiness or cheerfulness, but rather it equals contentment and the knowledge that we are not alone, especially in our feelings of hopelessness and fear.  God has sent us this gift so that we might have great knowledge that hope resides not only in a light, but within each one of us and with God’s help, we can be the ones who live out these great reversals.  For when the light of hope is lit, it is lit again in each one of us so that all the world can see the great potential and example of what it is to live in God’s hope and live it out.  So how will the light of hope change you?  Change your perspective?  Change the way in which you have come to know God?  May the light of hope be in each one of you and burn brightly as we journey though Advent together.  Amen.  

A Fall of Change??

The leaves are almost fully changed now, and I stop and ponder the fact that it is now almost the middle of November.  It has been a fall of not only changing colors, but hopefully changing perspectives.  Changing perspectives on how we see ourselves, our community and our world.  The recent occupy movements are encouraging us to think about how we see ourselves and our positions in society.  The recent gospel lessons found in our lectionary also have been challenging the ways in which we think about our relationships to our God, our faith and each other.  So with all of this change in the air, what is the outcome?  Are we going to see ourselves differently enough that it causes us to actually do something about this shift?  Where is the breaking point?  Like the tide of the river, are we going to reshape our landscape?  Only time will tell...

Vacation Bible School...

I've spent the past three mornings leading music and some of the activities at vacation bible school.  It was really nice out today and some of the activities were better suited for outside.  After just a few minutes, many of the children wanted to go back inside.  It amazed me at the little patience they had for just being outside in the grass, looking at different leaves and plants and talking about how things grow.  It made me wonder about our ability to play.  We are surrounded by working or technology...our imaginations are not completely gone, but they are different.  Even our children have little or no sense of wonder or imagination outside of what they can actually see and touch.  We need to take more time for intentional play...for running in the grass, for taking time to look at flowers and plants and reflect on how things grow and change.  So how do we play?  How do we set an example for our children so that they will learn how to take time out and notice things?  How do we bring our imaginations back to life?

Church on the River...

So as I look out my front window, I see the tall white spire of  Salem United Church (one of the points in my two-point charge), reaching toward the clouds, just across the river.  Since today is Sunday, I got to do one of my most favorite things...leading worship with my fantastic people.  I started something that I have only done once before; a sermon series...this time, focusing on the Lord's Prayer.  Sometimes I think we take this prayer for granted, not giving it the thought or reflection that it deserves.  And so we started reflecting on it, line for line and we'll do so for the next six weeks.  Because of the beauty of this place, it is hard not to reflect on the beauty of those words and be brought into a place of Holy Mystery and Wonder.  So, over the next six weeks, this will be the picture of worship across the river.  Who knows where it will take us, or what the picture will look like! Let the journey begin!

A Grey Kind of Day...

Today on the river, the scene is kind of grey.  That didn't stop many people from going to the local farmers' market.  We bought tomato plants that will hopefully end up in our garden (if it ever gets warm enough) but for now, they call the window sill in our kitchen home.  We have already planted grape vine and hope to plant corn, carrots, green peppers and cucumbers.  Yum! Even for a grey day, things are looking pretty good on the river.

The season of sunsets has returned!

Now on the other side of the longest day of the year, beautiful sunsets are one of the wondrous pictures I see through my window.  Their hues of orange, pink, and yellow melt toward the deep blue color of the water and set the tone for the evening in their own gentle way.  These sunsets mark the return of summer to the river, as the winter ones are not as close to the water or as brightly colored.  And so the dreamy days that turn into evening are marked by this beauty...these colors...and most mysteriously, the light that dapples and shines through my window.