Out of the Ground - sermon on Genesis 2-19 for pet blessing

 Have you noticed the sunflowers in our front flowerbox?  They were all planted at the same time, they all came from the same seeds and yet, they are still all different.  Some have been eaten by the deer and have stalks but no flowers.  They stopped growing once they were chomped and never grew any taller.  Some grew tall and didn’t make a flower bud at all.  Some bloomed two weeks ago, much to the delight of the bees, and now have heads so big and heavy with seeds that they tip over.  Some are small and still slowly opening.  It is a race between them and the frost.  So much difference between each plant even though they are all the same.

Our scriptures today talks about what we can learn from nature. Jesus said, look at the flowers and birds and learn from them. They do not worry about things they cannot control.  Today we also have with us some pets from different houses.  Did they worry as they came to church?  Did they wonder if they were going to the vet?  Did they expect they would be given shots or medicine for worms?  Did they think they were going for a haircut if they are shaggy critters?  If someone brought a snake today, would the car trip cause them anxiety?  Probably not!  Just like our sunflowers, they don’t worry, and they grow to the best of their ability given where they are and who they belong to.  Belonging, for our pets and for us, is very important.  I loved reading Dodie Smith’s “101 Dalmatians” as a child because she talked about the humans being the pets of the dogs! Pongo and Missus, the heroes of the adventure, were the ones who made sure their human pets got out for walks regularly, and even made sure that their human pets Mr. and Mrs. Dearly met each other and fell in love.  Clearly, the dogs were in charge of their pets and found it amusing to let the humans think it was the other way around!

I like to think our Genesis 2 passage is very similar to the flip side of 101 Dalmatians.  It too shows the diversity of scripture.  When I meet someone who is genuinely curious about my relationship with scripture, who tells me that they ‘know’ that scripture is infallible, I often ask them which came first, humans or animals?  In Genesis 1, God is referred to in Hebrew as ‘Elohim’, which we often translate as God plain and simple.  In Genesis 2 there is a switch from Elohim to Yhwh, often translated as The Lord.  Elohim makes the world in seven days, beginning with the chaos of creation and sorting out the light from the dark, first making day, then night, followed by seas and land, sun and moon and so on.  Humans end up being made last, like the cherry on top of the sundae, the finishing touch. 

Now, if you ask someone who ‘knows’ scripture is infallible, which came first, animals or humans, they will invariably say animals of course.  That’s when I spring the trap.  “Then how come in Genesis 2, it says that God made humans first, then plants, then animals?”  One person I asked this of said that I was obviously reading the wrong bible, because that wasn’t what was in her bible.  But it’s there all right.  And Yahweh God gets down on their hands and knees and plays in the earth, Adamah in Hebrew, to make human, Adam.  But a single mud creature is rather boring and rather bored, so Yahweh starts playing some more, making plants to pretty up the dirt.  That’s better, but still something is missing for the dirt creature.  Yhwh gets their hands even more muddy, pulling up animals the way I imagine a potter pulls up pots on a wheel.  This is no “Let there be Light” grand pronouncement by Elohim who sounds like a cross between a wizard and a magician and probably very clean and neat to boot.  Diversity is created.  But mud creature still is not quite able to relate.  Despite the diversity to choose from, mud creature needed something more.  So Yhwh pulled a piece out of earth creature and created Ish and Isha, or male and female.  Isha doesn’t get a name until Chapter 3, after the apple is eaten, and she is called Chavvah (pronounced hava), which means breathe or life, or even community or town.  So we have dirt and air from which all humanity comes.

I think there is a beauty in this story, the celebration of diversity, and the idea that possibly just possibly, earth creature was without gender at first.  Gender was created almost as an afterthought here, and even in Genesis 1, God created male and female in God’s own image so there’s a strong sense that God too is beyond gender.  Both stories celebrate the creation of diversity and variety.  Both stories see that diversity as a good thing.  Elohim saw creation as good, and Yhwh wanted good for the mud creature and so created companions. 

We humans struggle with diversity.  We often assume that all humans will have the same body parts, will have the same capabilities and the same potential.  But just like our sunflowers, some grow strong and big and beautiful and sturdy, and some do not. Some have tragedy that stunts their growth. Some grow to be independent adults, and some need community help to live their lives.  Blue Heron in Athabasca educates us in the broad diversity of human shapes and capacities.  As a church, how do we welcome those who look like us but do not have brains wired like ours?  With curiosity, gentleness, love, and empathy.  Meeting everyone, even the littlest ones as created in God’s own image, an image of amazing creativity and diversity.  And they are, we are all created as Good in God’s Eyes.  Thanks be to God!

Undercover Boss

There’s a reality TV show where the multi-billionaire owner of a franchise voluntarily goes to work as a new employee in their store.  Canada’s version showcased PJ.'s Pets, Second Cup and Purdy’s Chocolates to name a few. Of course, the bad managers get fired and the kind employees who need help with family issues from health insurance crises to childcare get a happily ever after token gift for being so honest and caring.  One employee gets a new truck, another gets a scholarship for their children, and the boss gets a pat on the head for being so caring.  Minimum wage isn’t changed nor is job security, but hey isn’t it a cute story? 

I wonder if they were inspired by today’s scriptures.  Jeremiah was lamenting that things weren’t going as they should, and trying to diagnose what was going. And Jesus was doing his best to produce a head-scratching story that would provoke conversations amongst his followers as well as the religious followers of the day. Both were challenging the status quo of their communities.

It's hard to tell if it was Jeremiah or God, but the speaker in this passage was overwhelmed with grief for what they and their community were going through.  A national political tragedy was going on which impacted the political, religious and personal level of their society.  People were grieving the loss of certainty, the loss of control, the loss of stability.  Institutions and rituals they had taken for granted had been attacked and destroyed.  Families were torn apart; war had risen again after a generation of peace and stability.  Their comfortable faith suddenly developed a sense of urgency, and the people wondered where God was.  They grieved deeply for what had been ripped away from them.  They wondered if they had done something wrong to bring down catastrophe upon themselves.  And they wondered what the future would hold in store after so much tragedy.

It doesn’t feel too different than what some folks are feeling these days. People are talking about feeling overwhelmed with grief.  One person told me that they had lost several extended family members over the past four months.  Others told me about watching the news from England and shedding tears.  They, like Jeremiah, are searching for comfort, for the balm from Gilead that was an export to much of the middle east, valued for its medicinal properties and far more than just something that would sooth their physical injuries.  They need medicine for their souls, for their fear and anguish, for their lost purpose, hope for their future.  Where do the modern Jeremiahs turn to?

Normally I would say, this is where we turn to our gospel.  But the story Jesus told to his disciples isn’t straightforward.  Are we supposed to go out and bamboozle our bosses, cheat our employers, embezzle from our companies?  What gives, Jesus?    Scholars and experts are still scratching their heads, so it’s okay if we don’t get it.

If Jesus was telling it today, I bet it would go something like this.  He’s the guest speaker at the Chamber of Commerce banquet up at the Multiplex, and some folks are not happy that he’s been asked, given his reputation as a politicizing know it all who sticks his nose into everything.  He’s brought a table of his buddies sitting at the back, and it looks like some are reputable, but others look like they’ve slept in their clothes for a week.  Some even smell!  Jesus looks out over the crowd and says “So there was this CEO of the CIBC, or was it the BMO or maybe the ATB, anyway, the CEO sends out a mass communication to all branch managers that they will be audited.  Well, our local bank manager starts to sweat because he’s been doing a little, shall we say, creative bookkeeping, and it's a lot more than pilfering paperclips or stuffing staplers into his pocket to take home.  He knows his goose is cooked but he’s 59 and his resume won’t be improved by a prison record.  He calls in a local restaurateur and asks how much the business loan is for. 1.5 million smackeroos!  The owner fears forecloser and says “Business is slow and we are really trying hard to make it go”. “Quick”, the banker says, “scratch this out and put in 1 mill.  Initial here in these six places, done.”  The restaurateur is ecstatic, and the banker figures he’ll have free meals for life.  Then he calls in a homeowner who got a second mortgage for a basement suite.  “How much is your mortgage,” he asks.  “$800,000” says she, “and money is tight, please don’t increase my interest rate!”  “Nope, cross out the $800,000 and write $500,000.”  She’s in tears, kissing his hand and he figures he has a place to crash.  The CEO shows up and goes, “wow, that’s a great way to build customer loyalty, well done you!”

Imagine the response of the chamber of commerce to that keynote address.  What does it mean?  Jesus goes back to his table of friends and says, “if a white-collar criminal can build community, how much more should you do it?  You can’t have two bosses, the bank and God.  You will end up resenting one or the other, so be careful which boss you put your trust in. One will be there when you are needing a hug, the other could care less.”

Jeremiah is torn because he feels his community has forgotten who the boss is, their God or their rituals.  He grieves that they have put their trust in traditions and institutions, and now they are hurting.  Jesus reminds us that no matter what, God is the best boss we could ever have.  God is such a great boss, that God did the ultimate undercover boss, coming to live with us in the vulnerable and short life of Jesus, not to catch us out and reward the good and fire the bad, but because God loves us and wants to be the healing balm we all need in times like these.  May it be so for us all.

Troubling Questions in troubling times

  Sometimes our scriptures comfort us.  Sometimes they challenge us.  One preacher once said, “Scripture comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.”  Today we have both comfort and affliction in our Luke and Jeremiah readings. 

Which seems to be the way of the world these days and even this week.  I took coffee down to the RCMP this week. They were all on the road driving around the community responding to alerts and watching for black vans with Saskatchewan license plates.  One more small sign that the world is on edge and people are feeling stress and uncertainty. Losing the Queen of Canada, whether you loved or hated her, just adds to the situation.

We are afflicted or know someone who is afflicted.  We are foolish or know someone who is acting foolish.  And we fall into the blame game too easily.  I can get all indignant at ‘those foolish people’ that are adding to our stress, whether it’s disaster after disaster that leads to disaster fatigue, or people who continue to deny climate change even after California’s heat bubble reached 46-degree weather and Death Valley measured a dangerous 54C! Dry winds like what we read in Jeremiah!  Foolish people determined not to change, not to take responsibility for their choices, for their actions, from the person who starts down the slippery slope to hard drugs to the polluting executives mining heavy minerals and even sand in unsustainable ways that damage the environment even more.  Foolish people who refuse to admit they need help.  Foolish people who don’t ask the hard questions.  One Facebook post said it like this, “why is it always ‘if you can’t pay rent, buy fewer lattes and avocado toasts’ and not ‘if you can’t pay your employees a living wage, buy fewer yachts and real estate”? Foolishness.  Not just by one person, but by whole cultures that lead to floods in Pakistan that have impacted hundreds of thousands of people, triggered in part by glacier melt. Our whole world has been suffering from the poison of wealthy people who are not satisfied with the wealth and power they have accumulated and who are determined to accumulate even more. Who knows, maybe that obsession was also at the root of what went down in Saskatchewan.  It’s not just the rich and famous who struggle, but you and I probably have moments where we wished we had something more.  Sometimes I envy the folks who ride around in their noisy speed boats and seadoos, sometimes I resent how much noise and waves they throw into the environment.  Oh foolish me!

Where is God in all this mess?  Jeremiah has a vision of an angry God, fed up, planning to punish us all for our foolishness, and when I think about the floods, fires and heat, I know it’s not God’s punishment on us, but the natural consequences of an accumulation of decisions large and small that do not treat the environment with respect.  Our actions cause the birds to fly away and the fertile lands to turn to deserts.  The earth mourns and the seas die, choked with islands of plastic, coral in the Great Barrier reef dying from heat exhaustion, our glaciers and icebergs in the far north thawing to the point that polar bears are starving.  Homeless people and those living in substandard housing are struggling to deal with heatwaves.  As the weather cools, we will struggle with high heating bills and food costs.  It’s insane!

But no matter how foolish we are, no matter how lost we are, there is still hope for us.  There is still the good shepherd who goes looking for the one foolish lost sheep, the woman who cleans her house from top to bottom until she finds her lost bride gift. There will be more rejoicing over the foolish ones reconciled to God than the ones who were always safe and wise.  And there are many wise ones working hard to learn how seaweed captures carbon, how to protect the reefs from the blazing sun, how to maintain the oxygen levels in lakes and wean us off our addiction to carbon fuels.

We can make a difference when we remember that all creation is worth loving, and when we remember that we can do amazing things when we work together for the benefit of all.  21 years ago, Frazer Road United Church, about double the size of this church, found themselves entertaining 200 people from the Middle East.  They had borrowed cots from the military base and set out tables loaded with food and necessities for their guests.  Some had to sleep on the pews with only the blanket and pillow they had from their plane. Those strangers had been in an airplane on a runway for over 24 hrs in dangerous heat.  The church had communities and other churches bringing food in from as far away as three hours to feed the stranded passengers.  Casseroles and meals were stored in the community hockey rink on the ice, yet not one passenger came down with food poisoning the whole time they were there.  There was not a single episode of crime or violence despite the stress and tension of not knowing when they would get home.  One of my friends who now is an Ordained Minister in Alberta, was there, in Fraser Road United, Gander Newfoundland, and shared her personal memories with me after I had raved about seeing Come From Away.

We have similar stories of how we helped evacuees from Slave Lake and Fort McMurray.  We know how to love our neighbors.  We know we can pull together and learn how to be wise with God’s help.  It may be as small as a paper straw from a restaurant, or as big as solar panels on our rooves. With God’s grace, we can learn to be wise and loving of our whole world.  It won’t be easy.  It took several generations for Jeremiah’s people to rebuild from the disaster their foolishness brought on them, and it will take several generations for us to do the same.  But if we listen and do our parts, we too can be part of a community that lives into our quest to live with respect in creation.  May it be so for us all.

Letting Go

Life changes.  Kids go back to school, hooray! Grownups retire, babies are born, teens get jobs and move out, new relationships are made, jobs are quit, people die, every day some new life change impacts someone.  And that’s just the natural progression of the aging process.  Our favorite car gets rear ended.  Our spouse gives us divorce papers.  We lose our cell phones.  Our jobs get downsized.  Our co-workers gossip about us behind our backs.  Covid hits. Our companies downsize.  Sometimes we make changes, sometimes changes make us. Life! 

Jesus was proposing a radical change.  He was talking about a cultural shift for his followers to help them become intentional in following God’s teachings.  He didn’t want them getting caught up in the hoopla and the excitement of the crowds, he didn’t want people to be joining his community because it was the newest bandwagon to be jumping on board.  He wanted people to slow down and really think things through.  He knew that crowds can one moment be calling out halleluiah and hosanna and the next moment can be calling out ‘Crucify him’!  He wanted people who would commit for the long haul, who would make measured, thoughtful decisions with the full knowledge that it wouldn’t be easy.  That message of careful choice during change is relevant especially today.

Mind you, there are not too many times and examples of modern people letting go all their possessions and family claims for the sake of their faith or.  I can’t imagine letting go of my microwave but leaving my dishwasher behind when I moved to Athabasca was an inconvenience rather than a painful sacrifice.  I don’t want to give up my cozy home, my family or all the yarn I’ve accumulated over the past twenty years, and no way I could live without my Blackberry as Lois reminds me often.

On the other hand, summer holidays had me leaving much behind, books, Wi-Fi, computer, grocery store down the hill in exchange for quiet walks, the occasional paddle to visit loons and time in my hammock.  35 years ago Tim and I left family, friends and our brand-new wedding presents for our honeymoon. Now most normal brides don’t pack much for their honeymoon, but I didn’t pack lacy lingerie; instead, I packed a sleeping bag, nesting pots, and matches while Tim added a tent and cookstove to his backpack.  It was an adventure – over seven months, just the two of us Down Under with no one we knew, backpacking across Australia and New Zealand.  I missed my cross stitching and my ukuleles, and we missed our parents and brothers even more. It was a wonderful time though it was primitive at times, camping where poisonous spiders and snakes lived, hitchhiking from dorm to dorm, and immersing ourselves in the culture.  We came away from that year profoundly shaped by the knowledge that even culture is a choice, not every Canadian has to say ‘eh’ and drink beer while wearing a toque and watching hockey, and not every Albertan has to be a Conservative party member to have a say in who is our premier, or is either a rig pig or a bronc rider with a John Deer hat and cowboy boots.

Culture can be challenged and changed. By a simple letter from one friend to another asking for something that the culture would say was impossible.  The story of Onesimus is such an example.  He was a slave who had run away from his owner and that is why Paul crafted such a careful and passionate letter.  This was more than a reference letter to an employer, this was an emotional appeal to Philemon that would challenge and shake the man’s understanding of his relationship with another human being.  And not just Philemon.  Everyone who read this in that ancient world who were striving to follow Jesus would have poured over this letter and shake their heads in astonishment.  Treat slaves like kinfolk not property?  What was Paul thinking? Throughout history, hearing this scripture in different times and places would have challenged its hearers.  How would George Washington, a slave owner, have felt hearing Paul’s letter asking Philemon to treat Onesimus like an equal instead of a possession? Culture shifting!

 Or how would today’s flood victims in Pakistan or refugees from Ukraine feel hearing Jesus’ drastic teaching about letting go of what we cherish?  Really?  Letting go of our stuff, our relationships, our strongly held beliefs?  They have to let go of all their stuff in order to survive.  Staying alive means not hanging on to material things when living through tragic changes.  Jesus knew more than Marie Kondo.  It’s not about what stuff gives us joy and toss out the rest.  It’s about what helps us live a purposeful, intentional life that helps us love ourselves, love God and love our neighbor.

This Labor Day weekend is a good time to think deeply about our relationships with each other.  How do we remember that everyone we meet is fearfully and wonderfully made?  How do we love the neighbor that plays loud rock music on the river front all day? The neighbor who believes in conspiracy theories?  The one that always beats us at golf or at canasta? The useful person that we think is useless because they messed up something we thought was important? The person who wronged us but now is coming back to make amends? The person we need to make amends to ourselves? We all have moments when we feel like change is overwhelming us, and is being done to us, but when we trust that we are fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s own image, we can build resilient new family and community that is  grounded in the compassionate teachings Paul and Jesus.  It really works! Onesimus went back to Philemon who could have whipped, sold or executed him. And while we have no letter back from Philemon, the people in Ephesus tell that their first bishop of the Christian Church was named, guess what? Onesimus!  From slave to brother to bishop!  Change is possible, and we are part of that great history that challenges oppression and remembers we are all God’s beloved children!