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!

The Spirit of Truth

There’s nothing quite as wonderful as joining together with a bunch of United Church people at a regional event, like we did last weekend in Edmonton.  Our region, Northern Spirit Region, is the largest geographical region in the United Church, covering northeastern British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and northern Alberta, and the church in Lloydminster has the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan running between their front door and back door, so we have a tiny bit of that province as well.  We had about 120 people gather from Jasper, Fort McMurray, Grand Prairie, Athabasca, Barrhead and beyond, all wanting to network and learn about ways to live with deep spirituality, bold discipleship and daring justice.  We sang together, prayed together, worshipped together and conversed together about the challenges and joys of being United Church. There were challenging topics of conversation and joyful, playful chats over coffee or crafts.

On this 100^th anniversary of the United Church of Canada, we also heard some very stark statistics. If nothing changes, in 10 years, there could be less than 2000 people across Canada worshiping in a United Church on an average Sunday morning.  Certainly we have seen and experienced it here in our local congregations.  The increase in suspicion of institutions in general and churches especially has been a growing trend since the 1970’s.

According to a Global News article in 2022, Statistics Canada found only 68 per cent of Canadians 15 or older reported having a religious affiliation. It was the first time that number dipped below 70 per cent since StatsCan began tracking the data in 1985. Even Catholicism, Canada’s largest denomination, was being impacted, reporting 32 per cent of Canadians over 15, down from 46.9 per cent in 1996.  Broadview Magazine reported in 2023 that The United Church of Canada lost a whop­ping 40 percent of affiliates between 2011 and 2021, falling to 1.2 million people from roughly two million. United Church affiliates don’t only skew older — they also skew more white. Among Christian denomina­tions, the United Church has one of the lowest percentages of racialized affili­ates at only 2.5 percent. Compare that to six percent of Anglican or 45 percent of Pentecostal affiliates.

In our Broadview magazine this month, the back page talked about new data. It said that The Pew Research Center Religious Study of 2023-24 points to changes in U.S. religious affiliation. A decline in American religiousness observed since at least 2007 has slowed over the past four to five years. The Pew Research Center noted that the country is heading toward growth among mainline protestants, the group suffering the most during the earlier decline. 'The U.S. is a spiritual place, a religious place, where we've now seen signs of religious stabilization in the midst of longer-term decline,' said a Pew researcher.

The slight but consistent growth in American Christian affiliation beginning in 2022 was limited to mainline protestants, Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Lutheran and Episcopal, the very denominations which led the overall decline since 2007.

In 2025 the only United churches to close so far this year have been Little Britain UC in rural Manitoba, Bluevale UC in rural Ontario, and Rupert, Que., as compared to three per month up to a year ago. Closures are now at least outnumbered by new church plants, new communities of faith, and older traditional churches being rejuvenated by new life.”  That’s quite the article.

So I’d like to invite us to ponder why church matters to us.  I know that it matters to me, because without the church, I would have been a much poorer mother and wife to my family.  An example of the importance of being part of a Christian community happened some twenty years ago on a wintery December morning. I was getting out of the car in the church parking lot when I slammed the door on my thumb in my rush to get to church on time. I screamed and Tim struggled to unlock the door.   Needless to say, my kids were upset and still remember it vividly. We dashed into the church and one of the congregation members helped bandage the thumb. It was the same Sunday that the children's choir was singing an anthem. I remember conducting the choir with one hand while the other was held high in the air to slow down the bleeding. As soon as the song was done, Tim drove me to the hospital. Someone at the church volunteered to take care of my kids, took them home and fed them lunch while we sat in emergency waiting to see if I needed stitches. It seemed to take forever but without the church, it would have been much more traumatizing. They were helpful, kind, and much more resourceful than I would have been on my own. It was quite the lesson in trust! Why does church matter to you?

We are given a spirit of adoption, a spirit of trust. A spirit of truth. It's easy to forget and slip into a spirit of fear, but Pentecost is when the disciples, still traumatized by the loss of their beloved Rabbi, found themselves filled with hope and courage and daring.

Last weekend at the Regional meeting, Michael Blair talked about this very thing, the spirit of Pentecost, and said "If our ministry doesn't give hope, we might as well pack up and go home. We go on like Eeyore and expect people to come. Our ministry needs to be rooted in the spirit. You and I need to stop and pray and listen to what the Spirit is calling us. The Spirit calls us into mischief. Walk around our neighborhood with our eyes open listening for Holy Mystery. Our ministries must center those who are excluded, who are marginalized and oppressed. Not to offer charity but to be transformed through choosing vulnerability over privilege, be open to being taught rather than fixing. When we value others in vulnerability everyone is transformed. Our very presence brings hope. God is calling us to a ministry where we will be empowered by the spirit. We cannot do it on our own, it is too complex. We learn to live in the nuances. We are called to privilege the voices of the marginalized because that is our salvation. That is where our transformation happens. That is where our communities will be restored to life-giving safe places of hope and transformation. May that be our purpose for living into the next 100 years." May it be so for us all!

Where are you going? Why are you going there?

Last Wednesday, Athabasca’s mayor, Colleen Powell, uttered these two questions as part of her monthly town talk live interview on Facebook.  Now that the radio station has no local voice, and no way to do live community broadcasts, the newspaper has turned to providing Her Worship with a similar platform.  You can message her or watch her in the comfort of your own home.  Mayor Powell has adapted, the Advocate has adapted, and we have adapted too.  But some questions stay the same.

Where are you going? Why are you going there?

Where are you going, Moses?  He thought he was going to the Promised Land.  But he wasn’t.  God showed him where the people would eventually end up, but Moses would not be the one to lead the people home.

That seems like a very cruel fate, almost like God is playing cat and mouse with Moses.  If Moses was so great and so wonderful, why didn’t he, full of vigor and keen eyesight, get to enter the Promised Land? In chapter 32, Yahweh said that both Moses and Aaron ‘both broke faith in the presence of the Israelites and did not uphold God among the Israelites.”  The ancient Hebrew language uses stronger language than this translation, words like ‘acted treacherously’ and ‘did not sanctify God’ in front of the people.  Pretty stark accusations.

In other words, God accused Moses of waffling, of not keeping faith, of failing in his leadership.

Which makes me wonder – if Moses, the paragon, the most courageous leader ever experienced by the Hebrew people, wasn’t able to keep the faith, what chance do normal humans have to be leaders?

Except there was one leader that was greater than Moses.  One who had gone through similar trials, according to the gospel of Matthew.  As an infant, this leader’s life was threatened by a scary king, just like Moses in the bulrushes.  This leader lived in Egypt as a child.  Lived in the wilderness, where there was little food to eat or water to drink, alright, it was 40 days, not 40 years, but still that was a parallel.  A leader that Matthew said would often go up to the top of mountains to have powerful experiences of God.  Who would come down from the mountains and have new powerful teachings to share with his followers.  Who dueled and competed with those who sought to challenge his power just as Moses had dueled with the priests of Pharaoh.  And just like Moses, when he competed with them, his answers were so profound, so deep, so committed to God that his opponents were left speechless.

This new Moses talked of a new kind of law, written not on stone tablets, but on the hearts and minds of followers, who talked about living a sacrificial life.  He was guided by the signposts of love of God and love of neighbor.  This new Moses was unwavering in his commitment to God and to the message of a new community of faith where anyone could have a relationship with God as intimate as the relationship people had with their own parents.  He was so committed to God and to the message God had sent him with, that he was even prepared to die as a witness to that message.  That commitment was unshaken by state-sanctioned torture and execution.

And unlike Moses, his death wasn’t the end of the story.  However we interpret Easter, the truth is that at a profound level, Jesus’ message was not stopped by his death, nor were his followers intimidated into silence by his execution.  Instead, they became emboldened to spread his message near and far, and it continues to inspire and motivate change and growth. 

Jesus is still radical today when his teachings call for people to be treated equally no matter where they are born or what language they speak.  Jesus is still challenging us when his parables point to guaranteed incomes.  Jesus still inspires us today when he showed love and care towards people like tax collectors, lepers, Samaritans and more. 

Moses knew the answers to the two questions Mayor Powell asked in her interview this week.  He knew where he was going.  To the Promised Land.  He knew why he was going there, because it was a land where the people of Israel could live free.  But he didn’t know what Jesus knew, that the Greatest Command, Love God, and the one similar, love your neighbor was the answer to the third question he didn’t know the answer to.  The answer of how will you get there?

There are many debates on how to do something.  We’ve seen that recently with the leaked report on the new Social Studies curriculum for primary school children.  We’ve seen that with the plans to remove Chain Lakes and other parks from protective legislature.  We’ve seen that with the angry debates and name calling around wearing masks.  We’ve seen that with the confrontation between first nations and lobster fishermen in Nova Scotia.  We’ve seen that with campaigns such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too.  We’ve seen that when United Church ministers across Canada are ridiculed for their political commentary on issues of universal healthcare, living wages, accessible childcare, environmental issues and more.  We’ve seem that when we hear stories such as Rev. Paul Walfall who has preached in this very building tell us that he’s tired of being followed around by security guards every time he goes to Walmart because he happens to be shopping while black.

Where are we going?  We are going towards a community of God that protects the vulnerable and respects all people regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual identity, language, country of origin, ability and more.  Why are we going there? Because until we all are free, none of us are truly free, and because God calls us to that journey of freedom.  How are we going?  With a reminder that unless we do everything through the lens of Loving God and Loving our neighbor, we labor in vain.

A wiser United Church minister than me summed it up like this “While Christianity is inherently political; it is a politics from above marked by the persuasive power of love, not the politics of below which is marked by the coercive power of the state.”  Now more than ever we are called to exercise love and resist coercion in whatever form we find it.  Love of God, Love of neighbor in everything we do.  May God bless us as we discern how to do so in these changing times.  Amen

Oh be Joyful

There are not many things worse than getting a phone call from a child who says, “Mom, I’ve got a problem with the car.”  It sucks the joy right out of my day! I can go from feeling fine, even optimistic to having a hard time breathing.

Thank goodness my child is smart and sensible.  Thank goodness it was something AMA could deal with easily.  Keys locked in a car is standard fare and something they deal with regularly.  Thank goodness for telephones and computers and call displays and credit cards that can sort things out in record time.

It got me thinking about how AMA is like Jesus.  It’s a bit of a stretch, I know, but bear with me on this.

John the Baptist has gone from the heights of fame and fortune, pulling in crowds that would have even modern-day politicians jealous.  Even temple leaders went to hear the prophet speak, and to be baptised by him.  But in today’s passage John is locked up, no chance of parole, wondering and waiting with no trial date, no defence lawyer and nothing to do with his time except overthink everything that is happening.  I can’t imagine that the jail back then was a nice place either, no Amnesty International to make sure he was getting decent treatment.

But he still has the ability to cut through the propaganda, the social niceties and ask the only question that mattered, not “when are you unlocking my prison cell”, but “are you the one we are waiting for or should we keep looking for another?”

Jesus doesn’t launch into some high-faluting explanation of how he was going to be crucified, buried and resurrected to prove he was the messiah to John or even tell John to repent and be saved, nope, he just said “Look around you and see that lives are changing for the better, that the people are continuing to be healed and transformed with new vision, new enthusiasm and new openness to hear what needs to be heard.”

In essence, Jesus told John that his efforts were not wasted, that the mission and ministry John had started was continuing, and his current suffering was not in vain.  He had prepared a way so that the people were ready for real transformation, and Jesus was taking it to the next level.

So how is Jesus like AMA?  AMA is very clear on its purpose.  The first thing you hear when you call is “are you safe?”  Their sole purpose is to make driving safer for everyone, not just their clients.  Even with a complicated problem like my kid being locked out of her car on a chilly Saturday evening somewhere near a Boston Pizza in Edmonton with the temperature in the minus teens and they stay calm and friendly.  They help with a few suggestions and tell you it’s probably a two hour wait and twenty minutes later, the car is unlocked, and your child is heading safely home.  That’s focus on their purpose in life, and they let their actions speak louder than words.

Jesus too knew his purpose and it was not to rescue people or enable them.  It was to empower them.  Because if he had just been wanting to rescue folks, he would have said, “John, I’ve been healing people and teaching people.  My record of success is great and I’m getting big crowds.”  He said, “People are seeing, moving and hearing, rejoice!”

Certainly, there’s a fine line between rescuing and empowering and I feel joy when I see people transformed and empowered as they come here.  Even in one week there have been great stories connected to this congregation.  Folks learning to stretch their food dollars and learn new recipes; folks struggling to find meaning and hope in life coming and having someone support them and listen to their story. 

People taking brave steps to break out of unhealthy thinking patterns or destructive lifestyles, government employees reaching out to us to ask about homeless individuals that are struggling with the cold snap, people working as a team to help refugees and addicted human beings.  And people struggling with the hardest thing of all, changing the way they look at the world and think about the world.

Yes it’s a tough time of year with cutbacks looming, self-serving politicians and global environment crisis, but there are also signs of hope!  Children calling for change and action beyond lip service.  New technologies developing to reduce our dependency on oil, paper straws in every grocery store, reusable beeswax cloths instead of saran wrap for food for sale at our farmer’s market, generous people donating some of their stocks to help with our congregation’s cash flow, dozens of scarves being churned out for our homeless population, people donating to Santa’s Anonymous and helping with community dinners, and people entering into treatment programs or getting the mental health counselling they need to deal with complex issues.  And people understanding the difference between enabling and empowering those they support.

What do we need to see with new eyes?  What are the things that make us limp along that we could deal with better?  What words of transformation do we need to hear that we’ve been avoiding hearing?  What are we waiting for?  Who are we waiting for?  Are we ready to see the changes and healings that are happening under this roof?  Are we ready to feel the joy of knowing that we are part of something larger than ourselves?  Are we ready to be part of a big mission of empowering people and the world?  May we wait this Advent with hope, peace and joy for that transforming new life that Christ opens in us!