Passing the Peace

In almost every United Church of Canada, which includes churches in Bermuda, by the way, at some point in the service, there will be a moment where someone says, “Peace be with you,” and those who’ve attended at least a few times before, will respond, “And also with you.”  Some churches have the right-side pew sitters stand and say it to the left-side pew sitters and vice versa.  Some bow with hands folded like they are ending a yoga class, a practice that became popular after Covid.  Some wave.  Some shake hands, like at a Rotary or Toastmaster’s Club.  Some say it in sign language, where the word peace is made with two actions, “turning” and “stillness”.  Some churches only do it at communion, some do it every Sunday to start the service, some do it at the end of every service, some vary their practice from week to week.  Of course, it’s not just the United Church, many denominations do this as part of their worship.  And it comes from the first Resurrection appearance as described by John.  Jesus pops up like a magical Dr coming out of a police box in the middle of a living room, astonishing everyone.  Except Thomas of course, who proceeded to sulk and grumble because he was left out and thought they had gone off their collective rockers!

One of our former moderators, Richard Bott, described the scene with Thomas like this: “I have to wonder how long he politely smiled at the other disciples, nodding his head, thinking, “Yeah. Right. Grief. Does strange things to a body, eh?” How long did he listen to the disciples tell the story of what they experienced, over and over – “What were you doing when he appeared?” “Oh, I was playing dice with Peter – had won him taking over dish washing duty for a week!” “Yeah, I was just staring out the window, bored silly, when I heard the commotion.” “Didn’t he look great?” “For having been crucified, he looked amazing!” and on and on… until [Thomas] finally had to say, “Ok. Stop it! I don’t know what you’re up to, but until I can see him… no – until I can touch the wounds the spikes made in his wrists and put my hand on the side where they speared him, I just can’t believe you!”  Then he gets his wish.

“Turn to Stillness, all you stressed disciples,” Jesus commanded Thomas and the others.  Not an easy thing to do then, and still not easy to do given everything that is happening in the world today.  There’s a new war in the Middle East and an old one in Ukraine.  There’s angry rhetoric between separatists and non-separatists.  Cuba is in crisis. The price at the pumps and in the grocery stores doesn’t help. The odd weather we’ve been having where some places have three or more feet of snow while other places are worried about flooding and going from -20 to plus 10 in a matter of days, does not help.

It’s too much, and many people may think that peace is something we get when we block out the world, turn off the phone and hide under the bed covers, or maybe blast off into outer space.  That was not the peace the disciples got.  They were, except for Thomas, hiding from the world behind a locked door, afraid that the roman soldiers would be coming for them at any time.  Thomas was out and about, showing his face in public.  Was it bravery?  Was it despair, a desire to martyr himself because without Jesus, he felt there was no reason to live and hang what the Romans might do to him?  We’ll never know.  We do know that he was the one who wanted proof, who doubted the words of his community, who struggled to understand what Easter was about, and had the courage to name it out loud.  He wasn’t afraid to call out the elephant in the room. 

But he also didn’t have peace in his heart.  He had anger and defensiveness, and he knew he was right.  When people get entrenched in certainty that they are right, and the rest of the world is wrong, they can get locked into unhealthy attitudes and power struggles that also do not lead to peace.  Peace like that is what led to the crucifixion in the first place.  The Romans defined peace as something they were entitled to inflict on others through violence, what they called “Pax Romana” or state-sanctioned ability to prevent a lot of the freedoms we take for granted today, the right to freedom of speech, the right to protest what we see as unjust laws, the right to basic human needs including education and clean water.  Peace through authoritarianism was not what Jesus believed in, and saying so in public is one of the reasons why the religious and political leaders executed him.

“Peace be with you” is a gift that money can’t buy.  It’s a prayer that disrupts our moods, and our certainties.  It’s a call to remember our Christian commitment to compassion and justice. It’s a reminder that we are disciples inspired by Jesus, crucified and risen.  Let us turn to stillness now.  Take a deep breath.  [breathe] Take another, down to your belly button. [breathe] Then one more. Now let us pray, repeating after me:

God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change

Grant us the courage to change the things we can

And the wisdom to know the difference.

Grant us the serenity to accept the people we cannot change

The courage to change the people we can

And the wisdom to know the only person we can change is ourselves.

And let us remember to turn to stillness and pray that we give everyone we meet the gift of turning to stillness too.  Amen

Friends, if you are reading this and enjoying the thoughts here, if they inspire or even challenge you, consider supporting Athabasca United Church.  Without their support, I wouldn't get paid to write.  Without their support, we wouldn't be the only organization in Athabasca publicly supporting human rights for all people regardless of gender orientation.  They also support the food pantry and a variety of outreach projects both in Athabasca and even as far as the Ukraine.  E-transfers to athabascaunited@gmail.com or https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/athabasca-united-church/ will help me continue to share my reflections on the world and scripture.  Thank you!

Passport to Life

When was the last time you looked at your driver's license or your passport? Or if you don't have one of these, ask to look at a friend's or parent's. The last time I got my photo taken, it was taken with strict instructions.  Don't smile. Look up. No glasses. Get your hair off your face. Then the bright flash seems to suck all the color our of your face and the results are ghastly. Pale, dull, emotionless blank look that in all honesty looks way older than you actually are. Boring and lifeless.

I imagine that's how Mary Magdalene and the other women looked when they hurried to the tomb that first Easter Sunday. Shocked and maybe even traumatized by the experiences of Good Friday, they would have been going through the motions, numb and empty. Their faces blank, putting one foot in front of the other, doing the traditional mourning rituals that were a part of their culture and religion. Trying to organize the details of what to do next. The community was in turmoil, and rather than a cohesive group looking to a leader to guide all their decisions, they had no one to fall back on. Did James and John make plans to rejoin their dad's fishing business? Did Matthew think about going back to his job of despised tax collector? Would Mary and Martha have felt trapped back into a life where they would only be allowed to cook and clean and never sit with the men as equals? Would Lazarus have thought about going back into his tomb and never dream of coming out again? Would the Samaritan woman plan to go back to her well and her village, doomed to go from one man to the next as she used to, or the man born blind wish he could close his eyes to the pain he saw in the faces of his new friends?

At times of terrible pain, we can go into such a state of numbness, and many of us can relate. Our days feel meaningless and empty. We slip into states of apathy where even getting out of bed seems too onerous. Now in the days of Jesus, life was far shorter and folks might have been more prosaic than we are with our modern medicine and hygiene, we don't know for sure. But even though Jesus tried to prepare his followers, they hadn't listened, they rejected what they heard as gloom and doom nonsense. So Good Friday would have been a real shock to them all.

It also would have been a time of great guilt and shame for the men who had all either run away or denied their connection to Jesus. The women didn't run, but witnessing the ordeal must have been dreadful.  The United Church’s Song of Faith describes it this way, “Because his witness to love was threatening, those exercising power sought to silence Jesus. He suffered abandonment and betrayal, state-sanctioned torture and execution. He was crucified.” It could have become the stuff of nightmares.

The historian Josephus, writing his book for the Roman Empire of the history of his Jewish country wrote that Jesus was executed. This we know is fact. Jesus was real and he was killed in the most public and shameful way possible, on a hill that could be seen for miles, nearly naked in a culture that treasured modesty, and slowly as a traitor, to remind other potential rebels never to question authority.

That should have been the end of the story. This Roman execution should have snuffed out their small movement before it had a chance. End of story. Except it wasn't. The morning when the women came to the tomb, the one thing they weren't expecting was that it would be empty.

Death was not the last word. Now, there are a lot of theories and explanations trying to debunk the resurrection.  Those theories started from day one, trying to discredit Christianity.  Over and over, the detractors attacked, mocked, belittled and even tortured people believing in a Risen Christ.  The Roman Empire and modern Communists alike made it illegal.  Atheists like Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan wrote book after book ridiculing the Easter Story, and they expected their scientific debunking to end Christianity and all other faiths.  Their motives were sound, they wanted to end violence and religious wars.  But often religious wars are using people’s faith to manipulate and convince people that war is necessary, it isn’t because religion itself is warlike.  Interestingly enough, even with atheists and countries declaring faith illegal, a research project found that the only faith shrinking in 2026 was Buddhism.  Christianity grew by 5%.  Rather like the Monty Python knight, Christians can claim that “I’m not dead yet!”

The truth is that a stolen body can’t inspire a spiritual revolution, a lie can’t inspire people to come together and risk their lives to talk about teachings of respect, compassion and faith.  A scam doesn’t inspire quiet resistance to tyrants, a plot doesn’t embolden people to protest against discrimination.  The Resurrection story has inspired people for centuries.  Without it, William Wilberforce wouldn’t have worked to end the Slave Trade, Charles Dickons wouldn’t have written about the oppression of impoverished children which inspired the establishment of public schools as a human right, monks and nuns wouldn’t have built hospitals and hospices, and people like Martin Luther King would not have preached equal rights even at the risk of their own lives. 

Easter, like God, is Holy Mystery, beyond complete knowledge, above perfect description.  It inspires us to love our neighbors, love ourselves and love that holy mystery whatever we name it.  Easter helps us work in hope for a better world.  Easter brings people to life, giving them purpose and a vision.  We become more than our passport or driver’s licence photos; we come to life.  Easter inspires us to deeper spirituality, both in our daily lives and in community here.  Easter inspires us to engage in learning more about our faith and our world so that we can practice bold discipleship.  Easter inspires us to also work daringly for justice, whether it’s joining in protest rallies, voting in elections or sending e-mails and phone calls to people who need to hear that we believe in human rights and equality for all.  Easter empowers us to speak against racism, homophobia or discrimination.  Easter is the ultimate “No Tyrants” event, not started by Jesus, or the disciples, but started by Holy Mystery itself. Our Song of Faith says, “in love, the one eternal God raised Jesus from death, turning sorrow into joy, despair into hope.  We sing of Jesus raised from the dead. We sing hallelujah.  

Today, let us choose to have the mystery of Easter, however we understand it, inspire us to continue the work for justice and human dignity that Jesus started so long ago.  Because the empty tomb didn’t stop the followers of Jesus back when they knew what Herod and Pilate did, and they followed Jesus anyway.  Not because he was a passport to power or wealth, but because he was a passport to community, love and abundant life.  Thank God for this passport we have that is the Risen Christ.  Christ has risen, Halleluiah!

Deep, Bold and Daring Conversations

What kinds of conversations happen in the middle of the night?  Usually secret ones.  Ones that we don’t want the public to know about, ones that may be completely innocent, and ones that may be deeply evil. 

When I wake up to headlines about war and assassination and leaders of countries being bombed, I wonder about the secret conversations that happen behind closed doors in the middle of the night.  Orders given, decisions made, and worst of all, accountability ignored, compassion sneered at, human rights completely disregarded.  It is deeply disturbing that two men, having most of the world’s military power, made a decision that impacts the whole world.  Where is the accountability?  Why do they think they are entitled to take over countries and send the world in a tizzy?  Why do they want to start another world war? 

Today’s scripture reading shows a conversation that didn’t start a war, for all it happened in the night and not in public.  Was Nicodemus sneaking off to talk to Jesus secretly, or was it one of those, “gosh, look at the time” conversations?  We do know that Nicodemus was really struggling to understand Jesus.  He wanted things to be practical and easy to understand.  Jesus was talking in metaphor.

Nicodemus struggled to understand what Jesus was trying to explain to him.  Not just the whole “being born of the Spirit” but all that Jesus was teaching.  The way of compassion, empathy and spirituality.  This way that the United Church has described as “deep spirituality, bold discipleship and daring justice” was not something Nicodemus was comfortable with.  He had heard Jesus talk in scathing terms about Pharisees like Nicodemus. Jesus thought the pharisees who were more concerned about what people thought about them than what God thought, were hypocrites.  The leaders that Jesus challenged liked having a clear rule book of what would bring them closer to God and what would pull them away from God.  Rules were easy to follow on a surface level.  Jesus wanted them to explore at a deeper level what a relationship with God could be like.

For Jesus, a life of faith was centered around loving God, and loving neighbor.  This wasn’t a matter of nice stories or poetic prayers. It wasn’t about compartmentalizing what we believe on Sunday mornings and what we do on Monday mornings.  This wasn’t a conversation that was a fun little exercise in debating skills, but a call to reexamine our lives and our priorities.

It was about what we do in public.  It was about how we live out our God-shaped priorities.  It’s about when do we make a stand, when do we act? When do we make a commitment to empathy, compassion and justice?

Jesus wanted people to live deep bold and daring lives, not secretive ones.  He wanted people to have deep, bold and daring conversations about their faith and their relationship with God.  All too often, we’ve seen how that has been done in abusive ways.  In ways that are more like the Pharisees than Jesus.  Especially now, when Christian Nationalism seems to be the only game in town.  When John 3:16 is used to shame and blame people for not having a deep enough faith.  When conversations are not dialogues where people actually listen to each other’s opinions and try hard to understand them, but monologues spouting whatever conspiracy theory happens to be most popular on social media.

Nicodemus was very brave, even though he came in the dark.  But Jesus called him to live a more honest and open life.  A life of secrecy can cause tremendous harm and stress.  In modern business lingo, it is ‘living below the line’.  Below the line attitudes are like thinking, “I’m right, I will reject new ideas, I’m reacting emotionally, I’m resisting.”  Nicodemus was resisting what Jesus was trying to teach him.   He didn’t like the new idea of being born into a spiritual way of being.  He didn’t want to look at his theology as something to be lived, not just thought about.  But somewhere during that conversation, some time during that long night, something Jesus said made sense.  And his words still resonate today:

“This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”

This Lent, we can see on the world stage what happens when world leaders become addicted to practicing evil, addicted to denial and illusion.  It’s easy to point fingers at them for their behaviors that are leading us into another war.  But we can’t control the men who order armies around.  We can only change ourselves.  Nicodemus was changed by his conversation.  He became public in his exploration of what Jesus was teaching.  He became accountable for his actions, standing up for Jesus to the other Pharisees, and eventually publicly burying Jesus in his own family tomb. This Lent, let us give up living in secret, hiding our lights, being addicted to being right, avoiding hard conversations and being stuck in denials and lies.  Instead, let us remember that God loves us as we are and wants us to live lives that are deep, bold and daring, for the world needs more transparency, more love and more hope.  Let us also remember that when we choose to live deep, bold and daring lives, we will find that we are not alone, we live in God’s world, in life, in death, in life beyond death, thanks be to God. Amen!

Temptations

Have you heard the old cliché, “Hurt people hurt people”? Sometimes people are not even aware of the hurt they do to others, or they justify it, brush it off, dismiss it.  Fine and dandy, but when they start to think that they are justified, or even that the people they hurt deserve it, or even worse, that the people they hurt aren’t really, we have a situation that can spiral out of control.  Whether it’s addictions to violent video games like Roblox or sharing toxic claims about immigrants or trans people, or taking pride in insulting people who have a different political perspective than us, it’s easy to go from polite Canadians apologizing to everyone for everything, to becoming a keyboard warrior or someone who cuts people off in traffic and waves the finger at other drivers.  Hurt people hurt people. 

It doesn’t help that we live in a world that glorifies violence.  Dr. Walter Wink talks about the myth of redemptive violence and it’s often the subtle theme of Disney movies.  The princess is captured by an evil person, often a woman who is the opposite of the princess, who is defeated by a brave prince who is willing to fight the dragon or the sea witch or whatever the evil figure is. Violence protects the innocent and maintains their sweetness and goodness because they can’t do it themselves. 

We all like to think of ourselves as the heroes of our own life stories and turn anyone who obstructs us as the villain in our lives.  We can get fixated on what ‘They’ are doing to mess up our lives, or what we can do to get even with “them”.  We don’t realize that in our righteous anger, we are hurting someone else who then sees us as the villains in their own lives.  One psychologist once said, “It’s like the world is in a massive competition to prove who is the biggest victim and it’s always me, and the biggest villain is always the other.  The myth of redemptive violence teaches us to hit back, to seek revenge, to rage and it goes back to the Babylonian creation myth.  It paints humans as being born from violence, when two parent gods conspire together to kill their noisy offspring.  The younger gods get together and kill the father and mother.  From the blood of the murdered gods come all of creation, including humans. Contrast that story of family violence with our creation story which talks about God shaping the world and calling it good.  It’s a profound rebuttal of violence of any kind as it points to humans created in love, not in war. 

Then there’s Jesus, who goes up against the ultimate bad guy, Satan, in the temptations in the desert.  Jesus doesn’t beat Satan to death.  Jesus doesn’t shoot laser beams out of his eyes.  He doesn’t pull out a missile launcher or yell and scream or post scathing insults on Facebook.  Jesus instead calmly quotes scripture at Satan, and refuses Satan’s clever tests.

“Do you want security”, Satan asks, “the power to never go hungry, to turn rocks into food, to turn whatever you have too much of into whatever you have not enough of?” How many of us have bowed to the temptation of taking shortcuts, helping ourselves to things that are easily in reach?  Most of us have never been tempted to shop lift or to steal from a neighbor.  But we all would like quick fixes for our problems, and Satan tempts Jesus to go for the quick fix, the simple solution.  That is the path to addictions, whether it’s bargain shopping at Temu or having more craft supplies than we can ever possibly use.  Accumulate stuff, hoard stuff, save stuff because we fear not having enough.

“Do you want safety”, Satan asks, “the ability to never be hurt by anyone ever again?” How many of us have become fearful of leaving our houses, of trying something new, of being hurt?  We surround ourselves with air bags and security cameras, but they won’t guarantee our safety.  They won’t protect us from being hurt, of sliding on the ice and breaking an arm or twisting a back.  We might try to hide in our bedrooms to avoid any risks, but it is not healthy.  Jesus accepted that part of life is getting hurt, stubbing your toe, hearing an opinion different than your own.

“Do you want control?”  Satan asks, “the ability to fix or save or correct anyone or anything that you think isn’t right?”  Control is a sneaky temptation.  It masquerades as wanting respect or wanting everyone else to measure up to our standards.  It says, “I don’t have to listen to anyone else’s opinions.  I’m right, I know I’m right and that is the end of it.” It leads to judgmentalism and bossiness.  It leads to wanting to be the loudest person in the room, drowning out other people’s opinions.  It says, “I have the right to be angry, rude, loud, and to throw my weight around.” 

Jesus rejected all that.  Jesus focused on God, and the teachings of the prophets that told stories of God’s compassionate generosity to widows and orphans, the sick and the lonely, the oppressed and the poor.  Jesus was determined to chose listening and healing, not bullying and being right or demanding perfection in others.  He rejected the dance of superhero violence even though it would cost him his life.

We are starting Lent, a time of self-reflection as we remember Jesus travelling to Jerusalem where he would be killed.  We talk about giving up chocolate or computer games, but we don’t talk about letting go of our need for control, our need for safety, our need for stuff.  What if this Lent we spent time in prayer for our healing.  Hurt people hurt people. We are all hurt.  But people who choose to ask God for healing will find that healing people heal people.  We are all on the journey to find healing.  May we find through healing through prayer and action and courage.  Amen.

Truth is stranger than fiction

 

Ever watch the movie “When Harry Met Sally”?  At the very beginning of the movie, there are interviews of how people met each other, how they finish each other’s sentences, and some remember as clear as day how they met, some constantly correct each other on the details?  It seems like a fairy tale that only a few people ever achieve.  And yet, all but the last interview with the main characters are based on true stories.  Some of them seem wildly impossible, like the one where both people were born in the same hospital seven days apart, lived one block away from each other, even worked in the same building for six years, one on the 5^th floor, one on the 14^th floor, and met on a holiday in a hotel in another state.  Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

From time to time, we hear incredible stories that are far-fetched.  Like the girl who grew up to marry her grandma’s math teacher’s grandson in Old Strathcona in Edmonton.  Despite the girl’s dad and the boy’s dad growing up kitty corner from each other as children, the girl and the boy never met until they were in university and had no idea how close their families were.  Both sets of grandparents were very committed United Church members, but even though they lived on the same block, they went to completely different United Churches in Edmonton. (For the record, I thought his name was Jim, not Tim!) It’s an example of how truth can be stranger than fiction.  And yet they are true.

The story of the transfiguration is one of the gospel stories that seems too strange to be true.  And for those bible geeks like the Jesus Seminar in the ‘90’s who liked to dissect scripture and analyze it until it was dead and dusty, this was a scripture that they disliked unless they could look at it symbolically.  Matthew’s gospel is drawing parallels between Jesus and Moses as he writes his gospel for Christian Jews who honor and respect both Moses and Elijah as so holy they both saw the face of God.  For those of you who may not remember those old testament stories, Moses was the one who rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, defying the Pharaoh, and getting the 10 commandments from God who wrote them on stone tablets for all the people to see.  Elijah was a prophet who challenged the followers of Baal to a worship fight and dared them to get their god to burn the sacrifice on their altar, then when they failed, Elijah poured water all over the altar he dedicated to Jhwh God, and God lit the sacrifice on fire anyway.  Elijah also was the one who was described as riding a chariot up to heaven instead of dying like the rest of humanity.  So, Jesus hanging out with Moses and Elijah is a big deal.  It would be like if we ran into a friend and he or she had to take a conference call with Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny, and you knew that it was real and not a fake.  You would think of your friend very differently, wouldn’t you?

That’s what Peter, James and John thought.  All of the sudden, this wise leader was elevated in their eyes to something special, something unique, something unbelievable.  And yet he was still the humble, kind and caring man they had learned to trust while they followed him around Galilea.  And when he asked them to keep their experience a secret, they did.  It kept his followers around him from treating him any differently than just an inspiring speaker and teacher.  But for Peter, James and John, it cemented their trust in Jesus as the leader they desperately needed. The leader who would help them live at a time when their country was occupied by a foreign power, where they had little or no human rights, and didn’t know where their next meal would come from or if their jobs as fishermen would survive the competition from rich Roman fishing companies.

We struggle to know what is true and what is fiction.  Within hours of the incident at Tumbler Ridge, ugly rumors and outrageous claims were circulating.  People were demonizing a vulnerable minority of our society.  They ignored facts, going straight to paranoia and fear.  And now, with artificial intelligence producing videos that look appear real, we are going to need to on our toes.  It’s one thing to watch ninja kittens doing complex and flawless workout sessions but another thing to be able to recognize a video that has been faked so well it looks true.

Leadership that we can trust is important especially now.  When our very province is debating about staying in Canada, we need to be careful who we listen.  At a recent RCMP chaplaincy workshop, trustworthy leadership was described as authentic, purposeful, vulnerable, compassionate, empathetic and putting the needs of others before their own.  Our psalm describes what happens when leaders choose to put their own selfish agendas first.  Their power will collapse and their authority will disappear.  History shows that the psalmists are right, leaders who put their own desires ahead of God’s agenda for a peaceable, community will find that they lose all they desire.  And history shows that when we trust Jesus more than AI, more than leaders who promote fear and hatred for selfish gain, when we trust Jesus transfigured, the world changes for the better for everyone.  We come down the mountain, ready to act with compassion, justice and the assurance that God loves us all in good times and in challenging times.  Truth is stranger than fiction, because when we choose love over hate, we heal ourselves and the world.  May we all trust Jesus as our leader who transfigures our world to become a better place even in difficult times like these. Amen.

Upside Down Kingdom

There’s a puzzle I recently learned about a cat and a piece of toast. We all know that cats always land on their feet when they fall. It’s so amazing and complex that even Physicists have studied it, and discovered that cats have survived falls even from the 23^rd story of high-rise buildings. We also know that toast that falls off the plate falls butter side down, and if there’s any dust on the floor, it will stick to the toast. Scientists tested to find out why the buttered side ends up on the floor so often. It turns out that 81% of the time, the toast will land butter side down thanks to physics and the aerodynamic properties of bread smeared with oil. So the puzzle is what happens when you tie a piece of buttered toast onto the back of a cat and toss them both out the window? Which will happen, the cat land on its feet or the butter land on the sidewalk?  People want to know!

Cats perform a complex gymnastics feat to land on their feet. They twist their bodies to make sure their feet are under them before they land. You can’t see it happen unless you have a stop motion camera recording it in slow motion. It’s worthy of an Olympic gymnast at their peak performance. For those of us who can’t even do a cartwheel, it’s miraculous!

The beatitudes are just as much of a miraculous cartwheel as a falling cat. Think about the people in your life that seem successful to most people. Taylor Swift, Elon Musk, Elliot Page, Connor McDavid and numerous others are measured in terms of their assets, their fame, their talents and their relationships. They are successful by all measures, they have landed on their feet and millions of people idolize and respect them.

All except Jesus. The measuring stick that Jesus used was upside down to anything anyone had heard. It was more twisted than a cat with a piece of toast tied on its back. It upended the idea that the biggest, strongest, richest or most famous people are the ones that are successful. If we look at what the word blessed means, it means fortunate, happy, lucky.

Seems like a pretty big twist in what we think of people who are happy or blessed. And it’s not just any kind of feeling of happiness, it’s supposed to be a deep-seated sense of contentment with one’s self and their place in the world. “You are fortunate when others insult you and persecute you, and utter every kind of slander against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice.”

We’ve seen a lot of persecutions over the years in our world, but it’s been especially vivid to watch the protests in Minnesota the last couple of weeks.  People are feeling blessed when they stand watch over daycares or protect teens on their way out of school or drive around following ICE trucks ready to honk, whistle and record any cases of arrest they might witness. They are feeling energized and full of purpose. They are feeling in their bones the kind of blessedness that Jesus was getting at. Jesus was mindful of Micah's teaching on living a blessed life. It’s not about getting a Nobel prize, or an Oscar or a Stanley Cup. It’s not about great sacrifices or huge gifts or deep financial generosity. Micah, writing in the midst of economic chaos, military powers and leaders who bullied their people into states of fear and apathy, said that the reason for wars and political uncertainty was not that we had to treat God like a king or emperor with an appetite that can never be satisfied. It’s not about stuff. It’s not about bribes. It’s not about bankrupting ourselves to keep a heavenly bully from looking our way. It’s not about groveling in front of a warlord in hopes that he will protect us.

Jesus says it’s not about following rules, it’s about twisting expectations. Seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly in relationship with God. Seeing the people we meet differently than the world does. The happy ones, the lucky ones, the fortunate ones are not who we think.

Jesus was pointing out that the people whom we love to look down on are the ones that God cares about. The ones who need kindness. The ones that may have no more energy for pretending. The ones who survive from hour to hour, living precariously for reasons that we don’t know. The people who we think are the last and least. The people we think don’t deserve compassion. The ones who are so fragile that they don’t care who sees their suffering. Sometimes we are the suffering, we are the ones who are starving for hope or purpose or courage or direction. The last line in these upside-down beatitudes are for us today. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” When we take these words seriously like the people in Minnesota do, we will find ourselves speaking in truth against oppression. Against the lies that try to undermine democracy, the lies that attack our human rights and demonize the meek and the poor and the sick and the grieving. The petitions that pit neighbor against neighbor, that try to make people feel oppressed when they are living in one of the most tolerant democratic countries in the world. God sees us as blessed when we speak up for those who don’t have the skills or abilities to speak out. When we take the sign out of the window that tries to pretend everything is okay when it’s not.  When we speak up against bullying attitudes and people twisting the truth because they are feeling entitled to rage and fearmonger. And God helps us, when we seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly, to land like a cat, lightly, on our feet, with grace and love and joy as we follow in the footsteps of our Jesus, the leader of our upside-down kingdom.

Respecting the Community

Some Sundays the scripture reading is as exciting as a Marvel Movie!  Can you imagine if Jesus was Doctor Strange and John the Baptist was Tony Stark, what an intense meeting it would have been?  Two powerful men with powerful missions coming together to do powerful work for the Glory of God.  This story is describing the same incident that we read last week, John and Jesus meeting at the banks of the Jordan River.  John is baptising people who are confessing their brokenness and looking for a new way to be in relationship with God.  It could have been a civil war between John and Jesus, maybe Captain America instead of Dr. Strange. it could have been a below-the-line power struggle between the two, it could have been a competition to see who was more right than the other, who was the angriest, who was the loudest person in the room.  Instead, it became a time to witness to the power of following Jesus.  John told his followers to join Team Jesus, and they did.  They even brought in new members, and pretty soon Jesus had gone from no followers to a dedicated team of twelve disciples eager to share their excitement with everyone they met.

Talking about our faith and trying to bring in new people is something many churches do.  They train their members in how to recruit people, they give them pamphlets and workshops and roll play exercises and demonstrations.  That’s not something the United Church is particularly comfortable with or used to. We didn’t do that because we were the biggest denomination other than the Roman Catholic Church.  We had at one time more churches across Canada than Tim Hortons.  We gave more to Haiti earthquake emergency relief than all the customers getting their double-doubles.  This was happening even though church attendance was already dropping.  This was happening even when it seemed like the mega churches were growing faster than Starbucks into Canada. This was happening when more and more independent bookstores were closing because they couldn’t compete with Amazon even before Covid made so many things go online.  We didn’t know how to invite our neighbors, but we had all experienced the knock on the door from missionaries in suits or gotten the pamphlet in the mail describing the joys of Heaven and the dangers of Hell.  We also were being bombarded with people wanting us to believe in crop circles or aliens building the pyramids or satanists running daycares in Saskatchewan towns.  Televangelists seemed to end up with private jets or universities, then get in the news for abuse.  That builds distrust for all Christian institutions. Religion gets a bad rap for wars, colonialism, you name it, but condemning all religion is like saying we won’t use fire because of the evacuation of Fort McMurray.  How do we heat our houses?  How do we cook if we have gas stoves?  Condemning all religion fails to remember that it inspires great art, great music, great social movements like civil rights, public education and affordable healthcare.  People who attend church regularly are less lonely, their anxiety levels drop, their sense of resilience is increased, and they feel empowered to work together towards positive social good. Women wouldn’t have gotten the vote in Canada without church ladies getting together in Alberta who cared about poverty and family violence.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to invite people to church.  We have to know our big Why. Bums in pews is honest but not healthy or trustworthy. It's not good news for our neighbors, it's based on our scarcity not God's abundance. It exploits newcomers' innocence.  Someone said, “bringing people to church so that they can be busier and poorer is not Christian, but often it’s really why we want newcomers.” Some call it vampire evangelism, bring them in and suck them dry.  On the flip side, when we remember how much we have been transformed by coming to church regularly, it’s rude not to tell people about it.  One minister in the US wrote this week that “When we lose religious and spiritual community, we lose a lot of our power to make collective change. Research suggests that religious behavior and belonging are associated with greater civic and political participation, financial giving, and volunteering. It also indicates that while solitary meditation is good for the soul, it is small group participation that correlates most strongly with social impact. Weekly worship attendance is also strongly associated with increased civic activity…” She added that service clubs and other organisations don’t offer transformation, resiliency and morals the way church does, and it’s part of why her country is in so much turmoil.

Our Northern Spirit Growth Animator, Jordan Cantwell told us to remember that it’s scary for people to come to church.  Every church says it welcomes all but often the reality is different.  Cantwell said, “We assume everyone knows who we are, what we do and that they are welcome. We are welcome to walk into a mosque but don't feel comfortable.” She said gentle humble openness, listening to their questions and concerns, sharing your story of transformation honestly and prayfully is key.  People won’t have a transformative experience if they are going to be told they should go to church, they should be ashamed if they don’t go to church or they are to blame for all the bad things in their lives if they don’t go to church.  Instead, try RESPECT:

R: Recognize - Acknowledge the worth of others.  We are all God’s Children

E: Empathize - Understand and care about the feelings of others.  Jesus came to listen and heal and we are called to do the same.

S: Support - Offer help and encouragement.  Our creed says that God works in us and others by the Spirit.  Support is a team sport and God is part of our team!

P: Promote - Advocate for the rights and dignity of others. The United Church calls this “Daring Justice” we are to seek justice and resist evil.

E: Engage - Involve others in meaningful ways.  We are to love and serve others as part of our healing journey.

C: Communicate - Share thoughts and feelings openly.  Proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.

T: Trust - Build and maintain trust in relationships.  This takes deep spirituality and more teamwork. 

Jesus and John trusted and respected each other like Tony Stark and the other Avengers eventually did.  John’s disciples trusted and respected John when he told them to follow Jesus.  Simon Peter trusted his brother when the brother shared his excitement about finding the Messiah.  When we build relationships based on trust and respect, relationships with each other, our neighbors and our God, the invitations will come naturally and from a place of inspiration, encouragement, resilience and healing.  Who wouldn’t want an invitation to that?