Our Vision | Constitution of Wall Street United Church
Introvert Or Extrovert? - Rev. Doug Warren, February 27, 2005
"What Makes You Feel Alive?" - Dr. Alan Bennett, February 20, 2005
"What Are You Doing On Earth?" - Dr. Alan Bennett, February 13, 2005
"Don't Throw Away Tomorrow" - Dr. Alan Bennett, February 6, 2005
"What Moves Me. You?" - Rev. Doug Warren, January 30, 2005
"A New Life Experience" - Dr. Alan Bennett, January 16, 2005
"A Place for Me" - Dr. Alan Bennett, January 9, 2005
The Gift of Time - Dr. Alan Bennett, January 2, 2005
To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before - Dr. Alan Bennett, December 26, 2004
"Generating Joy: a Job?" - Rev. Doug Warren, December 12, 2004
Angels In Our Midst - Dr. Alan Bennett, December 5, 2004
Must We Forgive? - Dr. Millard Schumaker, November 28, 2004
Romans 12:3-9a, Ephesians 1:3-5 (Msg)
When your senior pastor and I were drawing straws for preaching slots, if I'd really thought through this message for today, I would have been better off to bid for another Sunday's topic. Now, “Worship”, … that would have been good. But then … I was moved by Alan's message last week. I found it powerful. It spoke to me. I've read the Purpose Driven Life several times, and at Prayer and Share we've gone through it three times. But last week, the truth that God wants us to be happy, and what really brings God pleasure is when we're fully alive made a connection like never before. Suddenly “worship” was more understandable. And since worship is all about everything we are, do, and think, this past week has been an excellent one. Thank you Alan!! (… and Holy Spirit, of course)
“Discipleship” … now that's close to my heart. I could go there with enthusiasm. Becoming more like Jesus is my life goal. “Ministry”: I'm passionate about the priesthood of all believers, because I know that the early-church-Book-of-Acts model really works. “Evangelism” … now that I could get really steamed up about. I'd love to sink my teeth into talking about the mission of the church, its outreach, its impact on a hurting world. I'm convinced, as a church that stands for God's fully inclusive, unconditional love for humanity, that we have such an amazing opportunity to spread Good News. Wow!! Amazing good news! (Well … Come to think of it I am preaching that Sunday. Good!)
But “fellowship”? … I struggle with that. You see, most of the time, as I've confessed in the past, the message delivered to you is first and foremost directed and delivered to me. This time, there's no question. It's really for me. Avoidance would have been so much easier.
You see, a rather startling revelation about myself came from the lips of Alan and Wendy's daughter, Kim. I can't remember the background to the conversation, but it was at the Schuller Institute about a month ago. Kim asked: “Do you get your energy from being with people, or does being with people drain you?” I confessed to the latter - that being with groups of people I find draining. “Well, then,” she said, “you're an introvert.” Now, I had never thought of myself as an introvert. Like many of you here, I've done the Meyers-Briggs personality test, and should have known that. Perhaps because most people equate introverted-ness with shyness, I had assumed that as I had become less shy as I grew older that I had also become less introverted, more extroverted. Carl Jung however defines the two personality types this way:
“An extrovert is someone who finds meaning outside of himself or herself, such as through friends, groups, belonging to clubs or organizations. Outside things hold more meaning to an extrovert. Introverts, on the other hand, find meaning in internal and subjective phenomena. They're interested in what's inside them.”
Interestingly enough, Jung also found that introverts have a harder time during their initial phases of life and extroverts have more trouble later on.
So … backing up, … Kim's comment left me wondering how I ended up in ministry, a people-oriented profession. Perhaps I should have been a medieval monk, off somewhere in an Alpine monastery making wine, or milking goats.
And then I wondered about what I would be like coming here to church, if I wasn't employed here. Would I join a small group? Probably not, because I'd rather have my devotional time with my Lord all nice, and tidy and private. I've reached a point in my relationship with Christ where I do experience real friendship, like we were reading about last week. It's taken time, lots of time, but my prayer journaling is frank, and open, and very satisfying. If anyone were to pick up one of my journals, (and I hope no one other than Jesus ever looks at them) they'd see a modern day version of the Psalms - not the height of poetry, but certainly the huge scope of emotions – praise, thanksgiving, complaint, petition, and sometimes, yes, sometimes a questioning that might be considered rude if it were not happening with a Friend. Now, … if I didn't work here, I'd probably come to church here, because I like the atmosphere, the music, the soaring architecture, “The Stewart Times” are so well done! Alan gets me thinking and gives me something to chew on for the week ahead. And, you, the people seem to be a genuine, caring group of people. But Sunday morning would be enough. I probably wouldn't even go for the coffee time once my duty had been done.
Can you see why I need this message?
In fairness to me, I think that is a good picture of how I have felt in times past, … and given a chance to backslide could easily feel that way again. In the process of growing, though, I've come to understand there's no such thing as a “lone ranger Christian.” Even so, in acknowledging that truth, it's not easy for me to become part of a fellowship, participating at a deep level with other human beings – people I'm not sure I can really trust, let alone love enough to be open with.
Nicky Gumble tells the story of a man who, like me, was introverted, and felt that all he needed was himself and God. Yet, gradually he found that his relationship with God had become cold, stale, and he felt he wasn't growing spiritually as he should. In fact, it seemed that he was going backwards. So he went to see a wise person who had the reputation of having a very deep spirituality, a gift of discernment. This person heard our seeking friend out, and then without a word, walked over to the coal fire burning in the firepace in his study. With tongs he took a red hot coal out of the fire and laid it on the hearth. As they continued in total silence, both men watched as the once bright red coal started to dim in its brilliance until slowly it became a dull, grayish black.
Just when it would appear that there was no life left in the solitary coal, the wise person went over, picked it up with the tongs and returned it to the fire again. Within moments it had joined the others, glowing, alive and once again radiating heat. Then, without a word, the host nodded at our seeking friend indicating that the meeting was over. The message was vivid and clear. You can't do this spiritual journey alone. God didn't intend it. In fact, one of God's purposes for us is to be in fellowship with one another. We have been formed for God's family! That's Purpose # 2, and you will be reading about it this coming week. And, you'll notice that it ties in beautifully with Purpose # 1:
“God is the one who made all things, and all things are for His glory.
He wanted to have many children share His glory …”(Hebrews 2:10a NCV)
“His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.”(Ephesians 1:5 NLT)
So, whether you're an extrovert – and that's easy, … or you're an introvert and it's hard, our second purpose in life next to WORSHIP is FELLOWSHIP. Rick Warren has pointed out in his message on Fellowship that he sees that there are four levels of fellowship. The first is
“MEMBERSHIP - Choosing to belong” followed by
“FRIENDSHIP – Learning to share” followed by
“PARTNERSHIP – Doing our part” and then moving into the deepest level
“KINSHIP – loving believers like family.”
MEMBERSHIP is something you choose. That's the first level. You were born into your human family, but you have the choice of whether or not you wish to be part of – to be born into – the family of God. This “Family of God” imagery is very strong in the Bible.
“You are members of God's very own family … and you belong in God's household with every other Christian.” (Ephesians 2:19)
Another image that we find for “belonging” is the picture of the human body where every part of the body is interconnected, coordinated, and whether visible or out of sight of the naked eye functions beautifully, and harmoniously. Let's read this aloud together:
“In Christ we who are many form one Body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:5 NIV)
Or, as Lisa read to us
earlier from the Message, once again reading together:
“ In this way we are like the various parts of the human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. … (but as) a chopped off finger or cut off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So, we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellent and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body.” (Romans 12:4 – 5 The Message)
You hear some people say, 'Well, I'm a Christian, but I don't want to belong to any church.' That just doesn't make sense. The church is where you live out what it means to be a Christian. That's like saying, 'I'm a football player, but I don't want to be part of any team.” It doesn't work. That's like saying, 'I'm a Tuba player, but I don't want to be part of an orchestra.”
Actually, some time ago I heard a Tuba solo without an orchestra, and although it is interesting, and maybe a bit reminiscent of the A & W Root Bear, it isn't nearly as beautiful as when it's playing the part created for it in the band or orchestra. It really isn't!
Can you imagine a bee wanting to be a bee but not wanting to be part of the hive? Or, a soldier without a platoon? A Christian without a church is an orphan. Ouch! That doesn't speak well for the introvert who doesn't stretch beyond his or her comfort zone, does it? Hmmnn!
Membership is a choice. You can sit on the sidelines and watch the game, or you can join the team. Or, the “body” metaphor … If you were the “liver”, just try to function all by yourself. And functioning for what purpose? (I can still hear Rick Warren's description of the “floating liver” going from church to church but never connecting. It wasn't a pretty picture that formed in my mind as I put an image to his words.)
Did you know that the word “membership” was originally a Christian word? It came right out of the verses that we've been reading about from the Bible. I know that now the word is used for every kind of club, joining this, joining that. But, the meaning came from the Body of Christ image of the church. Just as the members of your body - your hand, for example, is tightly joined to your forearm, joined to your elbow, and the elbow is connected to the shoulder – so it is with us as members of Christ's body.
The second level of fellowship is FRIENDSHIP – Learning to Share. I don't know what your training at Theological College was, those of you down in the family pew, and others … but I was taught that as clergy we would need to create “Boundaries”, and that any friendships that were to be made would have to be made outside the congregation that we are serving. Now, … granted, normal human boundaries are a given in any human relationship, including friendship – but, I'm afraid to say that I haven't been able to resist becoming friends with the people with whom I have been connected through God's grace. Whether I am paid, or not, I feel that these friendships are formed from being in a common cause, the cause of Christ, and are far deeper than any I could possibly form outside the church. We have been designed for relationships, tied together in the bond of love – just as we sang about earlier!
Did you know that for the first 300 years there were no church buildings? It didn't stop the church from being the church! The early Christians met in each others' homes, and as the Bible says:
“All the believers met together constantly and shared everything with each other.” (Acts 2:44 LB)
How can we not form friendships? As we meet together, sing together, pray together, grow together, as we “learn from one another, just as iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17 TEV) … as we “open our homes to each other” (1 Peter 4:9 NCV) … as we “share each other's troubles and problems” (Galatians 6:2 NLT) … how can we not form friendships as we serve our community and our world together?
The next level of fellowship is “PARTNERSHIP – doing my part.” There are 58 times in the New Testament the Bible says that we work together in getting God's job done on earth. We serve one another. We love one another. We pray with one another. The Bible even says we have to put up with one another as we're doing all of this. That's how it all works. This is love in action, not just words. You see – it's great to share your heart. That's level two. But it is even greater to do your part. That is what level three is all about.
Read these verses together with me:
“We are partners working together for God.” (1 Corinthians 3:9a TEV)
“The whole Body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts to grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” (Ephesians 4:16 NLT)
The fourth level, and I believe the most profound level of belonging, is kinship, … family! Did you hear me, before the opening prayer when I started off the service by addressing you as “brothers and sisters”? Well, that's what we are. The deepest level of fellowship is loving other members of the Body of Christ just like family. You're completely committed to them. The word for fellowship in the Bible is the Greek word “koinonia”. The basic root literally means “being as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ.” This is how the early church in the book of Acts is described:
“… they were like family to each other.” (Acts 2:42a CEV) and instructed to “Be devoted to each other like a loving family.” (Romans 12:10 GWT)
The much-loved southern gospel group, The Gaithers said it this way:
“You'll notice we say “brother, and sister” 'round here
It's because we're a family and these folks are so near;
When one has a heartache we all share the tears
And rejoice in each victory in this family so dear.”
Fellowship is not just cookies and coffee after service. Fellowship is: Membership – choosing to belong; Fellowship is friendship – learning to share; Fellowship is partnership – doing our part; and, Fellowship is kinship – loving believers like family. That doesn't mean we don't love others who are outside our Wall Street Church family unit. On the contrary. Stay tuned ..we'll soon be talking about an inclusive love for others that will blow your socks off. It means, if anything, we love the world outside and around us more. But, as disturbing as this whole “fellowship thing” may be for an introvert, and as exciting as this is for the extrovert … it appears to me now, especially, after preparing this message, that really we were made to be in fellowship, in community, to belong, to be friends, partners, a family. And, the Lord being my helper (and since it isn't that natural for me I'll need lots of help) I will try to live out that purpose for my life. How about you?
Wall Street United Church
February 27, 2005
A message by Doug Warren
Romans 12: 1 Mark 12: 28-34
In the Genesis story of creation at the beginning of the bible we read that God was pleased with the world and the universe he had created. The high point was the creation of the man and the woman with whom God fellowshipped as friend with friend. This gives us a clear guide to the first of life's five major purposes. We were made for God's pleasure. I don't know how many of you have ever read the Westminster Shorter Catechism. I am quite sure many of you will never have heard of it. A catechism (a word rarely used today) is a training manual to instruct seekers in the Christian faith. This particular one was written around 1648 by English Protestant reformers during the time of Oliver Cromwell and the civil war upheaval in England. It's format is a series of questions and answers.
When I was a teen, believe it or not, the Westminster Shorter Catechism was the curriculum for our confirmation class. I can't imagine using it today. The very first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is, “What is the chief end of man?” — in modern language — what is our purpose as human beings? Why are we here? What is the chief end of man? I recall as a teen getting into trouble for suggesting to a friend that we were sitting on it. An elder leading the group overheard my remark. He was not pleased.
Now, the answer to that first question is “the chief end of Man is to glorify God, and enjoy him forever.” In modern terms our basic purpose as human beings is to worship God and take pleasure in being one with him, loving what he loves by caring for his creation. If the idea of enjoying God, of God taking pleasure in us and what we do seems odd there is a great story in the Old Testament that may help. In Nehemiah 8:10 we read that Ezra the prophet after dedicating the rebuilt walls of Jerusalem says to the people, “Go to your homes. Enjoy good food and sweet wine, and give some to any who have nothing. This day is sacred to our God. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” — The joy of the Lord is your strength!
Do you know that you were made to be happy? Does that surprise you? You were not made to be sad, unhappy, lonely, depressed — not even grumpy. You were made to be happy. You see when the humanity in each of us touches and is touched by the Divine energy that is God — there is real and amazing joy. There is a delight in our soul in response to the presence of God. Whether it occurs at a time of gladness or sadness, peace or stress — it doesn't matter. God's presence touching us always brings joy. In John 10:10, Jesus said I came that you might have life and have it to the fullest. Do you begin to get a little sense of what it means to bring pleasure to God?
Let me tell you about the front cover of a Religious Education Curriculum that I helped to design years ago. The setting was in Zambia in Central Africa. Wendy and I were there as missionaries. It was 1972 and the Zambian government asked the Churches to design a Religious Education Curriculum for the school system for the entire country. Whatever we came up with they would implement. I have to tell you, I was amazed. Here was a government that wanted a Christian Education programme for the entire country. I knew that in Canada that would never happen in a thousand years. What a contrast between Canada, a so called Christian country, and Zambia a desperately poor land but one alive with faith and love.
The Zambian government made one stipulation. They wanted one curriculum. They did not want a Protestant curriculum and a Catholic one — just one Christian Curriculum. At the time I was a teacher of Religious Education in a Secondary School run by the United Church of Zambia so I was asked to represent the U. C. Z. on the committee. It didn't take us long to come up with a wonderful curriculum that is likely still in use in Zambia today. It was the front cover that I wanted to tell you about. The Roman Catholic Church came up with it. It was a picture of a young Zambian lad in a Church with an African drum, and he is drumming for all he is worth — his face is absolutely alive with joy — radiant. The caption under the picture reads, “The Glory of God is man fully alive!”
Do know who said that? — a second century Bishop by the name of Irenaeus. He put it so beautifully. Nothing gives God more pleasure than when you and I are fully alive. It's why Jesus came. So how do we do that? How do we come alive in Christ? Two scripture passages sum it up for us. First, Romans 12:1 Paul says: “So then, my friends, I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.”
The other lesson is Mark 12:28. A teacher of the law was listening to the exchanges between Jesus and the Pharisees. He saw how Jesus gave good answers, so he spoke up and asked this question. “Master, which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus turned, looked at him and replied “the most important, is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.” The man replied, “Well said, teacher. You are right.” And Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
The word for what we are talking about is worship. When all of life becomes a sacrament — when worship of God is at the heart of who you are, you come alive and the joy of the Lord becomes your strength.” I want you to keep in mind a couple of things. By worship I mean something far larger than simply what we do here on Sunday morning. We tend to limit worship to a set of activities in a Church— prayers, scriptures, sermons and hymns. I am talking about something far deeper and broader. I am talking about an attitude of life. Worship in its broadest sense is about your life style and who you are as much as anything you do.
You see we all worship something in this life. All of us here and everyone out there who is not in this or any other Church this morning, still worships something. The only question is what is it? To what do you give your heart and soul? I recall a young wife telling me that the reason why her husband was never in Church is that he always spent Sunday mornings polishing up his idol in the driveway.
Do you want to know what you worship? Ask yourself this question, “what do I spend my time and money on?” If you are honest with yourself you will find the answer. I recall quite vividly a Continuing Education event that I attended at Five Oaks (a United Church Retreat Centre) some years ago. At one point the leader of the event gave each of us six pieces of paper and asked us write on them the six things we valued the most in all the world. It could be anything or anyone. We were to write just one on each piece of paper. No one else knew what the others wrote down. It was for our own eyes alone.
After giving us fifteen minutes to think about and write them down, he then went around the room with a wastepaper basket and said throw the least important of the six away. Well, that wasn't too hard for me. Out went my new computer. But after a few minutes he did it again. And then again – five times. Now, when you have written the names of your three children and your wife on those pieces of paper, as I did, tossing them out, even when it is just a piece of paper, starts to be really hurtful. “If you had to lose one,” he would say, “which would it be?” The room went very silent. Finally we were all down to a single piece of paper. He spoke to us quietly and said, “if you could lose in any way whatever you have on that piece of paper, throw it out.” Out went Wendy! I wasn't feeling very happy. I wasn't enjoying the exercise.
I looked around and saw to my surprise that some had kept their paper. The instructor explained to us the purpose of the exercise. It was to show us that in the end only one thing can never be taken from us — and that is our faith in God. The love and grace of God can be taken from us, no matter what happens. It is ours for all time. Those who had written down my faith kept their paper. All the rest of what we have, one way or the other, at some point we lose. It ends up in the trash can of life.
Let me close with this thought. Worship is about offering your whole life to God, not just part — but all of you. What did Jesus say, read it with me “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And you shall Love your neighbour as yourself.” Give it all you got! Worship is about prayer, especially praise and thanksgiving. You cannot be unhappy when you praise and thank God for all his blessings. It is amazing what a positive attitude you will have when you praise and thank God. Finally worship is about following exactly what Jesus taught us about love for God and love for our neighbour. What happens when you do this is that you become fully alive and feel the pleasure of God all the way to heaven! Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Alan Bennett,
Wall Street United Church, Brockville, Ontario,
February 20, 2005
Luke 7:18-23
Nicky Gumble, the architect of the very successful Alpha series tells the story of a Swedish nanny or as they say in Britain an 'aupair girl'. Her task was to look after the children of a wealthy couple. She was a young student from Sweden who took the job to learn English and make a little money before going to university. One day the children started fighting and yelling. There was general mayhem going on in an upstairs bedroom. The aupair girl heard the racket from the main floor. She rushed up stairs and burst into the room. What she intended to say to the children was, “What on earth are you doing?” Now English is an interesting language. If you misplace even one word in an idiomatic expression it can completely alter the meaning. The young woman hadn't quite mastered this particular expression, because what she yelled at the astonished children was, “What are you doing on earth?” — It is quite a different question. The children were speechless.
Actually, so are most people when asked that question. Most of those interviewed by Neil McHugh and Joe Martelle outside of Wal-Mart didn't know what to say. What Neil and Joe did was talk to ordinary people. But highly educated university professors don't know what to say either. Dr. Hugh Moorhead of Northwestern University wrote to 250 of the worlds leading philosophers and intellectuals. He asked them, “what is the meaning of life?” He published their responses in a book. He wrote to the brightest and best educated minds of our time. And guess what? — not a single one knew the answer. Some gave their hunches. Others asked Moorhead to let them know if he discovered what it was.
In the early years of the twentieth century Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychiatry said that the main purpose of life was the pursuit of pleasure. He said that all of human life is a quest for happiness and pleasure. Alfred Adler, a contemporary, felt that there was a deeper purpose to life. He agreed that people do seek pleasure, but he saw the deeper purpose of life as the pursuit of power. The purpose of life is to achieve power over one's circumstances. Only when men and women have control over their lives can they find happiness. So the purpose of life is to seek power.
I don't know what you think about that but a huge number of people in this world do seek power and pleasure. One of the most successful ad slogans ever created is “Freedom Fifty-Five.” What does it promise you? — endless vacations apparently. According to the TV commercials life becomes one big swimming pool.
But does it work? Does affluence and control make people happy? Does it truly bring pleasure? Listen to what another writer said. His name was Victor Frankl. Frankl was Jewish. Actually all three were Jewish, but Frankl was a generation younger than the first two. He was a teenager during the second World War. Being Jewish he was rounded up and sent to Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi death camps. Two weeks ago the world marked the 60th anniversary of its liberation. By the grace of God, Victor Frankl was one of the few survivors.
In later years he wrote that Freud and Adler were wrong. He said in Auschwitz we were utterly powerless and lived in total misery — we had neither happiness nor control. To Frankl the one thing a person needs to go on living is meaning and hope. He said it is possible to live without pleasure or control over your life, but once you lose all hope and meaning, you lose the will to live. The purpose of life he said is to seek meaning. I believe Victor Frankl was absolutely right.
So how do you do it? First, the meaning of life is bound up with God. Bertrand Russell, another contemporary of Freud Jung and Adler, was a British philosopher. I read a lot of Russell when I was an undergraduate. It was almost required reading for aspiring intellectuals of my day. Russell was an atheist. He was an articulate and persuasive atheist. In fact, if atheists had saints, Bertrand Russell would have been the Patron Saint of Atheism. One of the few times I agreed with Russell was when he wrote this, “Unless you assume that God exists, the question of life's purpose is meaningless.” To Russell, there was no purpose or meaning to life. The atheistic view is that human life is a random and unimportant event, a tiny speck in a minor galaxy, in a remote corner of a vast, impersonal, universe. Russell admitted that this is not a very comforting or inspiring belief. His biggest problem was to come up with any kind of convincing reason why we should bother to care about anything. In my opinion he never did. If there is no purpose to anything, why bother?
I don't have time to go into all the reasons why I believe in God. But I will say this. It makes far more sense than believing in nothing. One of the speakers at the Crystal Cathedral, was Dr. Michael Guillen, a Harvard Physics Professor. He was very convincing as he described the most up to date insights from recent scientific data. His view is that believing that our universe came into existence by random chance is an utterly untenable proposition. You can read it in his book, “Can a Smart Person Believe in God.” The short answer is yes you can — absolutely.
But what about Jesus? Where does he fit in? Did God send us Jesus or was he just another religious holy man? Our scripture lesson from Luke is about this very question. John the Baptist kept hearing the most amazing things about Jesus. He wanted to talk to him in person but he couldn't because John had been locked up in prison. Actually John died there a short time later. So he sent two trusted disciples to ask Jesus, “are you the one, the messiah, or should we go on looking for someone else?” Now it would have been easy for Jesus to say, “yes, I am the one” But he didn't. You see talk is always cheap. Instead what he said was “come, look and listen, see for yourself and then decide. Tell John what you see — the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the Good News is being preached to the poor. And tell him, God blesses those who are not offended by me.”
Was God in Jesus? If you want to experience fullness of life then come and see for yourself just as he said to John. Most of us have blind spots. When Jesus comes into your life, it is like a light going on — you can see so clearly. You know what you need to change. Most of us have parts of our life that limp along — parts that are neither healthy nor strong. When Jesus walks into your life, those parts start to recover. You start getting stronger and stronger, until the time comes when you can run again. Above all, new wondrous and exciting life gets poured into your heart and soul.
On the last night of Jesus' life in response to Thomas he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Do you want to find your purpose? Do you want to find direction, your compass bearing? Do you want to get a life? The way is through Jesus. This is what we will all be studying and looking at for the next forty days. It is going to be a great time of discovery — one full of fun, learning, and growing in love.
Let me close with our memory verse for this week — “Ephesians 2:10. Read it with me, “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
That is the New International Version. Now let's read it in the Contemporary English version.
“God planned for us to do good things and to live as he has always wanted us to live. That's why he sent Christ to make us what we are.”
God has a plan for you. I don't care how old you are or how young. I don't care how successful you are or how disastrous your life has been. God loves you. God has a plan for you. Don't miss it. Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Alan Bennett
Wall Street United Church, Brockville, Ontario,
February 13, 2005.
749
Luke 10:40-42
Last week at this time I was listening to Dr. Robert H. Schuller at the Crystal Cathedral. He has a new book out. It is called, “Don't Throw Away Tomorrow.” In case that sounds familiar, it is also my sermon title. I borrowed it from him. Dr. Schuller is 78 years old this year and he feels the best is yet to come for him, for his ministry, and for the Church of Jesus Christ in North America and around the world. He has what I would call an amazingly positive attitude and outlook. What about problems? Doesn't he have any? Yes he does. The Crystal Cathedral, like all Churches, has many problems — financial and otherwise. His wife, Arvella Schuller, has been quite ill these past few years. Last year she didn't appear at all. She wasn't well enough. This year she did and she spoke wonderfully. I was relieved to see her well again, but I know and she knows that once you get beyond your mid fifties, let alone your mid seventies — good health is not something you can count on. So why do they have such positive attitudes?
Listen again to this story of Jesus this time from Eugene Peterson's translation of the bible called the Message. “As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was preoccupied by all she had to do in the kitchen. Finally, she stepped in and interrupted them. “Master, she said, don't you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand.”
Jesus replied, “Martha, dear Martha, you are fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential and Mary has chosen it – it's the main thing and it won't be taken from her.” I have discovered over the years that there are more than a few women who feel that Martha at this point got a bum rap from Jesus. Why should Martha end up doing all the work while her lazy sister sits in the living room listening? I rather vividly recall one woman in a bible study I was leading saying, “If I had been there I would have said to my sister, “Hey, get your fat you-know-what into the kitchen and lend me a hand!”
Martha was a duty person — one who serves and gets things done. Mary was an inquisitive person — a thinker. She liked to learn. The truth is we need both types of people in this world to make it work. There is a time to serve. We all know that. But there also a time to inquire, to discover, to learn about why we do what we do. Jesus defended Mary for a reason. “Only one thing is essential,” he said. “Mary has chosen it and I am not going to take away from her.”
It is interesting that in the older version of the bible it reads that Martha was distracted by her many tasks. Can any of you here identify with that? Have you ever been distracted by all you have to get done? Have you got a to-do list, like my own, that just keeps growing? Does it distract you from more important things? Do you ever feel that your life gets so busy, you don't have time to stop? If so I have a suggestion. For the next 40 Days I invite you to be more like Mary and focus on why we believe what we believe, & why we do what we do and what our purpose here on earth is.
I began by asking why the Schullers are such positive people when they have as many problems in their lives as you and I do and easily as much stress — actually quite a bit more than any of us. The answer is that they like Mary consistently seek the purpose and will of God in their lives. How important is it to stop and do this? Well, are you aware that you will live on average 25,550 days. That's the number of days that the average person lives in North America — some more, some less. Don't you think it would be wise to take 40 of those days to think about what you should do with the rest of them? That is what we are planning to do here at Wall Street during the forty days of lent. We are all invited to read a book by Rick Warren entitled “The Purpose Driven Life.” Rick Warren is the senior pastor at the Saddleback Church in California. I was there at his Church with our group last Sunday evening. The Purpose Driven Life was what publishers call a sleeper. Rick had a few thousand copies published for a spiritual retreat for his own congregation. In case you are wondering his congregation numbers around 20,000 members. What happened to that book is amazing. People began reading it and telling their friends and neighbours. The last I heard is that 22 million copies have been sold world wide. Next to the bible it is the all time best seller in America. “Gone with the Wind” used to have that honour place. Not any more. The book people can't stop reading is “The Purpose Driven Life.”
Interview with Bre Wick You have read Rick Warren's book the Purpose Drive Life? How did it affect you? You are hosting a group in your home aren't you? Why? Why is it important to have a sense of meaning and purpose in life?
The big question is — What is life all about? It goes by at break neck speed. Rick Warren says he once saw a bumper sticker that said, “Life is too precious to waste.” The question is how do you keep from wasting your life? Rick suggests that we consider Ephesians 5: 15-17. The apostle Paul says
“Be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.”
“Be careful how you live.” What is the opposite of careful? It is careless, isn't it? Paul is saying don't be careless. The literal meaning here is don't stumble through life. Don't just drift along. Think about it. Know what you're here for. Know what your purpose is. And Paul adds, “make the most of every opportunity, be wise by trying to understand what God wants you to do.” The book of Proverbs in the Old Testament says the same thing in a more compact way — “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” It is from Proverbs 9:10, and that is how the older version reads. The more modern CEV versions reads “Respect and obey the Lord. This is the beginning of wisdom.” Which ever version you prefer, God is at the heart of the search for meaning. Starting next Sunday, for the 40 days of Lent, we're going to look at the five purposes of life that God has created us for. Each week you will be given a verse of scripture to memorize. That's right — memory work — do you remember doing that. Well it's time to try again. Lent this year is going to be an amazing journey and I invite you along.
I want to close with an old Hindu parable I read years ago. Once upon a time, a woman set out to discover the meaning of life. She began by reading everything she could get her hands on — history, philosophy, psychology. In time she became very knowledgeable. But nothing she read told her the meaning of life. No one seemed to know what it was. So she set out in search to find the meaning of life. She travelled all across India, but everywhere she went people told her they did not know the meaning of life. Finally she was told of a wise old holy man who would know the answer to her question. He lived in a tiny hut, high in the Himalayan mountains. It was a long climb. She was exhausted when she finally reached his hut. She called out to see if anyone was inside. “Yes?” said a kindly old man, looking out at her “Can I help you.”
“I have come,” she said, “seeking the meaning of life?"
“Please come in and have some tea,” the old man said.
“No, no,” she said. “I didn't come all this way for tea. I came for an answer. Please tell me the meaning of life?”
“First we will have tea,” the old man insisted, So she went inside. While he was brewing the tea she told him about all the books she had read, all the people she had met, all the places she had been. The old man listened quietly, which was just as well, since he would never have got a word in edgewise. As she talked on and on he placed a tea cup in her hand, and began to pour in the tea. She was so busy talking that she didn't notice when the tea cup was full. The old man just kept pouring. The tea ran over the sides of the cup and spilled onto the floor. “What are you doing?" she yelled. “Can't you see it's full? Stop! There's no more room!”
“Just so,” the old man said to her. "You came here wanting something from me, but what am I to do? There is no more room in your cup. Come back when it is empty and then we will talk.”
What this old parable and our gospel lesson both teach is that we need to seek the mysteries of life with open hands and open hearts. And we do need to seek God's will for us. It is only when we do that will find and be filled with the peace and love of God. I wish you a wonderful and blessed forty days. Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Alan Bennett
Wall Street United Church, Brockville, Ontario,
February 6, 2005.
Acts 3:1-10; Matthew 9:35-38
A friend of mine, who has recently passed away, used to say that when he heard a certain piece of classical music that he wished the Lord would return right then and take him home. He was so moved that he felt there couldn't be anything higher, brighter or better. He had reached the pinnacle of human emotion, and he might just as well go out on a high note. Unfortunately, that music wasn't playing when Earl died as a result of a car accident.
I can remember my own Dad, during the singing of an old gospel song. I would glance up at him through my youthful eyes of wonder and see a face that seemed to glow, as a tear trickled down his cheek. My Dad was moved by God's goodness, … but most of all, as I remember, God's grace. He was very much a “man”, … not “wimpy” in the least, but when he considered the love of God, the unconditional love of God, the grace of God that flowed so freely in Jesus, he was touched and he wasn't ashamed to let it show.
What moves you? What touches you at a level that creates an emotional response? We are so programmed in our culture to isolate and suppress emotions that sometimes we have difficulty reacting to anything. We intellectualize, rationalize, and often, as a result, find our emotional life compartmentalized. A bolted lock forbids a genuine release of feelings.
My impression of Jesus, as a man, was that He didn't have difficulty expressing emotions. Perhaps some of you have stumped others with the Biblical trivia question: “What is the shortest verse in the Bible?” Well, the shortest verse is “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35) On what occasion did He weep? As he stood by the tomb of his friend Lazarus.
I can also see tears in His eyes as He made his way over the crest of the hill as He moved towards Jerusalem when He says:
Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Your people have killed the prophets and have stoned the messengers who were sent to you. I have often wanted to gather your people, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you wouldn't let me. (Matthew 23:37, CEV)
Or, in the passage that Nancy read to us today where Jesus, seeing the crowds “ had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36b NIV) The crowds moved Jesus. The people that made up the crowds were “harassed”. Harassment comes from outside one's life: circumstances, other people, sickness, poverty, elements that are as fundamental as just where you happened to be born – things beyond one's control can “harass”. And then the sense of helplessness enters. “What can I do about this?” Apparently nothing. I'm helpless – and so I wander around like a “sheep without a shepherd.”
Just two weeks ago Elizabeth, from a mission whose parish is Nairobi's poor, took me on a tour of one of the slums where her mission has work. 1.5 million people live in Nairobi's slums, tucked away, out of sight behind opulent villas and the residences of the wealthy. It's convenient to be close to the rich people if you're poor, because if you're one of the very few fortunate enough to get a job, it probably will be in service to one of these homes.
What moved me about that experience? Looking back I think it was the group of young men that were drunk and staggering at 11 o'clock in the morning. Their huge respect for the youthful “Mother Theresa” kept me safe. Because I was associated with a Roman Catholic mission the residents of the slum thought I was a priest. They pestered me, a bit, wanting hand-outs. One rather beaten-up looking youth pleaded with me out of his own sense of harassment and helplessness:
“Father, … my father is dead and I don't know if my mother is alive. How can I get to Mombasa to find out?” Of course the translation is: “where can I find some money, which at this moment in my drunken melancholy I think might translate in a matatu trip to Mombasa, but which in reality will be used for Chang'ha the home brew that they make in the slums, some of which can end up being deadly methanol.
Without making excuses for self-destructive behaviour, I have to tell you I was moved. I am moved by the poverty. I am moved by the meager living conditions. I am moved by the smiles that radiate in spite of the conditions. But, I think most of all I am moved by despair, … the total helplessness, the purposelessness that has driven people of any age in Africa or in Canada, to miss out on being the people that God has made them to be.
It's only been within the last two years that free elementary education has become available for all in Kenya. Secondary education is still a user- pay situation, as is, of course, any higher education beyond that. Unemployment is huge, … statistics ranging from 40% and up. These young people that I encountered in the Masai, Suswa and Deep Sea slums had nowhere to go, nothing to do, and … as I said, without making excuses, I could understand where they were coming from. If life has no meaning, no purpose, …. Why not numb reality with drink and drugs?! And really, whether I'm standing at a Tim Horton's and people-watching - in and outside the shop, or walking the alleyways of Nairobi, there is nothing that grabs and twists my emotions more than seeing people who are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
I'm moved by the children of the world, who through no fault of their own have no parents. Helpless - innocent victims of decisions made by those who are either unable, or unwilling to accept the responsibility that having a child entails.
As a result of my trip a year ago a little charity, OK Kids – Our Kenyan Kids - was born, and nurtured, and grown here at Wall Street, and around, through friends who care about children. While I was in Kenya this last time we were able to expand its ministry to include Hope House Babies' Home. I was told that of the babies that have come into the home since it opened two years ago, two were rescued from open pit latrines! Despair! I don't approve, but I understand just a little bit. No excuse … but if you haven't got enough money to buy food, a little “ugali” for the children you already have, let alone yourself, if you're dying of AIDS and you believe your child has no future, no purpose …. Well …
What a pleasure it was to visit this Babies' home, run by two retired Christian women from the States, who are very certain of what their purpose is. At this home the ratio of adult to child is just a little over one to one. These abandoned babies, some living with HIV/AIDS, now really do have a future. Retroviral drugs are still rare, but are increasingly being made available for a fee, and the nurse from Texas, Susan, (who incidentally asked if I could find a Christian nurse to volunteer for 3 months to allow her to have her first vacation in two years) said that there have been several of the babies that have moved from HIV positive to negative status through medication, proper nutrition, and prayer – lots of prayer.
I was moved by what I saw at the Nairobi Children's Home. Last year we started the ball rolling with helping to change the ratio of “mother” to child. “Mother” is the name they give the child care workers. Back then it was 33 children to one adult. One year later, through the help of others, it is currently about 8 to 1. These others, including some organizations like Deloitte and Citibank have taken on sponsorships following our example. And, through the generosity of someone right here, we were able to add a third volunteer to our own OK Kids' tab. (Volunteers receiving an allowance sounds like a contradiction in terms. But, this is quite common in Kenya. Here we would probably call them “casual workers.”)
I was, and am moved by people who are willing to give of themselves, and of their privileged status in this part of the world to balance inequities, and give people a chance.
I am moved when I see the light of hope spring to a young man's face when I promise him that I will find the resources necessary for him to get his social worker's diploma. When I asked Catherine, the manager of the home if there was anything else that we could do, she suggested that young Samuel was really worthy of an opportunity. He had managed to finance his way through High School, had gotten decent grades, and would like nothing more than to study Social Work. I said that I was sure we could find the money, and on faith, promised him I would do it – and shook his hand as my personal guarantee. The first installment, on faith, went out a week ago. Samuel's life has purpose, and according to Catherine, his gifting from God is in line with what he feels called to do, and which we're now able to help him do. I am moved by that hope in his eyes.
Through a chance encounter with some officers with St. John Ambulance, I was given a tour of St. John House in Nairobi, and along with sitting in on a class for cadets, and having lunch with the CEO, and talks about links with Canada (maybe even Brockville) I met a man by the name of Thomas. Simon, my first contact with Nairobi's St. John Ambulance, had told me about the 50-some unpaid St. John volunteers that go out to the homes of those dying with AIDS, to bathe, assist with chores, and ease the dying process. Thomas is one of those. He had a strong grip, and I held it a little longer while I looked into his eyes and said: “It's not easy, is it.” He replied. “No. That's why your heart needs to be touched!” The heart. The seat of the emotions. In other words, “you need to be moved!”
In Kenya alone there have been 1.5 million people die so far with HIV/AIDS. Of the 20 million who are infected with AIDS world-wide, 80% are in Africa. In Kenya, where the population is the size of Canada's, about 33 million, the 1.7 million AIDS orphans are projected to increase to 1.9 million in the next two years, according to a clipping I have from one of the Kenyan newspapers. Someone told me, or I read, that 80% of all Kenyan hospital beds are occupied by AIDS sufferers.
I am moved by the overwhelming multitudes of those that are harassed by this disease that has swept over them in the Tsunami of all epidemics, leaving them helpless. And none more helpless than the children who didn't ask to be born in the first place, and who deserve an opportunity to be loved, to be nurtured, and to find their purpose for having been born! We know that in spite of the fact that they have been abandoned, left alone because of their parents' deaths, with in many cases grandparents (as I read in another article) unable to care for them, that God doesn't abandon even one of them. A Heavenly Parent's heart is moved. I believe, deeply moved.
Because of who Jesus was - completely human as well as being “in the beginning … with God, … and was God”, (as we read in the first chapter of John), we get a picture of God's heart in the way Jesus reacts to people. So, … when we read the King James' translation of the passage Nancy read to us, we hear that when Jesus saw the multitudes He “was “moved with compassion.” That's the view we have of God's heart.
Peter and John were moved, as they walked up to the temple at the hour of prayer. Moved by? Moved by the plight of a man harassed by his inability to walk, leaving him needing others to carry him daily to the Gate that was called Beautiful. And what did this emotional response to a need involve? Action! Peter said: “I don't have any silver or gold! But I will give you what I do have.” And what was that? The healing that would give the man an opportunity to defeat his harassment, banish his helplessness, and give him the opportunity to discover his purpose for being alive.
I've shared a little of what moves me. We've seen what moved our Lord, the multitudes without purpose, like sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless. Now, I want to tread on sensitive ground, and ask you: “what really moves you?” What takes your heart and twists it a level that is deeper than tears? I know that the Rev. Earl Smith's “take-me-home-Lord” pinnacle of emotional response to superb classical music wasn't what moved him most deeply. As some of you know, he served the church across the Green back in the 50's. In very deep moments of sharing he would tell me how moved he was by the possibility that his preaching of the gospel could offer hope to someone who had none.
My Dad's response to God's grace was more than a tear running down his cheek with the singing of an old gospel song. He devoted his life, beyond (and including) his business life, to making sure that the equivalent of our Mission and Service Fund was healthy. He was the Missionary Board treasurer for our church for something like 30 years.
So … you know a little bit about what moves me. You? What moves you? Are you easily moved? Or, have the years built calluses around that organ of feeling, your heart, desensitizing, dulling the call of the multitudes who are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Just as Peter and John who actually did something about what moved them … and with the supreme example being Jesus, Himself, who gave His life for the multitudes (which, incidentally includes you and me) … you'll be able to gage what it is - the depth and the extent of what it is that moves you by what you're doing about it.
Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision, prayed: “Let my heart be broken by those things that break the heart of God.” And, you know the answer to that prayer.
My prayer is that this “Church on the Move”, Wall Street United Church, … which is you and me … may be moved by what God's heart is moved by, and that the world - from Tim Horton's on King St. to the Masai slum in Nairobi - will know what moves us by what we do about it. Amen!
Wall Street United Church
A message by Doug Warren
Sunday, Jan 30, 2005
Luke 7: 11 –23 John 11: 25-26
A number of years ago I read this compelling story about a young farmer in Minnesota. The day it happened the young man was tilling manure into a field using a tractor pulling a disc plough. The tractor was an old one that moved at exactly five miles an hour. He was bored. It was a warm day and he kept yawning. He had been up late at a party the night before. As the tractor slowly moved ahead he started day dreaming about being something, anything, other than a farmer. He was tired of farming and tired of working for his father.
His head kept nodding and finally he dozed off at the wheel and fell asleep. The inevitable happened — he fell off the tractor backwards. He awoke as he fell landing between the tractor and the churning discs. He grabbed the tow bar and pulled himself up as far as he could. The tractor was an old model with a throttle lever that notched into place and so even though there was no driver at the wheel it just kept going. The young man hung on for dear life watching the steel discs chewing up the ground just a few feet behind him. He was literally being dragged through the dirt and the manure. He was losing strength. He couldn't hang on for long. He didn't even have the strength to shout for help and anyway there was no one to hear him. He just desperately held on.
The tractor finally reached the end of the field travelled up an incline, hit a tree and stopped. Its wheels were still spinning as he inched out from underneath and suddenly realized that he was still alive. It took him ten minutes just sitting there shaking all over before he was able to stand up and turn off the tractor. The entire episode lasted no more than twelve minutes by the clock. But it was an event that changed his life forever. It seemed to him that he had lost his life and suddenly received it back again. He found himself looking around at the farm, at the good earth, at life around him, with a vastly new perspective.
I personally have never been in the position of having almost lost my life and suddenly receive it back again. But I know that a number of you in this Church have. You have told me that when life is returned as a gift — things look very different. Things around you which you took for granted — the sky, green grass, children laughing — suddenly are quite beautiful. When suddenly you are given back life, a deep and eternal gratitude wells up within you. It is a chance to begin again. It is a chance to live again. Our gospel story is about a chance to live again. Traditionally it's called the story of the Widow of Nain. It is not a well known passage and not often preached on. I don't think I have heard a sermon preached on this text. It could be called the story of a near death experience, but I would rather call it the story of a new life experience.
Nain was a small village south of Nazareth. Jesus was passing through it when he was stopped by a funeral procession. It was a sad situation. A young man, the only son of a widowed mother, had died. They were on their way to bury him. Everyone was weeping. Virgil the great Roman poet once wrote in the nature of things we live in a world of broken hearts — “sunt lacrimae rerum.” He was right.
This was the situation facing an unknown woman who had lost first her husband and now her son. It was at this point that Jesus walked into her life. It was not planned. It just happened — as is so often the case. More often than not people are greatly surprised when Jesus walks into their life. Suddenly just when they needed him most, he was there.
We read that Jesus' heart overflowed with compassion. The word compassion means to suffer with another. 'Cum' a Latin word means 'with,' and 'passion' actually means 'suffering.' Put the two together and you have — compassion. It can happen only when you enter into and feel the pain of another and care about it deeply. A huge number of Canadians have showed compassion for the victims of the Tsunami in Asia. I think we have all been deeply touched by what happened there. Compassion is a very human emotion — and a very Christian emotion. We read in place after place how Jesus had compassion for others. I think the simplest reason I can give you why we should have compassion for others is that Jesus did. He did and so should we.
In the story, he went up to the stretcher and touched it. Everything stopped. Jews never did a thing like that. It made one ritually unclean. Jesus did it anyway. “Stop crying,” he said. And then he spoke to the man they were planning to bury. “Young man, get up!” And he did. Jesus gave him back to his mother. Was the young man actually dead? Was he perhaps only in a coma? I have read silly arguments about this. I really don't care. One thing is clear: they were about to bury a young man, when Jesus stopped them and poured life back into him. We read that the crowd were astonished and afraid. They had never seen anything like this before. What this story is telling us is that in Christ there is always life — in all its fullness. Life is living with God now and forever. Life with God in Christ goes far beyond this present material time of flesh and blood in which we now dwell. Life is being with God in Christ now and forever. Its opposite — death — is living without God whether now or in the time to come. I say this because God is life — God is the source of all life. His love and energy like the sun above gives life. Without our sun this planet would be a cold, lifeless, chunk of ice. Because of the warmth of the sun, it is a place full of life. God is the source of that warm sun and all the life that springs from it.
Let me close with this. Just before the turn of the Millennium, Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper was unveiled once more to the public in Rome.
Leonardo da Vinci painted his Last Supper in 1497. That was 500 years ago — just five years after Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. It took eight million dollars and twenty years to remove five hundred years of gunk that was obscuring the original work. Today, for the first time in five hundred years, we can see it the way da Vinci created it.
In a way we are all a bit like a da Vinci painting. There is very real and wondrous beauty in every human being, in every child, created by God. But as the years go by our hearts get covered by layers of trouble, of fear, of worry, of hurt, of cynicism, and of sin. And because we see God with our hearts, not our eyes, these layers can keep us from living life with joy. How do you peel them back? How do you restore a heart?
The answer is — turn to Jesus and let him do it. He is good at it. Having Jesus in your heart allows you to experience life not just as a burden but as a gift, a thing of wonder and a thing of joy. If need be, it allows you to start over. It gives you fresh eyes to see the beauty of life around you and to know that every day, and I mean every day, is a precious and beautiful gift of God. So use them well. Thanks be to God. Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Alan Bennett
Wall Street United Church, Brockville ON
January 16, 2005
1 Corinthians 12: 12-27
ACTS International is an American group that tries to bridge the gap between the church and the non-church community. This story came from them.
“My brother Kevin thinks God lives under his bed. At least that's what I heard him say the other night as he was saying his prayers at bedtime. I stopped to listen outside his door and heard him talking to God under his bed. I chuckled to myself and tiptoed off to my own room. Still that night helped me realize the different world Kevin lives in. You see Kevin was born 30 years ago. He is a mentally disabled adult as a result of difficulties during labor. Apart from his 6'2” frame there is virtually no way in which he functions as an adult. He reasons and communicates at the level of a 7 year-old and he always will. He will likely always believe that God lives under his bed and that Santa brings gifts at Christmas time.
Kevin's life is simple. Each day he rises early to go to a job at a workshop for disabled adults. When he comes home he walks the dog and just loves macaroni and cheese for dinner. It's his very favorite dish. He does not know what it means to be discontent. He will never know the entanglements of wealth, ambition, or power. He does not care what brand of clothing he wears. He sees no differences in people — treating everyone equally as a friend. His needs have always been met and he never worries that one day they may not be.
Kevin is never so happy as when he is working. When he is unloading the dishwasher or vacuuming the carpet, his heart is completely in it. He often sings while he works. He never puts off doing anything, and once he begins a task he does not quit until it is finished. And when his jobs are all done he knows how to relax.
Kevin's heart is pure. He believes that everyone tells the truth, that promises must be kept and when you are wrong you must apologize and not argue about it. Kevin is not afraid to cry when he is hurt or sorry. He is so transparent and sincere. He trusts God and comes to God as a child, just the way Jesus said we should. In fact Kevin seems to be friends with God. To him God is a close companion. The more I observe his relationship with God the more I am certain that he has some kind of divine connection to the Almighty that I will never have. And it is at such times that I wonder if perhaps Kevin is not the one with the handicap. Perhaps it's me."
In his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 12, the apostle Paul wrote: “The body of Christ has many different parts, just as any other body does. Some of us are Jews and others are Gentiles. Some of us are slaves and others are free. God's Spirit baptized each of us and made us part of the body of Christ. Now we each drink from that same Spirit. Together we are the body of Christ. Each one of us is part of his body.”
Kevin in the story knows that he belongs. He belongs to a family and he belongs to God. He understands belonging to the body of Christ in a very direct and very simple way. It is something we all need to know —how to belong. One of the more haunting songs about belonging comes from Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's musical “Westside Story,” The song is called “Somewhere.” In the musical two young people fall very much in love. But they come from different families with different ethnic backgrounds that are almost at war with each other. They are told that they must not see each other, that they don't belong together. Suspicion and hate separates their families. In despair the young girl sings:
“There's a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us.
Peace and quiet and open air wait for us
…Somewhere.”
In the musical they never find that place. The hate is too strong. It is a sad story.
We all have a deep need to belong. We need a family, a people and a place to call our own. Part of what has made the recent news footage from the Asian Tsunami so upsetting has been the pictures of orphaned children who no longer have a family to belong to. For most of us it is our biological family that gives us our primary sense of belonging — our parents, our brothers and sisters, our children and our grandchildren. Yet it is amazing how often biological families don't work for us. They can be quite dysfunctional. I mean, how many brothers and sisters do you know who are not even on speaking terms?
When I was a young minister there were two sisters in my congregation. Both came to Church every Sunday. One sat downstairs and the other up in the balcony. Shortly after I arrived I learned that the two had not spoken to each other in over twenty years. I was young and naïve and thought I could solve the problem — whatever it was. I went back and forth visiting the two trying to affect a reconciliation. The issue was 'words' that had been spoken years before. Both blamed the other. But the harder I tried, the less it worked. About the only thing I achieved was that in time both got mad at me. When I left five years later they were still not speaking to each other. And I had learned it is often unwise to get into the middle of things.
Yet Paul says to us, we are part of a body — the body of Christ. Regardless of how healthy our biological families may, or may not be, we still belong and have a place. We belong to Christ, and we belong to each other. What does this mean? Let me suggest a few things.
First a body, any body, is a living entity. Things that are alive must be fed and nourished and cared for or they die. We often make the mistake of viewing the church as a corporation, a business, an organization and try to treat it as such. And, of course, there are parallels between a Church and any other organization. Sometimes things that work in industry can be applied to a Church and help it be more effective. But we always need to remember that we are a living organism. We are not simply an organization.
Second, things that are alive are always changing. Only inanimate things never change. Living bodies always change — people, animals, plants. They change physically as they age. They can be fit and well, or quite ill. All living things are like that. One key thing that all living bodies especially need is love. Children, adults, dogs, cats, birds — all respond to love. Do you know that studies have shown that even plants respond to love. People who love their plants actually talk to them. And they are the ones with so called green thumbs.
What does this mean for us as members of a Christian Church — Wall Street United? It means to remain healthy we will always need to be spiritually nourished. We will never arrive. We will never have enough and be able to coast. It means we need to love each other — no easy task because there will always be some members you don't like. Still, more than anything, we need lots of love in this place. Remember, we are all part of each other. And those who seem different or difficult need special care. There are some in every Church. I call them the E. G. R. people — Extra Grace Required.
Let me close with this. My sister who lives in Calgary has been on a kidney dialysis machine for many years. At the end of this past November, she received a new kidney transplant. What happens is a kidney is taken from a donor and placed in ice. It is then shipped to the hospital to be placed in a waiting patient — in this case my sister. We are talking major surgery here, not minor. What happens next? For close to a week usually almost nothing. It is an agonizing wait to see if the kidney will start functioning again, and watching for signs of rejection. Why is it so difficult? Well the kidney is in a state of shock. It has been placed back in a warm body, is being nourished again and it has to decide whether or not to start working. It has to be nursed and encouraged. It is a very delicate process.
Christians are not unlike kidneys. Cut off from a warm body — no Spiritual growth is possible. We cannot survive as Christians on our own. We need to be part of a warm loving body. If we do this, if we all seek to be the best part of Christ's body that we can be, this Church will be healthy and will grow. And so will you. You will grow and be healthy in Christ's Spirit. Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Alan Bennett,
Wall Street United Church, Brockville ON
January 9, 2005
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15 ; Revelation 21: 1-7
Let me tell you a story about Jack Bennett – no relation. The story may or may not be true. But if it is just a story, it certainly could be a true one.
In the rush of a very busy life as CEO of a company Jack Bennett often had little time to spend with his wife and son. He was building a career. The future lay ahead of him and that was his goal. His secretary put through a call from his mother. “Mr. Belser died last night,” his mother told him. “The funeral is Wednesday." Memories flashed through Jack's mind like a video screen as he remembered Mr. Belser and his own childhood.
“Jack, did you hear me?”
“Oh sorry, Mom, yes, I heard you.” Jack said. “It's been so long since I thought of him. I didn't know he was still alive. I guess I thought he had died years ago.”
“Well, he didn't, and he never forgot you Jack. Every time I saw him he would ask after you – how you were doing. He'd talk about the time you spent over on his side of the fence, as he always put it, You know, Jack,” she went on, “after your father died, it was Mr. Belser who did his best to make sure you had a man's influence in your life,”
“Yea, I remember,” said Jack. “He taught me carpentry. I don't think I would be in this business, if it wasn't for him. He taught me a lot of things. I used to love that old house he lived in. Mom, I'll be there for the funeral,” Jack said.
As busy as Jack Bennett was, he kept his word. He caught the next flight to his hometown. Mr. Belser's funeral turned out to be small and uneventful. He had no children of his own, and most of his relatives had passed away. The night before he had to fly home, Jack and his Mom stopped in to see Mr. Belser's house next door. Jack wanted to see it one more time. Mr. Belser's nephew had given them the key.
Jack paused in the doorway. It was like stepping back into time. The house was exactly as he remembered it. Every step held memories. Every picture, every piece of furniture was just the same as when he was a child. Jack suddenly paused.
“What's wrong?” his Mom asked.
“The box is gone,” he said.
“What box?” his Mother asked.
“There used to be a small gold box on top of his desk. I used to ask him what was inside. All he'd ever tell me was 'it's the thing I value most.' I guess Mr. Belser's nephew must have taken it,” Jack said, almost to himself. And louder, “I wonder what was so valuable to him,”
“We better go,” said his mother. “You have an early flight to catch.”
It was over a month after Mr. Belser funeral that Jack got a card in his mailbox from the Post Office. “Signature required on a package. Please stop by the main post office within the next three days.” Early the next day Jack retrieved the package. The outer wrapping proved to be from Mr. Belser's nephew. A note said that his uncle wanted Jack to have it. 'It' was small cardboard box that looked old. There was handwriting on the outside that was difficult to read. It was signed, Harold Belser. Jack felt his heart beat faster as he read. “Upon my death, please forward this box and its contents to Jack Bennett. I want him to know the thing I valued most in my life.” Jack carefully opened the package. Inside was the gold box he had remembered and wondered about. A small key was taped to the lid. His heart racing, Jack unlocked the box. There inside was a beautiful old gold pocket watch. He ran his fingers slowly over the finely etched casing. Then he unlatched the cover. Inside he found engraved these words: “Jack, this is to thank you for your time! – Harold Belser.” Jack's hands shook as he read it, and the tears began to flow. The thing Harold Belser had valued most in life was the gift of his time – the very thing Jack Bennett had withheld for so many years. He was always too busy. Somehow it didn't seem like a very good excuse now.
From that time on Jack Bennett kept Mr. Belser's watch on his desk. He did so to remind him of the one thing that was priceless – the gift of time. Like Ebenezer Scrooge of old, Jack Bennett had experienced an epiphany, an awakening, a change of heart. From that day on somehow he always managed to find time for his wife and his son. Next came his wider family and his friends. His favourite saying became, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away.”
This morning I want to say three things about time. First, time is the most precious gift any of us have to offer. Time is our most precious gift because we only have a set amount of it. We can make more money, we can make more machinery, we can make more noise, we can make more houses and cars – but the one thing we cannot make more of is time. We cannot make even a single second more of it. And once used it never returns. This means when you give someone your time you are giving them a portion of your life. Your time is your life. When you give your time you are making a sacrifice, and the essence of sacrifice is love. So it is that the best way to spell time is “L O V E.”
So a question for you to ponder. To whom will you give your greatest gift this year? And from whom have you been withholding it? As you think of your answer do not forget God. He is One from who many withhold their greatest gift. We say we are too busy.
The second thing I want to say about time comes from our lesson in Ecclesiastes. Solomon the writer says “for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
What was Solomon saying? He was saying, take care to find a balance in life. Truly there is a time and place for everything that is important. This includes your family and your friends. It includes time for fun and relaxation. It includes caring for others. It includes making time for God in your life. The ancient Greek philosophers used to say “do nothing to excess – be balanced.” They were right.
The third thing about time comes from our lesson in the book of Revelation – the very last book in the bible. “And the one who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new! And he said to me, 'Write this down, what I tell you is trustworthy and true.' And he said, "It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega – the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I give springs of living water without charge! And I will be their God, and they will be my children.”
Only in and by the power of Jesus Christ can our lives be renewed and start over. When he says, “I make all things new,” – that includes you and me. Not the outside, but the inside our spirits are renewed day by day in Christ Jesus. Not only that but He is the Alpha and the Omega – the beginning and the end. Only God in Christ stands above time. Time is part of creation. It does not affect God. That is why in God we can and we will live forever, free of those things which bind and limit us today. The bible says, “to be free in Christ is to be free indeed” – free from sin and sorrow, pain, and loss. He did it for us on the cross. It's true, and it's absolutely wonderful!
So it is I invite you to look forward to 2005 – a new year full of possibilities. What ever lies ahead, whatever joys, whatever sorrows, whatever storms, with Christ in our midst we can laugh, and live, and love, and cry in his wonderful name. So happy new year. Amen
The Reverend Dr. Alan Bennett
Wall Street United Church, Brockville On
January 2, 2005.
Matthew 1: 18-25
On September 8, 1966 (nearly 40 years ago) the first episode of Star Trek appeared on NBC, with William Shatner as Captain Kirk, and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. The series lasted for just three seasons and then was pulled because of poor ratings – hard to believe when you consider how popular the series became. Everyone knows the motto of the Star Ship Enterprise was to “To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Subsequent generations have kept the motto albeit changed to “To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before.”
It is a motto that seemed to me to fit the story of Joseph the father of Jesus. It is a story of doing what God asks of us, not because it is easy, but because it is God's will – the right thing to do. It is a story of boldly going where no man had gone before.
Who was Joseph? None of the four gospels tells us much about him. We know that he was a carpenter. Tradition says that he was quite a bit older than Mary, and that he died while Jesus was still a boy. But of all this, the gospels are silent. The gospel of Mark does not mention him by name at all. In the gospel of John the only reference to him was to say that Jesus was 'the son of Joseph.' He does get mentioned by Luke but Mary is much more prominent. It is only in Matthew's gospel that we learn about the birth of Jesus from Joseph's point of view.
Matthew tells us that Joseph was engaged or betrothed to Mary. In ancient Israel the marriage ceremony had two parts to it. The first part, the engagement or the betrothal, was actually the legal part of the ceremony. The contract was drawn up. Vows were made before the Rabbi and letters were signed. The couple was formally bound to each other. Yet they did not live together. That was part two – the celebration part.
Before this could happen the husband was expected to build a house for his bride to live in, to establish himself and get his affairs in order. It takes an income to live and pay bills. The bride for her part had to get her trousseau ready. And during this preparation time both were given advice that amounted to pre-marriage counseling by wiser older members of the family – aunts and uncles. Once the preparation time was done, and it could take a year or more (it was up to the two families to agree that the couple were ready) then the groom came to fetch his bride. He arrived at the peak of a two or three day party. He brought his bride home, and they now lived together as husband and wife.
Joseph and Mary had not made it to that point. They were still at the in between stage. It is important to understand, however, that although they were not living together the marriage was still considered to be a done deal. If one of them, for example, was found to have had sex with someone else, it was considered adultery – the punishment for which was death by stoning.
Try then to imagine the feelings of Joseph, betrothed to Mary, when she told him that she was pregnant. One thing Joseph knew – it was not by him. Is it any wonder he spent a few restless nights? What would have been his thoughts? Did he feel betrayed? Was he hurt and angry? Most men would have been. “How could she do this to me?” What should he do? According to Matthew Joseph was a “righteous man,” which means he loved God and loved God's law. Tradition says he loved Mary. What should he do? The Law gave him two options. The first option would be to bring a charge against her in public. This would mean accusing her of adultery. If found guilty she might be stoned to death. Death by stoning was actually rare, but it did happen. The second option was to divorce Mary privately. In the presence of two witnesses, Joseph could write out a paper of divorce and present it to her. This would not involve pressing charges, and Joseph could get on with his life. This was the option he decided to take, which says much about him. He was clearly a caring and compassionate man.
Did Joseph spend a few sleepless nights, at this point in his life? I suspect so. I can see him tossing and turning on his bed – troubled, praying, wanting to do the right thing. And when he finally manages to fall asleep, he has a dream. In the dream an angel tells him, “not to be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child in her is of the Holy Spirit.” What would you do if you had such a dream? If you think about it, God's entire plan for salvation depended at this point on Joseph. If he believed the angel and took Mary for his wife, God's plan could continue. If he did not believe, then everything would stop. You see it took two parents to give birth to this remarkable child: Mary to give him life and Joseph to give him a name – “Jesus, son of David,” from whose lineage the Messiah would come.
One thing I know of parenting. Fathers are important. All studies show that it is absolutely true. A father's influence on a child is enormous. There is no substitute for a faithful and caring father. I believe part of the reason why Jesus' special word for God was his “heavenly father,” was due of the love and caring that he saw and felt in Joseph as a young child.
The simple truth is that Joseph was a good man who found himself in a quandary that he had neither chosen nor caused. He could have walked away. He didn't. He trusted that somehow God would see him through and he walked forward in faith to boldly go where no one had ever gone before.
What I want you to think about this morning is this. In the Christmas story Joseph is more like you and me than any of the characters. He was presented with a circumstance beyond his control but heard a voice whisper: “don't be afraid. God is with you.” It is the same with us. For God's plan to work in our lives, and in the life of this Church it requires of us to be willing to believe the impossible. It requires faith and trust that if God is calling us to go forward, to make changes, to put our lives together, to build up our Church we can do it. We can walk forward without knowing where it is all going to end. This is the key you see. We are all willing to trust as long as we can have a money back guarantee that it is all going to be wonderful. Faith is very different. Faith is trusting that God is with you. You are not alone. Faith is the willingness to walk forward in the midst of stress and worry not knowing the outcome only that we are going where God wants us to go.
The Christmas story in Matthew ends this way. “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him; he took Mary as his wife, but had no relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.” Because he trusted God, the baby grew to be a man who changed you and me, and the entire world. Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Alan Bennett,
Wall Street United Church, Brockville ON
December 26, 2004
Psalm 16:11; Colossians 1:10-12; Luke 6:20-22
This may surprise some of you. Not everyone enjoys this time of year! In fact it may really surprise you as to how many do not look forward to Christmas, and can hardly wait until all the “folderol” finishes. For some, perhaps it's just a low-grade depression that seeps in, keeping lock-step with shorter days, gloomier skies, and a drab landscape (at least until the last couple of days). SAD – Solar Affective Disorder is a very real phenomenon.
For others it is more serious than that.
While I was doing my “rancher routine” out West, I was constantly looking for help with managing the stables. A friend of mine who raised race horses came to me one day and asked if I would consider having an East German immigrant, a veterinarian, look after the stables, for free. Well, not exactly for free. I had to supply him room and board, and two packages of cigarettes, per week. That would be his pay.
Well, that seemed like a “no brainer.” How many piano-playing Appaloosa breeders could afford to have a vet mucking out stalls, all the while with a trained eye looking out for the health and well-being of the animals? But that wasn't all. I had to understand, my friend Heidi told me, that when this man's savings ran out, he had decided he was going to take his life. His wife had left him for another woman. He had been having a terrible time getting his East German credentials recognized by the Canadian government. Along with the history of hardship in East Berlin prior to the falling of the Wall, and now in Canada his career having been relegated to inspecting dead carcasses in a meat packing plant, the joy of life had drained right out. He had “rationally” decided that he would “pull the plug” when his savings dried up. The selling of his Volkswagen would be his last act, leaving money for a burial. In the meantime, he had to have a place to live and something to do.
Well, Ekhardt did come on board at Saggittaur Stables. And he spent several years with me, growing more and more content, enjoying the management of the stables, and in his spare time training a young Thoroughbred filly in dressage movements. It's a long story, but just so you know: he did not sell his Volkswagen. He did not commit suicide. He started corresponding with a former girlfriend in Germany. She came to visit. He re-married. His papers eventually came through, and he was able to land a real vet job up in the Yukon, … and I lost my stable hand.
But … the point of this story is how deeply “down” Eckhardt became as Christmas got nearer. He withdrew almost to the point where I didn't recognize him. And of course, looking back, I realize I exacerbated his depression by my manic antics over Christmas. The 110 foot stable, the house, the trees were all lit up. There was a glow in the sky that could be seen for several Alberta miles! And parties, and festivities, and extravagant gifting. That was Christmas! Ekhardt would retreat to his little cottage. But even then the little staff house was bathed in the glow of my Christmas exuberance. There was just no escape. If there is a German equivalent of “bah, humbug!” I'm sure the air in his abode was filled with those phrases!
Looking back, I also understand me in that setting. Both my parents were alive. I was young, healthy. Although there had been some loss in my life, I had been able to bounce back. My relationships were satisfying. I was in love. I was doing what I wanted to do, both at home and work. I believed that Christmas was a wonderful release for the pressure of my pent-up need to celebrate my thanks to God, to Jesus for coming as a Baby, for people who loved me (and whom I loved), for horses, for German Shepherds, for the Rocky Mountains, for freedom, and … bubble, bubble, bubble. I loved it! I loved it!! I was so full of “joy” that I could hardly contain myself. Or, was I full of joy?
From this vantage point almost 30 years later, many losses later, I'm not so sure. I think back then that I was extremely happy. I can't remember that I had to force the Season. It just built up, and up, and up … around the ranch, and at the hotel Dining Room where I worked with all its festive decorations, and sometimes “too festive” upper crust clients … but was I full of joy? Where is the dividing line between happiness and joy? Are they really one and the same? Or is joy a matter of knowing that all is well in the midst of tough times, without necessarily having the “happy, happy” feeling all the time? Is this the “joy” that Paul was talking about when he said:
We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul – not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy …. Colossians 1:11, The Message
Or, the words of Jesus when He said:
You're blessed when the tears flow freely. Joy comes with the morning. Luke 6:21b The Message
In the Synonym Antonym Dictionary, “happiness” isn't noted as an equivalent word for “joy.” For some reason (and I haven't found anyone to substantiate this innate feeling) it seems to me that “joy” is at a different level than where we find “happiness”. In Webster's the first definition of the meaning of joy is:
1 a : “the emotion evoked by well-being …”
… or, as I would paraphrase, “knowing that even in unhappiness, in the midst of lovers leaving, job dissatisfaction or loss, financial dilemma, death of parents or partners, sickness or infirmity, intense loneliness, rejection, being misunderstood, … actually knowing that all will be well, all will truly be well, is what “joy” is all about. When we sing “joy to the world the Lord is come” we have to remember that God knew what kind of an Earth He was coming to in Jesus. It wasn't a joy-filled place. “Well-being” was not an operative phrase to describe the human condition. This precisely is the very reason Jesus had to emerge on the scene.
Yes, Christmas is about His coming as a baby, glamorized into a festival that has enchanted generations with its mystery, the mystery of God becoming human – the mystery that lies at a much deeper level than the twinkling lights and the hoopla that get some of us “down”. You know, much of what gets us down was co-opted from the pagan Roman festival of Saturnalia. Merriam-Webster describes Saturnalia as “an unrestrained often licentious celebration: … EXCESS, EXTRAVAGANCE”. Sound familiar? I guess I would have to say that was a pretty good self-portrait over some Christmases of my life. Now I have come to believe that this time of year can be the opportunity to move past the superficial “happy, happy, happy” and allow God to touch us at that level where we know that no matter what happens, we can say with the Psalmist:
“In Your presence is fullness of joy …”
Jesus, Man of Joy! That is the phrase that describes how Bruce Marchiano plays Jesus in the film The Gospel of Matthew. In his book, In The Footsteps of Jesus, the story of how Bruce played Jesus as a man of joy, he describes how the Director “with the confidence of a man who knows the prompting of the Holy Spirit and trusts the Word of God, … leaned over the table, looked (Bruce) full in the eye and said:
Bruce, I have one word for you: joy. He (Jesus) was anointed with the oil of joy, and that's what set Him apart from everyone else – Bruce, I believe that's what the Lord wants us to do in Matthew – to present Jesus as a Man of Joy. i
Bruce struggled with that concept. A little girl helped, though, when finding out about his new role in this movie said “Well, I sure hope he smiles a lot because Jesus in the other Jesus movies never smiled, and I know that Jesus smiles all the time.” Bruce comments: “What's that line about wisdom from the mouths of babes?”
Finally, Bruce felt that the Director's concept was one he could fill – and that process is a story in itself. As he studied for his part, word for word from the NIV translation of the Gospel of Matthew he says:
“Jesus began jumping off the page at me … His realness and strength, the sparkle in His eyes, the spring in His gait, the heartiness in His laugh, the genuineness of His touch; His passion, playfulness, excitement and vitality: His JOY!
Yes, Jesus smiled; yes, Jesus laughed. Jesus smiled bigger and laughed heartier than any human being who has ever walked the planet. It's been a revelation to a lot of people in and out of the church, their eyes opening wide after lifetimes of misunderstanding the Lord to be an aloof, pious, and sanctimonious figure.”ii
One of the most talked about scenes in the film is that of Jesus healing a leper. The interpretation of this scene has been, as Bruce says, “such a source of blessing in people's lives (that) it blows me away.” He goes on to say “I'm also sad to report that some – thankfully very few – have chosen to take offense to it. That tears my heart out, (he says) because the scene was no clever creation, but conceived of the Holy Spirit.” Here is a snapshot of the scene:
“As it goes, Jesus and His disciples are coursing along a dusty byway, fresh from the Sermon on The Mount, and a man with leprosy approaches. “Lord if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Overcome with shame and fear, the poor guy cowers, hiding his diseased face. The crowd disperses in repulsion, but Jesus kneels in the dirt with him, lifting his chin to look into his face.
Brokenhearted, Jesus responds, “I am willing. Be clean.” He pulls away the leper's bandages, only to reveal a fresh face – a new man. Realizing what's happened, the man jumps to his feet and explodes in celebration, running wildly through the gasping onlookers.
Suddenly he remembers Jesus – the source of his new life – still kneeling in the dirt. He turns and rushes Him, throwing himself into Jesus' welcome embrace in a magnificent display of unbridled thanksgiving. He knocks Jesus to the ground, smothering Him in affection. The two rejoice together in a roar of laughter. Jesus straightens for a few words, only to be knocked to the ground again in a second explosion of gratitude.”iii
Broken lives, broken health, broken dreams … turned into rolling- around-on-the-ground JOY! Jesus, Man of Joy! The Source of real, well-being-JOY! Not a superficial happiness that is dependent on external circumstances! Joy that in spite of those circumstances bubbles through. We can't find that kind of joy anywhere else. We can't generate it, no matter how hard we try. It is too much of a job, … a job beyond our capabilities.
Some of you may be saying: “but I have turned my problems over to God, and I still don't feel anything. I'm like the leper – I've told Jesus that I know that if He's willing He can do something … but I haven't heard or felt His “I am willing” response. Well, here's a word of advice from some of my favourite gospel artists, the Gaithers, who sang:
If you've knelt beside the rubble of an aching broken heart
When the things you gave your life to fell apart;
You're not the first to be acquainted with sorrow, grief, or pain
But the Master promised sunshine after rain.
To invest your seed of trust in God in mountains you can't move
You have risked your life on things you cannot prove.
But to give the things you cannot keep for what you cannot lose,
Is the way to find the joy God has for you.
…. And then the chorus, taken from the words of Jesus we heard Don read to us earlier:
Hold on, my child, joy comes in the morning,
Weeping only lasts for the night;
Hold on, my child, joy comes in the morning,
The darkest hour means dawn is just in sight.iv
Today, Advent 3, we lit the candle of Joy. My deepest prayer for you, … and for me … is that we will allow the Joy of the Man of Joy, Jesus Himself, to fill our lives, … at the deepest level infusing us with the reality that all will be well, … all will truly be well. There's no better day than today, the day we've been invited to gather at His table, for us to quit trying to generate something that we're humanly incapable of generating. A great day to “let go, and let God.” Amen!
i Bruce Marchiano, “In The Footsteps of Jesus: One Man's Journey Through The Life of Christ” (Eugene Ore: Harvest House Publishers, 1997.) p. 73
ii Ibid, p.77
iii Ibid p. 81
iv William J and Gloria Gaither, “Joy Comes In The Morning” Gaither Music Company © 1974
Wall Street United Church
A message by Doug Warren
ADVENT 3, Dec. 12, 2004
Luke 1: 5-22
Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was a priest. In ancient Israel there was only one way to become a priest and that was by birth. One had to be a descendant of Aaron to be part of the Levitical priesthood. The problem was that there were too many descendants of Aaron – more priests than were required to serve the Temple in Jerusalem. So they had been divided into 24 sections or divisions. Each division served for one week, twice a year. Zechariah was part of the division of Abijah. His group was on duty that week in the Temple. Twice a day, after the morning and evening sacrifices, fresh incense was burned on the altar. Since there were more than a thousand priests in every division the practice was to cast lots to see who would get to do this honoured task. The odds were that most would never get the chance in their entire life.
So for Zechariah this was likely the greatest day of his life. He had been chosen. He got to enter the inner court of the temple alone, the Court of the Priests and there alone by himself offer incense on the high altar. His task was then to go back out to the Court of the Israelites and bless the waiting crowd.
What would have been upon his mind at such a powerful moment? Was he thinking of his wife Elizabeth? He loved her and had stood by her even though she was childless. You will note that Elizabeth is blamed for being barren. In ancient times it just never occurred to people that the man might be the one with the problem. It is still that way in much of the world. I remember talking with a missionary doctor who served in a remote area when I was in Zambia. He told me that when they discovered that a husband was sterile and he was responsible for a couple's inability to have children, they didn't tell him. “Why not?” I asked.
“They go crazy,” he told me. “It is a humiliation, an attack on their manhood, far too great be tolerated. Instead I will tell the man your wife is fine. She has no problem, but we are not sure when, if ever, you will be able to have children.” That was as far as they could go. Well, just like in parts of Africa in our time, in ancient times to be childless was an enormous humiliation. The ancient Rabbis listed it as one of the seven things that would cause God to turn his face away from a man. This was the situation of Zechariah as he entered the inner Court of the Priests, alone, to burn incense on the high altar.
That's when it happened. Suddenly, he wasn't alone. On the right side of the altar another person stood there. The thing was impossible. It couldn't be. There was no way for anyone to be there. It gave him a terrible fright – his heart pumping so loud – confusion and fear written all over his face. Then he knew. It was an angel. How did he know? Perhaps it was the face – the eyes, but he knew.
The angel spoke. “Don't be afraid!” That was the first thing he said. “Don't be afraid!” How many times do you find that in the bible? Over and over again the words appear “Don't be afraid! It's all right. You are safe. I am with you!”
This is the second Sunday of Advent – the Sunday of Peace. We lit the candle of peace today. When you know, not just in your head but deep in your heart, that God is real, that He loves you, that He is beside you – what do you ever need to be afraid of? Remember that in every storm, the sun is still shining. You can't see it but it is still there, hidden for a time, by dark clouds. The peace of Christ is like that. It comes to us when the clouds are still dark and the wind is blowing. The peace of Christ is powerful and real. It is for all God's children who know him and love him. This means you. So, whatever fears you brought here, whatever fear you have now, you can let it go and give it to Jesus. You are going to be ok. And don't take it back.
Now, let me go back to our story, the angel told Zachariah that his prayers had been heard and that he and Elizabeth were going to have a son. Call him John said the angel. John means 'the Lord is kind.' It was a strange thing to say because in ancient times children were always named after their forefathers. They never picked names out of a list in the Wal-Mart baby section the way we do. But the bigger surprise was the very idea of a child at all. “How can this be?” Zechariah asked. “Elizabeth and I are too old to have kids – aren't we?”
The angel replied in two ways. First he gave Zechariah his name – Gabriel. Gabriel appears throughout the bible. His name means, 'God is mighty.' Second he told Zechariah that he was going to have to develop his listening skills. He was going to be speechless for a time – something I suspect that more than a few women wouldn't mind in their own homes – at least for a short time.
There are so many aspects of this story worth talking about, but the big one is this. Are there really angels around us? Are there angels in our midst? Let me tell you a story. It was in Time magazine back in the mid 1990s. It came from Melissa Forth, a film maker in Atlanta. Her husband Chris was dying from leukemia. The last months of the illness were very difficult. She spent most nights in the hospital room beside him. On the night it happened Melissa relates, she was sleeping beside Chris when he managed to maneuver himself and his portable IV pole out of the room and past the nurse's station without being seen or heard. All Melissa remembered was being woken at 3:00 a.m. by a nurse asking where Chris was. They checked the bathroom. He wasn't there. They couldn't find him. She walked quickly down the hall toward the elevator glancing in the chapel door, and there he was, talking with a man she had never seen before. She went in and asked Chris where he had been, and if was he okay.
Chris said. “I'm fine.” His companion remained quiet. He was tall, dressed like Chris normally did, in a flannel shirt, Levis and lace-up work boots. Melissa recalled no real age to him, no wrinkles, just smooth skin and ice blue eyes. “I'll never forget the ice blue eyes,” she said.
Chris wanted to be left alone, and reluctantly she left. When he came back to his room, he was radiant and smiling. She could see his big dimples, and she hadn't seen them in a long time. He didn't have the air of a terminally ill man about him.
“Who was that guy?" she asked.
“You're not going to believe me,” Chris said.
“Tell me,” she replied.
“He is an angel,” said Chris. “He is my guardian angel.”
Strangely, Melissa who was not religious – neither of them were – did believe him. “All I had to do was to look at him,” she says, “to know something extraordinary had happened.” Chris told her that his prayers had been answered.
Had he been healed? No, it wasn't that kind of cure. It was a deep peace of mind and a deep sense of well being. Chris died two days later, still very much at peace. No one else had seen the visitor. It was three in the morning and the nurses all said there was no one around. The security guards affirmed that no one had come or gone. In the years since her husband's death, Melissa Forth says not a day goes by when she doesn't think about the visitor and what he did for Chris. “Never, never, never,” she says, “will anyone be able to convince me that angels don't exist.”
Do you remember the words of the old spiritual, “Swing low, Sweet Chariot”?
I looked over Jordan and what did I see
Comin' for to carry me home
A band of angels comin' after me
Comin' for to carry me home.
In the Hebrew, the word angel means a messenger – a messenger of God. And I believe that this world is full of messengers of God. They are all around us. We have only to open our ears and our eyes to both hear and see them. Don't expect to see wings or feathers. They will look like the friendly stranger who helped you when you were lost. They look like the friend who touched your heart, when you didn't think you had one left to touch. Angels come in all sizes and shapes, all ages and skin types. They come disguised as friends, teachers, students, lovers, family and fools. Always they ask nothing in return for their caring and their love. They are there for one reason – to help you to find the way out of whatever wilderness you somehow got into. May God bless you, and his angels always watch over you. Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Alan Bennett
Wall Street United Church, Brockville ON
December 5, 2004
I really must begin by expressing my appreciation for having been invited to preach in this church. Members of Kingston Presbytery certainly count Wall Street as just the sort of church with which we are all proud to be associated. I am pleased to be preaching in the presence of colleagues in ministry whom I have known for years. And, because I have taught so many courses through the years here in Brockville at the College, I am certain that I am also in the presence of some of my former students. But I should warn you former students that I may not recognize you at first: I have taught nearly twenty thousand students during my career, and I have come to the point where I suffer some distinct “senior moments.”
I also have some explaining to do. This is the first week in Advent, and I have decided to talk about forgiveness. This may seem an odd choice, but I explain myself in two ways. First, I am old enough that I no longer feel bound to the set lectionary. I will be here only this Sunday, and so I want to talk about what I feel is most important to me. And, second, Advent is essentially a season of preparation, and very few things can better prepare us for the Christmas celebration than the cultivation of our ability to forgive. That said, we can get on with the sermon.
Christian faith proclaims itself to be a religion of love, and because it is a religion of love, it must, of necessity, also be a religion of forgiveness. A philosophical friend of mine once said “The benefits of forgiveness are obvious.” I would not want to disagree with that, but I would want to note that it is a bit of an understatement. Without forgiveness, human society grinds to a halt. Why? Well, moral theory usually begins at the beginning, and deals with the foundations of moral life, such as the nature of the right and the good. But reflections on the moral demands of life itself in the midst of life never begin at the beginning, but always in the middle of things. And what is the “middle of things”? Usually, it is offence. People hurt one another, and there is no way to wipe the slate completely clean.
A cartoon in the New Yorker shows two wrestlers locked together in sweaty combat, each of them with his head buried in the other's armpit. The caption has one of them asking the other: “What da hell do you mean, I offend?” That cartoon can serve as a metaphor of sorts for the human situation. People do offend. And it is because we offend that morality becomes so important a part of human life: if there were no offences, there would be no need for moral refection.
Thinking about offence leads us naturally to thinking about forgiveness, and yet forgiveness is a relatively neglected topic. Wander through the appropriate stacks of any library, take down books on moral philosophy, even the books specifically on Christian moral philosophy, and you will find that the word “forgiveness” appears very seldom in the indices of those books. Even the Westminster Dictionary of Christian Ethics in an entry written by one of my teachers claims that “forgiveness” is a theological rather than a moral term. The entry has in mind, of course, Christian claims about divine forgiveness, which it discusses at length; and then it simply ignores almost entirely the ordinary use of “forgiveness” in which we do or do not forgive one another. What I want to think about today is not divine forgiveness but ordinary forgiveness: the kind of thing you and I are called upon to offer and accept rather more often than we might have hoped.
The first thing I want to say is that forgiveness is not in style in today's culture. Not entirely without reason, today people are more apt to demand the recognition of victim's rights than understanding for the offender. We live in a time in which the maxim, “I don't get mad, I get even” is very often quoted with approval. We constantly hear stories about people who have been injured by criminal offence (say, parents whose child has been murdered) that justice must be done in order that they might be allowed “closure.”
The problem is that “closure” never comes from justice alone. The fact is that no matter what payment is made, wrongs which have been done can never be fully undone. No matter how complete the reparations, the act itself remains. The prisoner released from captivity may say, “I have paid my debt to society” and in an important sense this is true, but the wrong itself has not been undone – things will never be the same again.
The second thing I want to say is that sometimes the reason forgiveness is not accepted in our culture is that it is misunderstood. We sometimes think that forgiveness is unhelpful because somehow it underestimates the seriousness of the crime. We sometimes say that we “forgive and forget”, but some things just cannot be forgotten – nor should they be.
True forgiveness does not forget. It does not tolerate the wrong which was done; it does not excuse the wrongdoer; it is not a substitute for justice. Think about it: unless we recognize and effectively understand that a wrong has been committed, we cannot forgive. We forgive precisely because we have been wronged; and if we do not understand the gravity of the wrong, we cannot truly forgive. Genuine forgiveness, then, has as a precondition severe honesty in appraising the wrong which has been done. We cannot forgive unless we first blame. Christian faith does not ask that we ignore or discount evil in any way. Instead, we are asked to confront it and deal with it.
The third thing I want to say is that as we deal with offence, the only real alternative to forgiveness is revenge – the passion to get even. Wrongs put things out of whack, and so we try to make things even again. Wrong for wrong. Eye for eye. Insult for insult.
The problem with revenge is not that it itself is a wrong; it is not really, that two wrongs don't make a right. The problem with vengeance is that it is never completed. Revenge, unless forgiven, simply leads to counter-revenge, because the two parties measure things differently. We see this clearly in international affairs: unending spirals of violence in Ulster, in Palestine/Israel, and so forth. Osama bin Ladin, in one of his tapes, claims that his actions are meant as vengeance for the expulsion of the Moors from Spain in 1492! More than five hundred years of revenge and counter-revenge, with no end in sight!
Because balancing the books through revenge is nearly always impossible, our sense of being wronged turns to resentment, and that resentment festers inside us like a cancer. I have come to think that festering resentment, what the French call ressentement, may well be the worst thing that can happen to the human spirit. Resentment is the opposite of generosity; it renders gratitude quite impossible and thereby excludes the life of love. Resentment tends to make our spirit crabbed and small; gratitude and generosity enlarge our spirit. And so it seems clear to me that we have every reason to avoid resentment and embrace forgiveness.
The fourth thing I want to say might seem odd. [Some of you will have thought that sermons end with the third point. Sorry, I have more to say!] I want to suggest that it is a mistake to think that Christians are required to forgive.
Why? Think about the very meaning of the word “forgiveness.” Forgiveness is a voluntary act and never a requirement. No one ever has a duty to forgive. It is wrong to attempt to force forgiveness, and it is logically impossible to succeed in forcing it.
Put another way, one always has the right to forgive but never a duty to do so. Christian preachers in their enthusiasm have sometimes said otherwise, but they have been wrong. Even God, according to the Gospel, reserves the right not to forgive. After detailing the refusal of forgiveness for and the sad fate of the Unforgiving Servant, Jesus says, “So my heavenly father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” If you are not sobered by this passage, you just have not been listening.
The sentence “forgive me” as a request is understandable, but uttered as a command [“forgive me!”] is always an impertinence, and the fact that forgiveness can only be requested and not demanded implies that no one must grant forgiveness, ever.
I have a trace memory from my distant past. Maybe I was five years old. My brother and I are colouring together. An argument begins, and my brother says: “Mom, Millard took my crayon and won't give it back.” My mother says: “Millard, give the crayon back to Rand.” “No,” I say. “Give it back,” my mother says more insistently. “Oh, all right.” I give it back. “Now, tell Rand you are sorry” my mother orders. “No,” I say. “Tell him you are sorry,” she says. “Oh, all right,” I say. “I'm sorry.” Then my mother says to my brother, “Tell Millard its alright.” “No,” my brother says. “Tell him,” my mother insists. “It's okay,” he says in a very grumpy voice. We both scowl at each other and go back to our colouring.
Do note that my mother was better at child-rearing than was I, and her tactics might have had some instructional value. But, it is clear that no real forgiveness took place at that time. Forgiveness is not the sort of thing one can offer on demand; neither is it the sort of thing that can be accepted on demand. Both must come from the heart. This is, as the philosophers would say, a logical requirement which admits of no exception. But then what is a Christian to do with the words of Jesus: “Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy seven times”? Surely, we must heed this.
That brings me to the fifth thing I want to say. The ethics of the Christian should never be understood as a ethic of duty and command but rather always as an ethic of responsibility. What do I mean? Think of military life. In the military life the private soldier is expected to be obedient while senior officers instead bear responsibility. The officer tells the soldier “charge that hill”, and the soldier is simply to obey. But the senior officers are responsible for deciding what is the best way to achieve the objective. They must decide whether charging the hill is in fact what ought to be done, and “obedience” is of no help to them in making such decisions. Hard thinking and careful, considered discretion is required. The private soldier can say, “don't ask me; I just do as I am told” but the buck stops with the officers. They cannot just do as they are told.
Similarly, in Christian Faith the buck stops with every Christian. We cannot just do as we are told; we must think; we are responsible for everything we decide and everything we do in this life. That is what I mean when I say that the Christian ethic is one of responsibility rather than mere obedience. And so we must use discretion in deciding how best and most appropriately to respond to Jesus' admonition that we forgive seventy seven times. Now, the sixth thing I want to propose: if forgiving is governed by responsibility rather than obedience, then it is not something we do so much as it is something we cultivate and nourish.
Forgiveness may not come easily and may not come quickly. We must remember that forgiveness is occasioned by injury, and it is not to be expected that all injuries will heal quickly. In fact, we probably should worry about forgiveness which is offered quickly, easily. Such forgiveness may prove to be inauthentic, unreal, and hence ultimately more harmful than helpful.
It will not do for us to try and force ourselves, as it were, to forgive. It will not do to think: “I am a Christian; therefore I must be forgiving.” It is even less appropriate for anyone to try to make some other person forgive. In particular, it is wrong for Christians to make other Christians feel guilty because they cannot forgive. We do not have that right.
Instead, our ability to forgive flows naturally from our spiritual status taken in its wholeness. As we are able to cultivate a generous spirit of gratitude for life itself, we will in good time discover within ourselves the ability to forgive genuinely. Of course, it is equally important not to wait too long to forgive. Those who do not forgive tend to resent. And resentment tends to fester. And as it festers, the spirit shrinks and shrivels. Life itself loses it savour.
And so timing is everything. At the right time we must open our hearts. There is a right time to forgive, but I doubt whether it can ever be known in advance.
Finally, a seventh and last point. [I understand that seven is said to be the number for perfection, so what better place to end!] I suggested earlier than in our age people tend to demand justice so that they can achieve closure. Closure is important because it frees us from the past and allows us to live toward the future. But I also suggested that justice cannot bring full closure because perfect justice can never be achieved. Wrongs can be partially righted, but the wrong itself can never actually be undone. That is part of the tragedy of the human condition: wrongs as well as rights have consequences, and those consequences help to make up the world as it is. And so justice alone cannot heal completely. The more significant healing occurs as one is able to forgive. In fact, forgiving is a form of healing. And so forgiveness can free us from the past and help us to live realistically into the future. And that is why it is so important both for the offended and the offender. What this all amounts to may be this: forgiveness is a gift rather than a duty; it does not obligate, but instead allows us to heal. It is far better to take joy in the fact that forgiveness is a possibility than to feel guilty when we find forgiveness difficult or even impossible.
Very few Christians have struggled as deeply with the difficulties of giving and receiving forgiveness than the late Lewis B. Smedes. Toward the end of one of his books [The Art of Forgiving] he says this:
Said Peter in the Gospel; “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times? Jesus said to him, 'not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy seven times.” And so be it.
A Sermon by Millard Schumaker delivered at Wall Street United Church, Brockville, Ontario, on 28 November 2004.
