May 22, 2015

Testimony to life


1 John 5:9-13, John 17:6-19
This is the last Sunday of Easter, and we are facing again Jesus’ last speech, and a convoluted passage about testimony.  I’ve been reading them to myself all week, wondering, what the heck? Sometimes a sermon begs itself to be written, sometimes the scriptures speak for themselves and Jesus’ words shine with a beautiful eloquence that barely need a preacher to help them out.  But John and his followers, who are writing their letters and their testimonies, are writing some 50 to 60 years after Jesus’ death.  And John, well, he’s a bit of a poet.  No, correct that, he’s a huge poet, all starry-eyed, and trying to come up with a way to try and describe the indescribable.

As I was writing this last night, I heard someone playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, not the Judy Garland version, but the one with ukulele by a fellow that sings it like a lullaby.  It’s heart-breakingly beautiful.  It doesn’t have the power of Judy Garland, or the sweet stylings of Susan Boyle, yet it is powerful.

And sometimes it’s in the simplicity of moments like listening to that music, that I am reminded that our Easter story is a simple one too.  Jesus came to free us from the chains of fear and hate and self-loathing that we fall into if when left to our own devices.  It’s too easy as we slog through the challenges in our lives to turn away from hope.  Hope that our lives can be meaningful, hope that we might have love, friendship, and acceptance.  We all search for that part of whatever it is we think of when we imagine what the other side of the rainbow might be.  The tragedy is when we give up too soon, when we sell ourselves too short, when we think it’s all about me and my life and I have to do it all. All I need is the right self-help book, a little more self-discipline, the right Mr. Right or Miss Right in my life, the perfect friend, the perfect lover, the perfect child, or toy or house or car or retirement package, and so on.  Then we get that perfect possession, object or person, and we find that we are still the same miserable person that we’ve always been.

We are often scarred by the relationships we have had, so much so that we would rather complain, criticize or compete in the relationships we now have.  We are afraid of an intimate relationship with something that we cannot see or touch and sometimes do not believe exist.  I think at the heart of the matter, we are deeply afraid.

We are so scared that we will be rejected by God, if there is one, that we will push away or control or diminish anyone including ourselves.  At some deep level, we may have a hidden belief that we are just not good enough, or that the universe is not kind enough, or that there is not enough to go around to have abundance, or life is a competition that I have to win at all costs, or that the only way to prove to God that I am good enough for God’s love is to show God how much better I am than everyone else.  So we deal with people different than ourselves with suspicion, prejudice, fear, and even violence.

That begs the question, what does it take to have a really rewarding life?  A life where we are joyful and fulfilled, where we don’t feel the need to protect ourselves or control others or be perfect?  John says that it is listening to the testimony of God, not the testimony of people.  We get it wrong, we mortal humans.  Even the most seasoned preacher struggles to find the words that will fit what is weighing on our hearts.  Jesus wants us to have fulfilling lives of energy and enthusiasm, passion and creativity.  Lives of vitality and purpose!  What a dream, what a vision he has.  The prayer he says is one he makes on the last day of his life, and it is full of hope, purpose and a mission for his followers.  He sends them out into the world to continue his story, his teachings and ultimately his love.  And if you listened carefully enough to the scriptures, he’s not just sending out the Twelve on the adventure of their lives, he is sending us all out and asking God to love and protect us in a relationship so deep that he describes it as an intimate parent-child relationship.  Wow!

Jesus doesn’t see us the way we fear that he will.  Jesus sees us with love.  Jesus loves the 12, a group of argumentative men who couldn’t even collaborate enough to put together one definitive Gospel that would have all the answers.  They blew it on Good Friday, less than 12 hours after he prays so lovingly to God that ‘all may be one,” they ran away, betrayed him, lied to protect themselves, and committed acts of violence to protect him, all which are contrary to what he had been trying so hard to teach them. 

Jesus sees the flaws, the foibles and loves us anyway.  God testifies to us in broad, beautiful surprising ways.  The Spirit comes to us, regardless of the prison that we think we are living in.  The Holy, however you want to label it or describe it or testify to it, comes to you, yes even you, in your doubts, your fears, your challenges, your moments of weakness, dare I say it, your moments of sin.  And The Holy will not stop.  Even the threat of crucifixion did not keep Jesus from declaring his message of love to us and to the world.  And we are also sent out to declare that message of love, no matter how preposterous, through our actions or words, and when we do so, we are one with God who is the greatest testifier and lover the world has ever known.  May we find God’s testimony speaking to us with love and gentleness in our lives this day and ever more.

May 16, 2015

Conquering the world

Focus scripture: 1 John 5:1-6

Whatever is born of God conquers the world. Seriously? I mean, have you looked at the news lately?  Earthquakes, terrorist attacks, refugees drowning in the Mediterranean, Global Warming, endangered polar bears and our own ecosystem in Alberta threatened by the die off of bees, frogs and the invasion of pine beetles in a seemingly never ending litany of bad news.  God conquering the world? Give me a break!

I can just imagine how this would play out if I quoted it at a member of my family who will remain nameless as he’s not here to defend himself.  This young adult was only 10 years old when a world-changing event changed how we look at our sense of safety and security.  One day, he found teachers whispering to each other, looking sad and shocked, and parents coming to pick up their children who were giving their kids longer hugs than usual before bundling them off home.  Once there, moms and dads sat down and tried to explain what was happening on the television, and many chose not to let them see the cycling images of airplanes crashing into two tall skyscrapers in New York. 

Whether or not the children saw these images, they had a sense that their lives were not as secure as they had imagined, and the fear they saw in their adults’ faces had a lasting impact.  Many of this generation have a sense of hopelessness and apathy, that it doesn’t matter what we do as the world can come crashing down on us in a split second.  Why bother plan for the future when some crazed terrorist might end everything with dynamite stuffed in a backpack?  Scripture that claims God conquers the world would seem laughable, idealistic and naïve.

I imagine that this little message was as hard to swallow for John’s people as it is for us.  His people had survived Emperor Nero and the mad Caligula, but it didn’t mean that they were safe from persecution or violence.  They were being chased out of synagogues for preaching heresy, they were being ridiculed by the Greeks and Romans whom they rubbed shoulders with, and if they truly proclaimed that God, not the Emperor, was the ruler of the world, they would be executed for treason against the state.  In fact many did indeed die for saying the unthinkable – Roman emperors come and go, but Jesus is the one who makes a lasting impact on our lives and on our community.  Proclaiming Jesus as ‘the one who for us is the Christ,” who is our judge and our hope, the word made flesh who came to reconcile and make new, was a dangerous thing for them to believe, to commit to, to have faith in.  It wasn’t easy then, and it isn’t easy now.

It’s also not only about my personal relationship with Jesus, and through him, God.  If we limit our understanding of faith to that level, we fail to realize the transforming power of our faith claim.  The world is conquered by God, not just me, but the whole world.  John understood that, and encouraged his community to act as if their faith could make a startling difference in their society.

Did it make a difference?  It was a faith crisis that led to Quakers turning away from the practise of owning slaves in the United States.  It was a faith crisis that led to the inspiring words of Amazing Grace being set to a chant sung by African captives heading to be sold in the United States.  It was faith that led an angry young man in a prison in South Africa to choose a path of reconciliation, and that let him to work with his enemy for the dismantlement of Apartheid.  Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk changed the course of history.  A Venezuala owner of a rum company, Alberto Vollmer, would drive around his community in a bullet-proof car because it was the deadliest country in the world due to corrupt police and widespread drug gang warfare.  He offered two thugs work for three months for free or go back to the police where they would probably be executed.  They agreed.  A few days later, the thugs asked if their friends could join them.  22 kids showed up!  Then they recruited the rival gang to the work force, and before they knew it, they had 5 different gangs working together in what they have called “Project Alcatraz”, and the violence in the area has gone down dramatically.  This is not an isolated event, however.

The United Nations is discovering that worldwide violent conflict has been in steady decline for a surprisingly long time.  In 2005, there was a report released by a University of BC research institute that discovered the number of wars, deaths from warfare and civil wars have been steadily decreasing since the end of the cold war.  Even accounting for events like 9/11’s, the number of deaths due to war have dropped.  With the Arab Spring, the number of countries operating under a dictatorship have dropped.  Since the 1990’s the UN has been working with many organizations and charities to prevent or reduce conflict, and to keep civil wars from re-emerging.  Even our Mission and Service fund is helping reduce wars and violence.  Better education for women, better health care for babies means that hope is coming to people who haven’t had hope before.  And for those of you who still feel cynical, ponder this: in the 1950’s Athabasca United Church was designated the town’s local bomb shelter.  If there had been a nuclear attack, the people were supposed to take shelter in our basement.  When was the last time one of your children or grandchildren told you that they had a practise drill hiding from Atomic bombs?

It starts with us.  It starts with individuals like you and me taking Jesus seriously.  Jesus commands us to love one another, not as one person who has power over another, but as friends, as equals.  Love one another as Jesus loved us, not to dominate or intimidate or boss or threaten.  But as partners, as co-creators, as people who are committed to the dream of a world that God does indeed conquer with love and has the power to bring a lasting peace and joy to all who live in it.  May we work together to bring this vision to fruition.  Amen.