Belonging to truth, freed from sin

Jesus is amazing in John 18.  He knew his disciples wouldn’t fight to put him in power.  And he didn’t want that either.  What a contrast to what was happening in the states a month ago when their national guard was preparing for riots and insurrections if Kamala Harris had won.  There was to be no civil war enacted by the followers of Jesus, and Jesus never asked for that kind of revolution. 

Jesus asked for a revolution of the heart and mind, but not a revolution of force and violence.  He was asking for a revolution of attitude and intention.  He was asking for a revolution where we think about truth and compassion and empathy.  He was asking for a rebellion against fear, anger and entitlement.  Where decisions are made based on what is best for the wider community and not what is best for my ego or power.

We spend much of our time being stuck in anger, resentments, fears and worries.  It’s easy to lash out at others instead of recognizing our own hurts that need healing.  In our Christian tradition, it is known as sin, and it produces much suffering and unhappiness.  Jesus came to free us from that suffering, to free us from sin.  But that takes teamwork, that needs our support and co-operation. 

When we live from a place of sin, we pretend we are doing better than we really are.  We pretend to others and ourselves that we have it all together, that we are perfectly happy, or perfectly in control.  Some of us pretend that we are completely helpless to deal with a terrible world that hates us, and we can never do anything to improve our lives.  Some of us pretend that we have all the answers and people who don’t listen to us deserve our righteous wrath.  Some of us spend all our time judging others so that we can ignore the fact that we are judging ourselves mercilessly.  All these kinds of sins arise from us being unwilling or unable to see ourselves as God sees us, imperfect creations that are loved and that are invited to a radical revolution where fear is rejected, and love is accepted.

This brokenness, this sinfulness is why we have a place for confession in our worship.  It is a time to tell ourselves and God the truth of our imperfections.  Telling and admitting that kind of truth is hard.  We don’t like to admit that we aren’t perfect.  We fear that we will be targeted for bullying and abuse if we are honest about our shortcomings.  The very thing we fear is the very thing that sets us free!

Every time we confess, it brings us a step closer to the realm of Jesus.  Every time we say that we aren’t perfect, we witness to the truth.  Every time we ask for help, we are hearing the voice of Jesus speaking truth to our hearts and minds.  When we belong to truth, we are set free from sin.  This truth is so powerful, it is a major focus of recovery programs like AA and Al Anon, who have it as Steps 4 and 5 in their path to recovery.

What a contrast it is from what the world focusses on.  There are many people like Pilate who are in power and who are determined to stay in power.  That is not easy at the best of times, but people in power are often afraid of losing that power.  Pilate knew what it took to get to power, lots of manipulation, political scheming, spreading rumors, and using force to claw his way to the top.  He didn’t say, “You’re fired”, he said, “You’re dead”. And had the power to enforce it too.  Quite often. Pilate was known as a brutal commander, sent in to Jerusalem to keep the Pax Romana, by using a sword if necessary.  He had the power of life and death over a whole city. Usually, he wasn’t afraid to use it either.

Jesus stumped him.  Jesus confused him.  Here was a man, a leader who influenced people by speaking truth to them. By treating them with respect.  By respecting them.  By caring about them.  Everything he did to be a leader, an influencer, was the exact opposite of what Pilate did.  He invited respect, he did not command it or demand it.  He did not bully others into treating him with respect.  He did not use shame or blame or guilt to manipulate them into giving him authority to be the leader.  He was a leader by attraction, not enforcement.

Pilate recognized Jesus to be so far outside his experience that he didn’t know how to react.  He was used to people who took power by force.  Jesus was confusing.  His answers put the onus on Pilate to think about what he was doing in a different way than what he was comfortable doing.  He didn’t want to think about truth the way Jesus talked about truth.  He had lied and manipulated people to get where he was, and truth was something he had long before abandoned in his lust for power.  He didn’t want to think about truth.  Truth was something that he was afraid of.  If this Jesus could become an influencer of others, a leader of others, what did that say about Pilate’s leadership?  That it was cruel and murderous.  The truth was something to be ignored, feared and dismissed.

It takes courage to tell the truth and listen to the truth.  It takes courage follow Jesus.  But the great joy is this is why Jesus came into the world, to build a community of truth and compassion that frees us from the pain of our sins large and small.  May we work together to build that community of Jesus who has created and is creating, our judge and our hope.  God is with us, we are not alone, thanks be to God!

Biblical Marriage?

Next time someone tells you that they believe in biblical marriage, ask them if they've read the first chapter of the first book of Samuel. Don't you just love this description of biblical marriage? Elkanah has two wives, Peninnah and Hannah. How's that working for him? Not at all well. His first wife was very fertile and brought Elkanah many children. It helps if we remember that in this time of surviving in a desert region, children were a man's labor force to generate wealth and a sustainable lifestyle. They were his pension plan, his RSP, his property insurance and his senior's citizen lodge. No pressure! Elkanah had enough children. by his first wife Peninnah that he felt secure financially for the future. And maybe that's why he had two wives. I assume that Hannah was the younger, prettier one, but it doesn't go into that much detail. Certainly it's similar to the Bookseller of Kabul, where he guts established as a successful businessman with his wife's help then gets another one.

Then the bullying begins, Peninnah nags and  ridicules and intimidates Hannah until Hannah's self-esteem is in tatters. Elkanah tries to comfort Hannah but he never tells Peninnah to stop it. He might even add to Peninnah's fury by showing. Hannah's favoritism with meals. Her fridge is full of T-bone steaks while Peninnah gets ground beef. No wonder she bullied Hannah!

There were a whole bunch of terrible assumptions also impacting this story. Hannah's mental health centred around Hannah believing that her self-worth was tied to her fertility. Today many people still struggle with that, but Hannah's culture taught that women's duty was to the survival of the tribe. Her faith taught that God chose when to make women fertile and if she couldn't get pregnant with a male baby in that patriarchal society, God didn't love her. Bad assumption there. Eli, the priest, assumed that Hannah was drank when she prayed. This might seem like an odd assumption but St. Augustine thought that St. Ambrose was odd because he read silently, and in the 18th Century, the new fad of reading silently in bed at night was seen as scandalous and immoral! So Hannah, praying silently, was a real oddity in Eli's experience.

She had poured out her deep pain and anguish to God. Interestingly, her pain and anguish was not about the bullying, it was about her core wound, her sense of her own flaws, and her belief that God had judged her as "wicked" in this translation. How many of us take our deep insecurities, our personal flaws, our insecurities and fears to God? Roger and I recently took a workshop about trauma. It's so important to understand trauma because trauma is widespread in our world. And trauma often leads people to bully other people, they explode in rage, they yell or they look for ways to find control. Trauma can be any experience we've had that finds us out of control. It can be bullying, it can be natural disasters, it can be a car crash and so on, People who have a sense of being loved, or who have a safe Community, or who have a sense of connection to God through prayers and spiritual practices, are much more resilient to the trials we all face in our lives.

Hannah takes her deep pain to the temple. She prays. She talks to both God and her priest. She goes deep. This is no "how about them Oilers" conversation between her and God. And despite Eli scolding her and judging her, Hannah is able to talk to him and explain herself. She has the courage to speak her truth to Eli, and her prayers are answered.

Many of us live with trauma or fear or guilt in a way that causes problems in how we relate to others and to God. And while it may seem better to keep our trauma to ourselves, it's not how God heals, God works through us and others by the Spirit and when we bring our deep pain to God, healing begins.

Yesterday, we had a workshop to heal some of our fears and concerns around church. We talked about why we do church. This is a tough question and we practiced going deep. We did that by asking why. Just as Elkanah asked Hannah, "Why are you crying, why won't you eat, why are you so upset," we asked each other "why are you here, why do you keep coming back?" Just like Hannah, we didn't waste time blaming others, we dug deep into our personal stories and the difference the United Church has made in our lives. This is what we found at Barrhead United together:

Church helps us with our emotional stability, it’s a place where we are accepted and included.  It gives us a focus for the week, it gives a save inclusive space where we find respect for diversity, where we find a community of love that focusses on the spiritual in thoughtful ways.

That’s what Hannah found when she went to her temple too, and it empowered her to name her deepest pain and find healing and comfort for her life.  May we continue to have Hannah's courage, tenacity & spirituality to grow our faith and our church. Amen.

Curiosity over Criticism

This past week people have been going through a rollercoaster of emotions as we process what happened in a different country.  This is probably the only time where someone else’s politics have led me to the brink of preaching a sermon that is peppered with F- bombs!  For those people who believe that women deserve to be treated with respect and equality, for those who believe that no ethnic group deserves to be called garbage or accused of stealing and eating pets, for those who believe that joking about putting women in front of a firing squad because of a difference of opinion, for those who believe that immigrants are humans not problems to be returned en-masse to countries that may abuse them, for those who know that 2sLGTBQIA+ people are not choosing an alternative lifestyle, Tuesday was a day of fear for many.  It felt that all our work towards a society based on human rights for all, for respect and dignity, had been wasted.  And many people worry that the same political tactics that worked in the states will work here in Canada as it already has in Alberta.  Tactics of focusing on fear and scarcity and how things aren’t the way we think they should be.  Tactics of talking about how hard done by we are, how the future is uncertain, inflation is scary, jobs are threatened, and let’s target the most vulnerable people for our fear and wrath.  Those unnamed and unknown others, you know, ‘those people’, them, they, that we tell stories about to prove that the world is in danger and they are the ones at fault.

It deflects people’s attention away from harder conversations that some politicians are uncomfortable with.  Harder conversations because they are complex and address issues that have no clear solutions. Why talk about the war in Ukraine or climate change when I worry about paying my rent?  Why talk about gender equality or racism when it’s easier to talk about how dangerous the homeless are?  Why talk about the state of education when I can’t go buy a bag of groceries for under $100 the way I used to?

And then there’s healthcare. Last week we had 591 cases of Covid reported in Alberta, 313 of them taking up valuable hospital beds and doctor and nurse time. 15 patients are in ICU, and 4 people died last week from Covid.  Since August we have had 4,462 covid cases, and 119 people died. Athabasca Hospital declared a Covid outbreak on one unit on Oct. 17, 2024.  Four days later, Northern Lights Regional Hospital in Fort McMurray also had an outbreak.  On the bright side, both outbreaks have cleared, and about 20% of Albertans have gotten their Covid booster shots this month.  But it was hard to find these stats.  It was hard to find out how many hospital beds were being used for Covid patients when they could have been used for other medical situations. The statistics were buried in the Alberta HealthCare website.  Shouldn’t this be something we know about and hear in the news?

We talk about politics the day before Remembrance Day because it was fear and scarcity and inflation that Hitler used to get elected in Germany.  It was that kind of rhetoric of “Us vs Them” that he used to set up his internment camps where millions of Jews, thousands of LGBTQ individuals, the physically and mentally disabled, Roma (gypsies), Poles and other Slavic peoples, Jehovah’s Witnesses, priests, clergy and members of political opposition groups were experimented on and murdered.  Nazis first practiced involuntary euthanasia on hospital patients with mental and physical disabilities, people that they decided did not make a valuable contribution to society.  This was ‘us vs them’ rhetoric and justified for a variety of reasons.  When we say, “Lest we forget” tomorrow, let us not say it glibly.  Let us remember why Canadians and allies went overseas to kill other human beings.  They went to fight totalitarian governments.  They went to fight racists.  They went to fight people who believed in dehumanizing those who didn’t have the same ethnic roots as they did.  They went to stop a power-hungry megalomaniac who thought his ideas of racial purity could justify brainwashing and euthanasia.  They went to stop this kind of thinking and this kind of politics.  This “us vs them” thinking.

Jesus rejected “us vs them” thinking.  Jesus rejected racism and assumptions of superiority.  Jesus rejected snobbish attitudes that suggested some people should have the privilege of power over other people.  But Jesus didn’t just point his fingers at the religious and political elites of his day. Jesus was preaching to us!  We think “Us vs them” too!  Them republicans, them Americans, them racists, them homophobes.  Jesus rejected it all.  Jesus challenged our tendency to think that we are right and people who think differently than us are wrong.  Jesus rejected our own addiction to power and control. Jesus rejected our tendency to shame, blame and judge others.  We find it easy to go about fixing, saving, advising and correcting others.  Jesus rejected that too.

“You have heard it said, 'Love your neighbor-but hate your enemy.'  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for your persecutors.  This will prove that you are children of God.  If you remember that your sister or brother has a grudge against you, leave church at once and go to reconciled with them.”

How do we love our enemies?  How do we reconcile with people we have a grudge against? By being humble!  We have got to stop thinking “we” know all the answers, and “they” are wrong, stupid or evil.  That’s hard, I know.  Building trust starts by being curious first and foremost.  By wondering why they have the opinions they do.  By learning how to not overreact to their anger, which for many of us takes time, practice and counselling from professionals.  By listening to them without judgement, which I know is hard.  By taking care of yourself when it’s too hard and do your own humble healing.

Tomorrow we will hear lots of speeches about “Lest we forget”, a reminder that people died so we can live in peace.  But Peace doesn’t come easily.  And it doesn’t come if we instinctively react with fear and anger.  Curiosity and humbleness will help us understand why the politics of our time seem so ugly.  Curiosity and compassion and empathy are the tools to help us prevent future totalitarian states in our country.  Some of us are able to roll up our sleeves and listen deeply to those who have opinions different than our own.  Some of us need to take care of ourselves and heal our own deep wounds.  Some of us can step up and speak up.  But first and foremost, let us never forget that Jesus, the prince of peace, calls us to choose the way of curious compassion above fear.  Every day!    Amen.

Yes and?

Today we hear the story of people coming up with creative ideas that surprise them.  Ironic to hear these scriptures the same week that Broadview hosted a discussion on bullying in the church and Diane Strickland did a presentation for our Fab Collab churches on trauma.

Our story of Naomi was written in a time when the Israelites had returned from exile in Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem.  Naomi had been an economic exile, not a political exile, but she and her husband, the story goes, fled their homeland to raise their family in a foreign land.  Maybe the author had in mind a personal experience where it was difficult to grow crops after the Babylonian army had carted off most of the inhabitants.  And just like the historic exiles, enslaved in a foreign land, Naomi hung onto her culture and her faith.  “Love God” was her motto.

Then tragedy struck repeatedly, like Job’s story.  Literature on grief and trauma suggests that the loss of a child, no matter what the age, is hard.  And back then, with primitive health care and ignorance of what caused illness, children had a high mortality rate and many babies didn’t survive.  Naomi lost two adult sons.  With her husband also gone, sons were not just her children, they were also her insurance plan, her pension and her retirement home.  Now all that was taken away from her.  She was poorer than when she first arrived.  Except there was a “Yes and” for her in her daughter-in-law Ruth.

The story of Jesus was also a “Yes and”.  He was talking with a scribe who asked questions.  He and the disciples were used to being interrogated, challenged, and argued with by the temple authorities.  Along came this scribe with yet another tough question, but rather than using that question as a weapon, it was also a “yes and” conversation.  The scribe liked the answer Jesus gave, and Jesus liked the scribe’s answer.  They discovered each other had similar interests and similar thoughts about the bible and about God.  

Naomi had a lot of No’s she was saying.  “No, you can’t go with me”, “No, I have no future”, “No, I will not have more babies”, “No, I don’t want you to ruin your lives by asking you to come with me.”  No, no, no! How many times do we say no?  How many times do we look at our lives with negativity, judgement, and cynicism?  Interestingly, one of the symptoms of trauma can be getting mired in cynicism, saying no to anything that might ask for a risk or a change.  Saying no to community, to compassion, to hope, to risk.  

What does that look like in our world?  Do we know anyone who is good at saying yes, who has experienced the difficulties and challenges of living in today’s world where many people are still struggling with trauma and cynicism?  

One person connected to the United Church is very practiced at saying “Yes and”.  This simple attitude that Ruth used and that changed Naomi as we’ll see in future weeks, and that led to Jesus having a scribe on his side, is an attitude that this person has used for his entire career.  In fact, it has been a hallmark of what he does for a living.  This United Church connection said yes to a lot of fascinating things.  In high school, he knew he wanted to become a marine biologist until he said yes to a friend and auditioned for the high school play, which sounds exactly like the plot of High School Musical. Then he said yes to acting school in Vancouver.  He said yes to improv standup comedy where Yes and is key to having a successful show.  He refused to take No for an answer, trying out for a British comedy show 3 times before they hired him.  When that show ended after 8 years, he went to the United States and did the same show in the United States.  It was called “Whose Line is it Anyway?” and the US version was run by comedian Drew Carey.  He played a grumpy hotel detective on Murdock Mysteries, and performed on This Hour has 22 Minutes and Red Green.  He raised $100,000 for Welcome Friend Association's Rainbow Camp, a camp in northern Ontario for 2sLGTBQ+ teens by participating in a comedy contest in 2022. His daughter Kinley is transgender, and “Yes And” was the core value that helped him support her.  He has won Canadian Comedy Person of the year, ACTRA Award of Excellence, and awards for his writing Like the scribe who agreed with Jesus, he agreed with his wife Debra McGrath, the mayor of Little Mosque on the Prairie, when she asked him to be the MC of a benefit concert during Covid which raised money for three United Churches in Ontario.

His name is Colin Mochrie, and he often is the modest quiet one whose humble Canadian persona can still get big laughs. In a Broadview magazine interview, he said “I’ve been recruited many times for United Church events. I played the star of Bethlehem more times than I can remember,” he says. “For me, it’s always a good cause.”

In this world where we see so much war, anger, and ugly politics, maybe the attitude of “yes and” that Ruth showed her mother in law, and that the scribed showed Jesus, is what we need.  It’s easy to say no, it’s natural to greet new ideas with a “but”.  Christ calls us to be the church that says “Yes And”.  Yes people are traumatized and yes people are sick and tired of being sick and tired, and Christ calls us to say yes with the bravery and love of Ruth, and the insight of the scribe and the clever creativity of Colin Mochrie and Debra McGrath. May we say Yes and to the great commandment to Love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.