Life Has Been a Bit Challenging Lately - or is it just me?

I’m almost afraid to tune into the evening news any more.  I’m feeling discombobulated this week.  Cooler temperatures have been a bit hard to adjust to.  Plumbing - have I mentioned plumbing (or washing machines) lately?  Don’t get me started.  I feel like life is out of control.

Oddly enough, I have been practicing gratitude more than usual this week, not less.   To do this, I have been using one of the variations on the ancient prayer of Examen:

1. I ask God to shine his light on the day just past 

2. I replay the day, asking God to bring to my mind the things I have been grateful for.

3. I review the feelings that surfaced in the replay of the day, both positive and negative.

4. I choose one of those feelings (positive or negative) and pray from it.

5. I look toward tomorrow, asking God for help with whatever I need.

I have been surprised this week that with my usual routine disrupted I have found there are new things to be grateful for.  I’ve learned by reviewing (in God’s presence) the feelings in my day that I can cope quite well with being out of control.  And that not holding on quite so tightly to my schedule, there is room for new delights and discoveries. 

This week in worship we will continue to practice gratitude.  We will hear again the passage from Luke 17:11-19 in a different translation.  You might want to read it for yourself or pray the Examen in preparation.  I wonder what you might discover?

For more information on the Examen:  Rummaging for God.

Luke 17:11-19 NIVUK

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance  and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’

When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.  He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?  Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well.’

I am gradually learning that the call to gratitude asks us to say, “Everything is grace.” Whether there is suffering or joy, I can say, “Yes, I want to live this, and I want to discover in this more fully the gift of life.” - Henri Nouwen

Who Might You Thank Today?

Who benefits when we thank someone?  Is it us, the recipient of our appreciation, or both?

And why is giving thanks a fundamental Christian spiritual practice…one that we practice individually and collectively in worship?  Who benefits?  What happens when we shift focus from worry to God's constant presence and love, even in difficult circumstances?

This Sunday we celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada, and we will read a Jesus story about giving thanks:

Luke 17:11-19  MSG

It happened that as Jesus made his way toward Jerusalem, he crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men, all lepers, met him. They kept their distance but raised their voices, calling out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

Taking a good look at them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”

They went, and while still on their way, became clean. 

One of them, when he realized that he was healed, turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude, glorifying God. He kneeled at Jesus’ feet, so grateful. He couldn’t thank him enough—and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus said, “Were not ten healed? Where are the nine?  Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider?” Then he said to him, “Get up.  On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you.”

Why did Jesus say that the healed Samaritan had faith?  What does it mean to give glory to God?

As you prepare for worship this Sunday, I invite you to show your appreciation to someone in your life who you don't normally thank, like the janitorial staff where you work or a person stocking shelves at a grocery store. Or maybe you remember someone fondly for a difference they made in your life a long time ago.  Can you reach out and say, “Thank you?”

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases

God’s mercies never come to an end

They are new every morning,

new every morning

Great is your faithfulness, O Lord,

great is your faithfulness. 

 

What is Different about this Particular Communion Sunday?

The Last Supper- John August Swanson

This Sunday we celebrate communion, along with thousands of churches around the world.  What is different about this particular Communion Sunday?  The first Sunday of October, each year, is World Communion Sunday.

World Communion Sunday began in 1933 in Pittsburgh, where as a way of unifying the Presbyterian churches in the city, they all celebrated communion on the first Sunday of October.  By 1940 it had spread to include all protestant churches world-wide!  As World War II raged around them, church leaders knew how important it was to unify the Christian church around the world.

The roots of communion are as deep as they are wide.  Paul references “the Lord’s Supper” in his first letter to the Corinthians, and The Acts of the Apostles also references it.  

The last supper, written about in the Gospel of Mark, is like the taproot of our current communion practice.  Even this practice reaches down through the ages - to Exodus, mentioning the Passover:

Mark 14. 12-26  MSG

On the first of the Days of Unleavened Bread, the day they prepare the Passover sacrifice, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations so you can eat the Passover meal?”

 He directed two of his disciples, “Go into the city. A man carrying a water jug will meet you. Follow him. Ask the owner of whichever house  he enters, ‘The Teacher wants to know, Where is my guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will show you a spacious second-story room, swept and ready. Prepare for us there.”

The disciples left, came to the city, found everything just as he had told them, and prepared the Passover meal.

After sunset he came with the Twelve. As they were at the supper table eating, Jesus said, “I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators, one who at this moment is eating with me.”

Stunned, they started asking, one after another, “It isn’t me, is it?”

He said, “It’s one of the Twelve, one who eats with me out of the same bowl.”

In the course of their meal, having taken and blessed the bread, he broke it and gave it to them. Then he said, “Take, this is my body.”

Taking the chalice, he gave it to them, thanking God, and they all drank from it. He said, “This is my blood, God’s new covenant, poured out for many people. I’ll not be drinking wine again until the new day when I drink it in the kingdom of God.”

They sang a hymn and then went directly to Mount Olives.

I invite you to prepare for worship this week by praying for a church somewhere in this broken world.  Wars still rage.  Is the church you choose from your place of birth, from somewhere you lived for awhile, from somewhere in your community, from something you have read in the news?  Or somewhere else entirely?   I’d love to hear which church comes to your mind.

But there’s one other thing I remember,
    and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
    his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
    How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
    He’s all I’ve got left.

God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
    to the woman who diligently seeks.
It’s a good thing to quietly hope,
    quietly hope for help from God.

• Lamentations 3

What Can the Trinity Teach Us About Power and Loving our Neighbour?

Each week we light three candles that symbolize the Trinity. Rev. Donna often refers to the Trinity as a dance of love. I think of this as a dance where nobody is “leading”, a dance in which all three dancers are equal partners, and nobody is controlling the flow of love. Nobody has power over the other...and love is how the partners know how to move. All three, Yahweh, Yeshua, and Ruach, lead at various times, and always lead in love.

When I read the newspaper, though, I don’t read about a dance of love. And often what we see on social media doesn't seem much like loving our neighbour, does it?

We have a lot to learn from Jesus about the dance of love. Here's what he says in ​our reading for this week (​Luke 10.25-37 MSG translation):

 

Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”

He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law?  How do you interpret it?”

He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

“Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”

Jesus answered by telling a story.

“There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers.  They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

“A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him.  He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’

“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

“The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

We have to arrive at the point, as believers in the Christian faith, that in every human being there is a spark of divinity. Every human personality is something sacred, something special. We don’t have a right, as another person or as a nation, to destroy that spark of divinity, that spark of humanity, that is made and created in the image of God. 

- Congressman John Lewis (1940–2020)

Image freepik

Where Is This Place?

Where is this place, where we all come to drink together…where we are all refreshed and sustained…where we all become one body of people, receiving this sustenance together?  Could it be in this world?  What would it look like?

The answer to these questions can be found in this week’s scripture passage:

1 Corinthians 12:12b-13 (MSG)

Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

Thirsty, we come as individuals, each of us different.  And then we drink together at one fountain - Christ’s Spirit.  Refreshed and sustained, we become one, transformed, all part of his resurrected body.

And when we drink, when we are transformed, we will say good-bye to living for our own individual lives.  We begin a new, integrated life where Jesus has the final say about everything. The hopes and prayers that Walter Russell Bowie wrote in his hymn in 1909 still ring true in today’s fractured (unintegrated) world:

O holy city, seen of John,

where Christ, the Lamb, doth reign,

within whose foursquare walls shall come

no night, nor need, nor pain,

and where the tears are wiped from eyes

that shall not weep again!

Hark, now from men whose lives are held

more cheap than merchandise,

from women struggling sore for bread,

from little children's cries,

there swells the sobbing human plaint

that bids thy walls arise.

 

Oh shame to us who rest content

while lust and greed for gain

in street and shop and tenement

wring gold from human pain,

and bitter lips in blind despair

cry, 'Christ hath died in vain!'

Give us, O God, the strength to build

the city that hath stood

too long a dream, whose laws are love,

whose crown is servanthood,

and where the sun that shineth is

God's grace for human good.

Already in the mind of God

that city riseth fair:

lo, how its splendour challenges the souls that greatly dare:

yea, bids us seize the whole of life

and build its glory there.

How Willing are We to Admit Our Limitations?

Every paragraph of Psalm 46 speaks to God’s love and ever present care for us…protection, strength, refuge, help, fortress. Three times we are reminded that he is with us. 

This week, as I relaxed into the mystery that is God, into that with-ness, I felt the comfort of knowing that the overwhelming events of the world are no match for the God-of-Angel-Armies. 

He reminded me to step back from the situation, to 

Step out of the traffic! Take a long,

    loving look at me, your High God,

    above politics, above everything.

This is the MSG translation of my favourite Bible verse, Psalm 46:10. We usually know it as Be still, and know that I am God. Other translations say Cease or Stop striving instead of Be still. 

Rev. Donna often adds a phrase to the verse - we hear “I am God and you are not”.  If we stop striving AND remember that God is God and we are not, I wonder if we could accept our limitations and admit that there are lots of things we can’t do simply by trying harder?  I wonder if we could relax into God’s love and transformation?  

This Sunday we will sing a lot of different names for God…reminding us of so many wondrous qualities of God.  The mystery of God is one of those things I’m going to have to admit that I will never understand…no matter how many Google searches I do.

Psalm 46 (edited) NIVUK and MSG

God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.

God is a safe place to hide,
    ready to help when we need him.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.

  God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.

    Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
        he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.’

 “Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
    loving look at me, your High God,
    above politics, above everything!

The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

All That is Made

"If you are a spiritual seeker, if you are undergoing suffering, or if you are interested in contemplative living, may I prescribe All That Is Made for you? I believe it will do your heart good and lead you to fuller wellness, wilder love, and deeper joy."

So Brian McLaren writes in his Foreward to this book, and I couldn't agree more.  As a chronic pain sufferer, I am finding this book relatable and relevant.

Although I had heard of Julian of Norwich I wasn't deeply familiar with the writing.  Karen Dibbens-Wyatt introduced me to her fascinating story in a readable way. I immediately sought out an accessible translation to refer to as I read this book.  She explains Catholic and historical differences to a modern lay (and even Protestant!) reader.

As someone looking for an introduction to the contemplative life, I am finding her experience and insights valuable.  She defined mysticism for me and introduced me to modern mystics as well as some additional historical, traditional writings.

As well as these introductions, the author concentrates mainly on Julian's vision of a small round thing, "the size of a hazelnut" in this book.  It is a book to savour, so I haven't finished it, but I'm thoroughly enjoying grazing my way through it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced review copy of this book.