Posted by stpauls on September 27, 2010 under Sermons | 
While on sabbatical, I joined the St. Willibrord Society.
This rather ominous sounding group of people, named after the first Bishop of Utrecht in the Netherlands who died in 739, brings together Anglicans and Old Catholics from around the world.
Old Catholics…? the name alone will make some people’s hair stand on edge. Why would we Anglicans want anything to do with such a group? Aren’t those these crazy people who want Latin services, and who are extremely sexist, homophobic, and even deny the Holocaust? Well, no. Or at least not the ones I was hanging out with. And neither am I talking about those self-styled Old Catholics in North America, who are rather odd and colourful, often headed by fancy-titled bishops with an ego the size of Nunavut, but a following the size of Lilliput.
The kind of Old Catholics I connected with is a group of national churches, all in communion with the ancient see of Utrecht. For the most part, these churches separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 19th century, because they could not in good conscience agree with the inventions of the first Vatican Council, such as the dogmas of the infallibility and the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome. Of course, this makes them rather likable for us Anglicans, as we too find these 19th century dogmas incompatible with Scripture. Furthermore, ever since being liberated from under the yoke of Rome, these Old Catholics Churches have claimed for themselves such wonderful, ancient, and venerable traditions as married clergy, liturgy in the vernacular, synodical government, and the importance of lay ministry. All Old Catholics Churches practice sacramental hospitality for all baptised regardless of denominational affiliation. Most admit women to all orders of the church. And some even bless same-sex unions.
Sounds all rather close to us, right? And indeed, we have been in full communion with these Old Catholics since 1931.
And the St. Willibrord Society was formed as an affirming reaction to this agreement of full communion. Members of the Society come together to support each other, to learn from each other, to pray and celebrate the sacraments with each other, and to further our common mission.
I joined (or I should say re-joined) the St. Willibrord Society during the International Old Catholic Congress, which I attended this past August in Zurich. As part of the Congress, the society organised an evening event. About 20 Old Catholics and Anglicans gathered to do what we do best: eat, drink, and chat. We shared stories of successful ministry projects and flourishing church ventures. The Rector of St. Paul’s in Vancouver, for example, regaled everybody with stories about the Advocacy Office, the Labyrinth, our diverse worship services, and “Our House”…
But we also bemoaned the state of affairs of the church in general and of the society in particular. Like so many ecclesiastical groups, the St. Willibrord Society is losing membership, particularly among the young. It is a sad state of affairs!
To counteract the demise, the group brainstormed about what to do.
But, frankly, it was all rather frumpy: There was nothing innovative, nothing exciting, nothing that pushed the boundaries, nothing that opened our eyes to look beyond our doors. This was a room full of wonderful people, for sure. There were some rather bright minds gathered, committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But our discussion very much stayed within the box.
Until one participant asked a few poignant questions. This particular member of the society knew that there are Anglican and Old Catholic parishes operating alongside each other in a number of Swiss cities. So, the question was this: Why didn’t the two denominations work together in mission projects?
Stunned, embarrassed silence. You could almost hear the thoughts of those gathered: Mission? Us? No, not us! We leave that to the Evangelicals.
The questioner raised an eyebrow, but then continued to ask: Well, why couldn’t Anglicans and Old Catholics in, say, Berne, get together, say, once a month and organise, say, a food-bank?
There was a sigh of relief. No evangelism. Thank God!
But this was quickly followed by more embarrassed silence. Nobody could envision doing something quite that radical.
And the conversation drifted off to other matters.
It would be too easy to read today’s Gospel story from Luke as a simple condemnation of wealth. To say that the rich man goes to hell, because he is rich, and the poor man rests in Abraham’s bosom, because he is poor, would oversimplify the text. There are poor people who are anything but saintly as much as there are rich people who get it, who get Jesus’ challenge to us in today’s text.
Yes, today’s text is a challenge by the One in whom God is revealed and in whom God’s reign is born among us. It is indeed a radical challenge that goes way beyond the amount of money we might have stashed away in our accounts or in our portfolios.
The problem isn’t that the rich man is rich, but the problem is that the rich man closed his door into the face of Lazarus. Literally. The poor man lies in front of the rich man’s door without access, without contact, without connection. For the rich man it is a way to shut out, not only the poor man, but also the calamities, the misery, and the injustices of the world.
The rich man’s ignorance is the reason for the demise of the poor man. And the rich man’s self-centredness, self-absorption, and egocentrism is also the reason for his own demise: He ends up in hell, in the hell of loneliness, while the poor man rests in the bosom of Abraham, cared for and embraced by love. The separation between the rich man and the poor man is no longer just a door, now it is an abyss that cannot be bridged.
Jesus shares this story to warn us against complacency and ignorance. The root cause of death, death that ultimately can no longer be bridged, is this: Self-absorption and believing that we can run the show all by ourselves, without connection not only to God but also to the least of our sisters and brothers. St. Paul put it like this: “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). Applied to today’s story from the Gospel, Paul’s words would translate thus: The wages of ignorance are eternal separation from resting in the bosom of Abraham.
However, this must be clear also. Hell is not the punishment by an overly vengeful deity. Hell is rather what we bring about for ourselves, when we disconnect and stew in our ignorance or complacency.
Let me clarify this with a metaphor that has been around the block a couple of times:
Do you know the difference between hell and heaven?
Well, in hell and heaven we will all look the same: We will have our normal bodies, but our arms will be elongated, without elbow and spoon-like. There will be enough food, both in hell and in heaven, but you cannot bend your arms to place food into your mouth. So, how can you tell the difference between hell and heaven then? Well, in hell, people continue trying to feed themselves, but without success. In heaven, people feed each other.
Yes, today’s story is warning. Jesus tries to wake us from the slumber induced by our ignorance, our sense of entitlement, and our self-centredness. Jesus wants to reveal that in God’s eyes life is only successful, when it is lived with open eyes, open ears, and open hearts both for God and for the needs of others.
This is why I shared my experience at the beginning of this sermon. The encounter with the Old Catholics was a wake-up call for me. It was a wake-up call, because far too often we mainline Christians (be it Anglicans, Old Catholics, or members or others churches) bathe ourselves in a state of complacency, not unlike the rich man in today’s Gospel story. We are satisfied with what we have and close our doors to those around us, pulling up the draw bridge. Church too often is just a place of refuge, disconnected from what goes on around us.
And, yes, yes, yes: a safe place we must remain! Especially here at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in the West End! Many of our fellow parishioners know what it means to be Lazarus. Many have experienced what it means to sleep on the wrong side of the door. Many know of poverty in body, mind, or soul. And St. Paul’s Anglican Church needs to remain and continue to be a place for all to experience the love and compassion that the poor man experienced in the bosom of Abraham.
But that must not lead us to close our eyes, our ears, and our hearts to the needs of others. Rather, let us continually brake through ignorance and complacency. Let us create a heaven, let us feed others, extending our arms to those around us. Let us support and be involved in the Advocacy Office and its Homeless Outreach Program, in the Labyrinth as it allays spiritual hunger, in “Our House” and its outreach to those imprisoned by addiction, and the in many other ministries here in this congregation; ministries, which do open doors, hearts, minds, and souls through healing, through hospitality, through reflection, and through worship.
Jesus’ words are a wake-up call for us too.
Posted by stpauls on under Webmaster Blog |
Parishioner Nina Shoroplova has written and will direct “A Multitude of the Heavenly Host” for a service at St. Paul’s Anglican Church on Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24, 2010 at 5 p.m.
Auditions will be held for all roles on Sunday, October 17, 2010, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the church itself at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, 1130 Jervis Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6E 2C7.
The pageant requires the following speaking parts:
- 8 or 9 men: Archangel Michael, Archangel Raphael, Archangel Uriel , Joseph, Shepherds 1 & 2, Melchior, Gaspar, Balthazar;
- 6 or 7 women: Archangel Gabriel, Guardian Angels, Elizabeth, Shepherd 3;
- A young woman or a girl – Mary
The pageant requires the following non-speaking parts:
- 6 to 10 children (including ones in the roles below): “concert children ”;
- 3 children to dance and sing: roles of Swallow, Moth, and Mouse;
- a boy drummer;
- a flute player;
- a recorder player.
Already cast
- Pianist, guitar player, solo singer of “The First Mercy”
Preference will be given to members of the St. Paul’s Anglican Church congregation for adult roles. All performers must be able to sing. The audition will require a cold read of the script plus a vocal audition. Bring sheet music or your choice from the hymn book (make your selection ahead of time). Eric Hominick will accompany people auditioning.
For more information contact Nina Shoroplova, by email at Nina.WrasmaMarketing@gmail.com.
Posted by stpauls on September 26, 2010 under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Luke 16:19-31 ~ Gospel Reading for September 26, 2010
Jesus said, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house– for I have five brothers– that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Posted by stpauls on September 19, 2010 under Sermons |
Last Tuesday, I decided to tackle the Anglican Covenant. This is a rather controversial document currently being discussed among all member churches of the Anglican Communion.
I have opposed this covenant from the get-go. My opposition does not stem from its content, but from the very idea of a covenant. I believe such a centralised, confessional document violates Anglican identity. If passed, we would become a different, a less-Anglican church. We are not a church defined by confessional documents or hierarchical structure, but our identity comes from our common prayer. Our ministry and mission are nurtured, not by invented structures and primal power games, but by our communal and liturgical worship of the triune God.
I had not dealt with the content of the document before Tuesday. So, it was time. It was, in fact, overdue. And I have to say, I was positively surprised. There is a lot there with which I can wholeheartedly agree: Yes, the triune God is uniquely revealed in Jesus Christ, our brother and friend, our Master and Lord. Yes, all is not well in our lives and we fall short of the glory of God. And, yes, the church must focus on mission, must be all about healing what is broken in our relationships with God, in our relationships with one another and creation, and in our relationships with ourselves.
But this is exactly what we proclaim, affirm, and confess every time we baptise and every time we renew our own baptismal covenant. This is what we all have signed up. We don’t need a covenant to make this clear.
Furthermore, there is that last part of the document. This is the part where I believe the document departs from Anglican ethos: The new proposed structures are not true to who we are as Anglicans. In my humble opinion, the Covenant hinders the mission of our church, because this is all about power and not about a faithful response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Yes, I was not pleased on Tuesday.
Now, I have to make a confession: My focus was not 100% on the document. While I was reading the covenant, I had the TV going in the background. I guess, as a GenX-er, I am used to multitasking, even though it never really works… So, while I was reading the Anglican Covenant, I was also watching the UEFA Champions League football- – I mean soccer- – match between Manchester United and Glasgow Rangers.
And it was a rough game! Typical for British football, I mean: soccer, it was very, very physical. There was even bone-breakage!
The two teams really struggled for superiority. On the one hand, there was a traditional team that is well connected in high places, with excellent players brought in and flown in from all over the world, with tons of money to spare. On the other hand, there was an equally traditional team, but much more connected to its local environment, to its surroundings, responding much more to the people it serves. On the one hand, you had a team respected by people from even outside football, I mean: soccer, with a long pedigree of famous football- – I mean soccer-players. On the other hand, you have a wee underdog, a group of diverse players that wouldn’t make it in the English Premier League, the Bundesliga, the Italian Serie A, the Spanish La Liga, or the French Ligue 1. And of course, most of you know for which side I was rooting. But it wasn’t just my Scottish connections that made support the Glasgow Rangers…
You see, early on in the game, it hit me. This football- – I mean soccer-game, was like the controversy surrounding the Anglican Covenant. Just like last Tuesday in Manchester, in the Covenant-discussions there are equally quite different “clubs,” church clubs, crashing into each other: one globally connected, with deep roots in the Christian tradition versus another one, which is responding to the voice of God’s Spirit from within a community of players, who would not make it on many other teams. It is a David against Goliath match-up. And bones are breaking…
But this is a problem! Why do our theological discussions end up being like a battle that seeks to declare winners and losers? Is this what the message of the Gospel is really all about? Why do we have to come up with strategies to overcome the other side and walk off with victory? I know for some this really is a matter of life and death, of spiritual life and spiritual death. But is this really all that can be said about the current conflict within the Anglican Communion?
I believe, we church-folk behave too often like we are playing in a big football-match. And too often the beauty of the game gets sacrificed for economic interests, for the supposed sweet taste of victory, and for our addiction to dominance and power. Too often we forget in our strife to be right that our mission is not about overcoming supposed enemies or adversaries. No, our mission is about bridging divides, is about healing a broken world through the power of the Spirit. It is not about winners and losers, not about making sure my opinion counts, not about bone-crashing conflicts. Our mission is to restore in Christ broken people to unity with God, with one another, and with themselves. And this goes both for the big Church Universal as it goes for each and every community of faith, each and every parish and congregation.
We don’t play soccer with each other in the church, at least not figuratively. Church, and the church’s business is not about overcoming an opposing team. It is about being included in the game. It is about learning how to play the game. And it is about including more and more players in the game. Church is more like the American Youth Soccer Organisation, an organisation operating on both sides of the 49th parallel. One of AYSO’s rules is this: If you sign up, you get to play every single game. It doesn’t matter how good or bad you are. You are part of the team. You are part of the game. As you play, you will learn to play the game better every time you enter the pitch. And as you play and learn to love the game, you will want to invite others to come along, whoever they are.
This should be a rule in the church, too.
Well, in fact it is. St. Paul puts it in today’s reading from his first letter to Timothy like this: “[God] seeks for everybody to be saved.” (v. 4) Everybody! Every single one of us. And yes, St. Paul means it: God seeks to save everyone. Every single one of us, and all of our brothers and sisters in the world around us who are longing for meaning or who are yearning for healing. God’s grace seeks to spread like wildfire, so that the entire cosmos is ablaze with love for God, with love for one another, and even with love for our own selves. God’s grace seeks to make us all part of the team, part of the game: part of God’s team, part of God’s game. God seeks to rescue us from what separates us from the love of God, and seeks to encompass – through us – the entire cosmos.
And this is why we must pray even for those who have power over us.
Unfortunately, far too often Paul’s admonition in verse 2 has been misunderstood in such a way that the church must submit herself to the will of the state. Far too often, the church was seen only as an appendix of the government. Far too often, the church was complacent to the will of the state. But a close connection with the state has often led to an abuse of power, to a violation of those who have no might, and to a betrayal of God’s radical claim on our life and on the life of society.
In contrast, prophets like Martin Luther King, Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or our own retired Archbishop Michael Peers remind the church that her role in any society is to not be complacent, but to confront both personal and communal sin. And the church does this, not to deride or tear down, but to build up God’s reign of justice and love, to strengthen those who have been oppressed, and to encourage all to live into the beauty that God intends for them. The church has a prophetic mandate! When the leaders have forgotten to treat all with the respect they deserve and with the dignity that the Creator has gifted to each and every one of God’s children, the church must take a stand against government, even legally elected government.
But this should not mean we should ever stop praying for those in power! Paul writes: “[Christ] gave himself a ransom for all.” (v. 6) Even for those who are oppressors, even those who ignore God’s order of justice and peace. In a world that lives by non-Christian rules, where too many suffer and are oppressed, where the divide between poor and rich is an abomination, where war and terror reign, and where creation is abused and exploited, it is for the church by her prayer and action to give a different example, to show a different reality. Not just so that we can live a “quiet and peaceable life” (v. 2), but so that God’s saving grace is manifested as a gift for all.
[The Reverend Markus Duenzkofer delivered this sermon on September 19, 2010.]
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Luke 16:1-13 ~ Gospel Reading for September 19, 2010
Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, `A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
1 Timothy 2:1-7 ~ Bible Reading for September 19, 2010
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For
there is one God;
there is also one mediator between God and humankind,
Christ Jesus, himself human,
who gave himself a ransom for all
– this was attested at the right time. For this, I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Posted by stpauls on September 12, 2010 under Sermons |
We are a lucky lot here at St. Paul’s, eh? Not only are we an amazing, Spirit-filled, and at times crazy community of beautiful people, but we are also blessed with a physical space here that is quite special. It is a gem!
This is a place to rest and pray, a place to heal and be nurtured, a place to laugh and to cry. It is a space to encounter God’s passion and the compassion of fellow travellers on the road. And this space is a treasure of art, too.
One of my favourite artifacts is the so-called King Window, named after Canon King, one of my predecessors. And it is right over there.
The King Window
I love the vibrancy of it, especially the colours of the angels’ wings. There is something quite lovely about it. I have often said, that I would rather have the King Window as the window over the main altar, not just because I struggle at times with the Apostle Paul, but also because I believe that an image of our Lord and Saviour, and not that of one of his apostles, should be our central focal point.
The image of Christ Jesus gently carrying a sheep speaks to me of protection, care, nurture, and immeasurable love. The King Window seems to reveal God’s Son as a gentle master taking care of all his sheep and yearning for each and every one of us to come home to God. It is a comforting image of a God whose deepest identity is love for you, for me, and for all of creation.
Yes, I really like this image.
But I also struggle with it. Not so much with the image itself, but with what we have made of it. You see, the image of the Good Shepherd is familiar, too familiar among church-type people, church geeks like me. Yet, this is a problem:
Firstly, the familiarity is a problem, because those who recognize the image forget that many, if not most, others have no clue what the image means and what it stands for. We just assume everybody else knows, because we do. But this is a fatal mistake, fatal for the mission and ministry of the church. We cannot just assume people know and understand. But we must tell and retell the story, the Good News of God in Jesus Christ, both through our actions and through our words over and over and over again.
The second problem is this: Familiarity can make us a bit sketchy in our delimitation of distinct images from the Bible. The story of the Good Shepherd actually is found in the Gospel according to John . However, the image of a shepherd with a sheep on his shoulder clearly comes from today’s Gospel… And obviously artists in the past have had no issue with mixing these two images. But mixing biblical imagery as we wish is dangerous business! So, we have to be careful, very careful.
Finally, when we become too familiar, too comfortable with an image, then it can lose freshness, and it can lose its radical edge.
For many, the shepherd with the sheep is cute, even cutesy. It’s good for storing it nicely away in our brains or for placing it beautifully on a stained-glass window. And isn’t the Jesus on the King Window just adorable?
But, this is no cutesy image. This is a radical image of God’s character. And since we are dealing with the Gospel according to Luke, we must remember that this is the Gospel, which proclaims the reign of God as a radically upside-down reign, where “the mighty are thrown from their thrones and the lowly are lifted high.” You can bet your booty that Luke didn’t indeed this to be adorable! No, this is meant as a revelation of God’s identity and it challenges the way we run the show. Today’s story confronts the reality of the world around us, the way we perceive what is right and what is wrong. How? Well, let’s look at the text.
In today’s account from the Gospel, Jesus asked, “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” And many assume the answer is clear. Good shepherds do exactly this. They leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness to seek the one.
But this is not true. Any Middle Eastern shepherd of Jesus’ time could tell you that this is exactly what you do not do. You don’t leave the ninety-nine unprotected. There were too many dangers out there and God knows how many sheep would be eaten when you returned from seeking the one lost sheep! No, you must abandon the one sheep for the sake of the larger good. A good shepherd protects as much of the herd as possible, no matter what, even if this means that the one lost sheep gets sacrificed. Especially when the sheep was too stupid to keep up with the flock to begin with!
This, of course, is where the Pharisees come from, too. They have adopted this nomadic model of survival for their own lives and for the life of state and synagogue. For Pharisees, it is vital to maintain clear lines of separation between those sheep that are part of the flock and sheep that are lost. There are those who are in and those who are out. And one does not mix with sinners and tax-collectors, with those who live, believe, or love differently. And one does not seek after sinners and tax-collectors, because their corrupt character might jeopardize the survival of the people as a whole.
If we are honest, we know that the Pharisees are still alive today – and not just among church leaders who call for all kinds of covenants, rules, and regulation. Even though Pharisees seem to be rather prominent among these clerics… But Pharisees are among us, too. Maybe we all have a little self-righteous Pharisee inside of us…
But Jesus doesn’t work that way. Jesus doesn’t do what we expect him to do. This is not about a gentle protector of the flock, laid thick with pastoral images. But today’s biblical image is both about Jesus tearing down the walls that stand between our selfishness and our sinfulness on the one hand and God’s mercy and compassion on the other and today’s image is about Jesus breaking through the divides that we have erected between in and out, between rich and poor, between male and female, between sinners and righteous. Jesus reaches out to each and every one of us. It’s not the flock that is at the centre of his interest. But for Jesus it is about you, yes, you, in all your beauty and frailty, you, however far you may have wandered away from the will of God or however much you have been hurt or pushed to the margin. You are God’s focus – you and your well-being.
This is one of the reasons why we baptize each and every one of God’s children individually. Baptism is no mass event. In baptism, God’s love and redemption is manifested in each and every single baptismal candidate. Like William today. At the moment when the baptismal waters will flow down William’s head, God’s Spirit will break through William’s isolation and will embrace William forever in a bond of love that nothing, absolutely nothing can sever.
But we cannot stop here. To focus solely on personal redemption would not reveal the full truth of the Bible. If we proclaim that salvation is a single act of conversion for the individual we are missing something vital, something intrinsic to God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ.
During my sabbatical, I have been reading again Alan Kreider’s The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom. In his book, Kreider shows that from her early beginnings, the church defined conversion not just as a matter of right belief, or as a matter of belonging to the right herd, but also as a matter of right behaviour. Those who are part of the flock of Christ are not passive sheep strutting along. But Christ’s flock follows by following Christ’s example. And this is his example: Jesus did not erect divides, but tore them down. Jesus did not deny human dignity to those who are different, neither did he exploit or oppress others, but Jesus embraced even tax-collectors. Jesus did not ridicule, defile, or burn what is sacred to others, but Jesus welcomed all, sat down with them and offered them food for body and food for soul. Jesus did not shy away from those who are broken, those who are hurting, those who have fallen, those who have sinned, or those who are different. Jesus sought them out.
Jesus wants all of us to know that God has never given up on us or turned her back on us, and never will. But God will forever seek us: when we have erred, until we turn from our foolish ways back into his loving embrace, and when we have been marginalized, until the healing power of his life-giving Spirit restores us to our rightful place in the midst of the assembly.
And this is good news for anybody who has ever been excluded or hurt by state or church or the corporate world. And it is good news for anybody who has ever messed up, or anybody who has ever done anything so wrong that he has lost all hope: God will not go anywhere, except after us. God will not give up on us.
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Luke 15:1-10 ~ Gospel Reading for September 12, 2010
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Posted by stpauls on September 11, 2010 under Staff Blog, Webmaster Blog |
Dear friends, dear parish family,
I am back. And I am glad to be.
After five months of good experiences, profound encounters, revealing learning opportunities, rekindled connections, personal growth, and (last but not least) deep spiritual nurture, I am very excited to be among you as your priest again. Yes, it was a wonderful opportunity. And, yes, I have missed you. And you will hear more about my sabbatical in weeks to come…
But I wanted to take this opportunity, to thank from the bottom of my heart the many who made the sabbatical possible. Thank you! I am indebted to you. A special thank you goes to the staff, and the members of the church committee, but also to these individuals who put in a lot of extra hours: Barry Goheen, Rose Desrochers, Steve
Shannon, Shirley Smith, Billy Sutherland, Jo Anne Tharalson, and Richard VanDelft. I also do not want to forget to offer my thanks to Yazeed Said, who has now moved on to Montreal. I know that he thoroughly enjoyed his time here in Vancouver in general and at St. Paul’s in particular. St. Paul’s really left an impression. (Which is really no surprise…) Finally, a big thank you to you all. Again: I am excited to be back and am looking forward to joining you in ministry and mission together.
Just one quick word of caution… A wise friend of mine who also just finished her sabbatical told her parish that she will be on sabbatical-lag for a wee bit. It’s a bit like jet-lag: Just like one needs time to adjust to different time zones when traveling, so the transition from sabbatical to parish life can be a bit daunting. I ask your patience and hope you will let me know when things don’t work as you are expecting them to work. Thank you!
Yours in Christ,
Reverend Markus Dünzkofer
Posted by stpauls on September 5, 2010 under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Luke 14:25-33 ~ Gospel Reading for September 5, 2010
Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.
“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”
