Sermon: Advent 1C

Advent 1C from Good Shepherd on Vimeo.

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While I haven’t yet seen it, the new movie 2012 is built around the ancient Mayan Prophecy that the world will end on December 21, 2012, which is said to be the end date of the 5,125-year-long Mayan Long Count calendar of one age and the beginning of another.

While the Mayans were long on math, they were short on details. Leaving many scientists to believe that the calendar doesn’t predict the end of life on this planet. But it simply marks a turn of the calendar. No different from when we change the cute 2009 calendar with the cute puppy 2010 calendar.

But that doesn’t stop the doomsday sayers. End of the world prophecies are VERY popular. They’re romantic, even sexy. They provide drama to a boring life. Power to an insignificant life.

After all, what is more important than the end of all things, the destruction of the planet, the finale to all existence? And if we have some inside information, we possess knowledge that most people don’t have. Giving us a sense of power.

2012 doomsday advocates don’t have to look far for support that the world will end some day. Today’s gospel provides some pretty heady predictions that sends the heart racing of everyone worried about whether the world will end by next commercial break. Jesus says that...(whole thing here)

Sermon: Christ the King - Year B

Reign of Christ the King - Year B from Good Shepherd on Vimeo.

The folks who put the lectionary know what they’re doing. The lectionary being the series of bible passages that we read each week at worship. I certainly don’t choose the bible readings. Most churches around the world read the same bible passages. It’s something that unites us.

I don’t always agree with how they divide up the texts. They leave important passages out and often (I think) distort the meaning of the readings by how they lump them together.

But this week I can see twinkles in their eyes as they assign the reading from John on the one hand, and the readings from Daniel and Revelation on the other.

In John we get Jesus and Pilate bantering back and forth. Pilate representing worldly power and authority. And Jesus representing God’s dominion over the world. Jesus is the one who ends up dying a horrible. Pilate just washes his hands.

But in Daniel and Revelation we hear about God’s presence burning like fire while thousands of thousands attend to the Almighty’s every need. We hear threats of universal judgement and promises of everlasting kingdoms. We get unbridled power. Overwhelming omnipotence. Unrelenting strength.

So, John gives us Jesus on the losing end of a trial. Daniel and Revelation give us divine glory. Utter defeat verses total victory.

Which is it? What are we supposed to do with this?

And this isn't a question for cranky preachers up way too early on a Sunday morning. It's a question for...(whole thing here)

Sermon: Pentecost 23 - Year B

Pentecost 23B from Good Shepherd on Vimeo.

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“The building is our idol,” our esteemed bishop said in his report at yesterday's Southern Conference Convention. “Some churches, if they had a choice,” he said, “would rather be without a pastor than a building.”

I immediately knew what he was talking about. My first church was like that. They had been without a pastor for about two years before I arrived. And when I was moving into the parsonage a couple council members made it known to me that they were happier without a pastor.

At first I thought they were saying that being without a pastor energized the congregation, that ministry was happening among all God's people, not just the ones wearing dog collars, that people were empowered to live out their baptismal calling through Word, Sacrament, and service. I thought they meant that being without a pastor meant that they were forced to flex their ministry muscles.

No. That's NOT what they meant...(whole thing here)

Reformation Day Sermon

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities;” Paul says, “for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; for it is God’s servant for your good.”

On what planet was Paul living on when he wrote that? “Rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.,” he says.

Really? Is that so?

Paul should know better. After all, as a Roman citizen he knew what the Roman government was capable of. He was eye-witness to brutal executions. The empire-building on the backs of slaves. He watched as people were forced to worship Caesar. No matter what religion they were.

In Jerusalem, he knew all about Herod's slaughter of 1000s of innocent children. The corrupt, puppet governments. The two-faced, double-dealing leaders.

This passage makes no sense when you think of where Paul came from. Or where any of us come from.

And this passage defies logic when placed along side of the rest of Paul's message. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul rails against the “rulers of this age.” Earlier in Romans, Paul demands that Christians confront the “principalities and powers” of this world. Not to submit to them.

This passage seems shoe-horned into this letter. As if it's not meant to be here. It feels out of place. Like someone put words in Paul's mouth.

In fact, a small group of scholars say that's exactly...(whole thing here)

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 13: 11-14

Romans 13: 11-14

Paul thought the world was going to end soon. And Christians ever since have followed suit. It seems that every TV preacher likes to say that we’re living in the End Times, that Jesus’ return is going to happen before the next commercial. If we’re not careful, we’re warned that we may be “left behind.”

So, we better watch what we do. We don’t want to be caught sleeping when the Day of Salvation comes.

Every generation seems to believe that it is the last. But now with weapons being kept out of terrorist’s hands by a padlock. With the polar ice caps melting. With droughts every increasing around the world. We (or at least I) fear that this might be the generation that sees the End of All Things.

If that’s true, or even if it isn’t, Paul is saying to be alert to what God is doing. And live as if it is your last day.

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 13: 8-10

October 19 Romans 13: 8-10

I had a friend in university who, although a Christian, had a visceral dislike for poor people, government, Bill Clinton, liberals, and secular music.

When the Ontario Provincial government cut welfare payments by 22% before closing a major psychiatric hospital in Toronto, sending 1000s of people on to the street (literally), because, the government said that they needed to bring down the deficit, this fellow gloated.

“How can you be so gleeful about mentally ill people forced on to the streets? Haven’t you read Matthew 25 where Jesus said that Christians should make helping poor people a priority, or the Old Testament prophets who spoke on behalf of the most socially vulnerable in society?

He responded, “Haven’t you read the part in the bible where it says you should never go into debt?”

I’m assuming he paid cash for his house.

He was thinking of Romans 13: 8 “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves one another has fulfilled the law.”

I think he forgot the second part.

But I found his attitude appalling. He was, in effect, saying that homeless people and the mentally ill should pay off the deficit.

He’s not alone. We tend to think that we shouldn’t be asked to pay for anything if it helps someone other than ourselves. We don’t like love to cost us anything.

But Jesus shows us how much love costs. It cost Jesus his life. Should we expect that we should pay anything less?

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 13: 1-7

Romans 13: 1-7

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for their is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God” (13: 1)

How could Paul make such a stupidly naive statement? So, God put Hitler in charge of Germany? Stalin in the USSR. Pol Pot in Laos? And the Christian’s duty is to subject themselves to this authority?

What happens to the prophetic voice, advocating on behalf of the powerless? The voiceless? The oppressed?

The Christians in Rome WERE the voiceless, powerless, and oppressed. Which makes Paul’s comment all the more jarring. Either he’s offering practical political advice (keep your heads down, don’t draw attention to yourselves. Just do what you’re doing quietly so as to not arouse the ire of the empire).

OR Paul is recognizing that the Roman empire was doing some good in the world. Yes, they were an oppressive regime. But they also created much needed infrastructure to the areas they conquered.

But is NOT saying to be subservient, but he is saying to participate in the city’s civic life. The prophetic role is not diminished, but then enhanced, as the Christians in Rome play a role in the on-going life of the city.

Christians are not islands, separated from the rest of the community. But rather, to be at the heart of community life.

Some may say that this leads to the domestication of the church. And they may be right. But it would also make our voices heard more clearly when we speak from our unique perspective.

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 12: 9-21

Romans 12: 9-21

Whoever said that faith was reasonable didn't read today's passage from Romans. While we find echoes of this passage in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel, chapters 5-7, we tend to throw this sort of message in the back seat. We don't keep it next to us as we navigate our daily encounters with others. In fact, if our Foreign Affairs Minister followed Paul's advice in devising foreign policy, he would be out of a job by lunch time.

I think there is a part of us that doesn’t really care about what Paul was saying. There are times when I’m not terribly interested in following his advice. When I’m more interested in fighting, getting angry, exacting revenge. When I don’t want to live peaceably. When I want justice.

Christians are often know for how we fight rather than how we make peace. But Paul is reminding us we serve a God who reconciles with enemies rather than defeats them.

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 12: 1-8

Romans 12: 1-8

We often hear this passage as a stand-alone exhortation on Christian moral behaviour. But I think this section is a response to the last. The word “therefore” is a giveaway.

It looks as if Paul is saying, “ALL of Israel will be saved. Those pesky Jewish folks who don’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah will find their way into covenant with God. So don’t think you’re any better than them. You are one body. Dead in sin. Alive with Christ. You just have various roles to play according to your gifts. One gift is not any better or worse than another. So live your gifts in unity with each other - Jew and Gentile.”

Despite Paul’s best intentions, we tend to see some gifts as better than others. We’ve elevated the preaching office above all others, where Paul sees it as one gift among many.

We (rightly) celebrate at ordinations. But I wonder if we should similarly celebrate at other occasions as well. A lesson well taught. A bathroom expertly cleaned. Numbers deftly crunched. Every gift that comes from God is to God’s glory. I think Paul is asking us to remember that each of us plays a pivotal role in God’s enduring mission.

Blogging Through Romans: Romans 11: 25-36

Romans 11: 25-36

Here Paul concludes, albeit a little condescendingly, that, yes, ALL of Israel will be saved. And God is only saving Israel because “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (v. 29). Irrevocable for US and for GOD. Paul seems to suggest that God saves Israel grudgingly, but only after all the Gentiles find their way into covenant with God (v. 28). But I wonder if his choice of words are more his own discomfort with God saving his fellow Jews without Christ, than in God’s dutibound conscience.

Don’t you hate it when God chooses someone that you wished God didn’t. You may have seen on CNN the Baptist preacher in Arizona who preached sermon a called “Why I HATE Barack Obama.” where he says “he prays everyday that Barack Obama will die and go to Hell.”

Nice, eh? But Paul’s response would be, Pray all you want. God chooses who God chooses. And God NEVER breaks a covenant.

God’s grace is the great leveler. We’re ALL in the same boat when it comes to sin and grace. When God establishes a covenant with us, that covenant will remain solid. No matter what we do to try and break it.

But after Paul’s embittered concession that God hasn’t rejected Israel Paul breaks into a stirring doxology that reminds his readers that we mortals cannot understand God’s thinking. And maybe that’s a good thing.

Blogging Through Romans 11: 11-24

Romans 11: 11-24

“...remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root supports you” (v.18b)

In the early church there was a movement to expunge the Old Testament from the bible. The reasoning was that the older covenants no longer applied, and that God has moved divine favour from the Jews to the Gentiles, since the official Jewish establishment didn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

Later, in history, many church folks tried to take Jesus’ Jewishness from him. They tried to prove that Jesus wasn’t really Jewish, even though the gospels are pretty clear that he was.

It looks like some Gentile Christians in Rome were trying to do the same thing. Paul was responding to a group of snooty Gentiles who looked down their noses at Jewish non-Christians.

Paul was having none of it. In this passage, he is saying, “If you’re a Christian, thank a Jew. You cannot understand Christianity without understanding Judaism. The Jews were the first ones God had chosen to be lights to the world.”

Since the beginning, Christians and Jews have had an uneasy relationship. We Christians often find it unsettling that Jews don’t recognize Jesus as a Messiah, and I wonder, if deep down, we worry that the Jews know something we don’t know.

But, Paul then reminds us that there is no distinction, in God’s eyes, between Jew and Gentile. We are sisters and brothers of Abraham. The Jews simply were first. And Jesus was the way we Gentiles were brought into covenant with God.

Sermon: Pentecost 19B Romans Series

Pentecost 19B Romans Series from Good Shepherd on Vimeo.

Romans 10: 5-17

What will the church of the future look like?

Will churches resemble what we have now? Will churches have pews and pastors, committees and councils, hymns and hierarchies?

Will leaders be trained in seminaries? Will there be a clergy/lay divide? Will we have buildings?

Probably “yes” to all these things. Some churches will hold on the current ways of being and doing church. Why fix what isn't broken? After all, it's worked for hundreds of years. If God didn't want the church to run this way why would God have established it like this? Right?

But also a big “NO.” I think God is doing something among mainline churches, those United, Presbyterian, United, and Anglican, churches that have some roots in the Reformation.

It's hard to say exactly what God is doing. But something is happening. There must be something that God is telling us as God has...(whole thing here)