Posted by stpauls on November 28, 2010 under Sermons | 
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
These are words I have used in a sermon before, but they are words that still bring tears to the eyes of many parents: after months of hard work, after packing suitcases and loading your car, after carefully stowing the cooler with drinks and food, after a last washroom break, you are finally ready to go, anticipating the time in a place that promises respite, relief, and rejoicing. And then, ten, no, five minutes into the journey a high-pitched voice in the back-seat pipes up:
Are we there yet?
Thank God, car manufacturers have now responded to the nerve-wrecking nagging of the little “monsters” by installing all kinds of electronic gadgets. In a recent commercial, two smiling parents check their children in the rear mirror: One has his mac-book plugged into the onboard socket. Another child is watching a cartoon, and the oldest daughter is watching a teenage flick. Each kid has his or her own way of killing time on this “tedious” trip, while the parents enjoy peace and quiet. No wonder they are smiling!
But, as an article in the Globe and Mail a few years ago confirmed, there are also problems. Not only do our hyper-technologised and hyper-individualised cars tempt us to stop interacting with each other, but all the gadgets used to silence the interruptions by children also prevent us from interacting with the beauty of the world going by. The Globe and Mail article mourned the disappearance of a sense of awe for the wideness and beauty of this country.
And I would add something more theoretical: We are un-learning the importance of the journey. We don’t understand any more how getting there is part of the goal. We can no longer appreciate the value of relational processes.
Despite the commercials that imply a state of peacefulness in the car, shutting out everything but our own desires is not peace at all. It might create a silence, but this disconnected silence does not bring forth fruits that help any of us. Despite all the wonderful inventions, our contemporary world is faced with the danger of disengaging from the reality around us and disengaging from one other.
Are we there yet?
Unfortunately, this is also the cry of many of our co-religionists. For many, the Christian faith is just like a family van, which chauffeurs us from our earthly and often painful existence to the bliss of Paradise. However, as we speed through the landscape of reality towards the promised reward in the future, we too often ignore what goes on outside the van, ignore the beauty of creation and the awesomeness of life, and we ignore also and particularly anything that might have gone awry outside or inside the van.
So, the food packed for the journey is eaten in silence and by ourselves – and, woe, if we don’t get our favourite sandwich! The TV screens and CD-players play to our desires – and woe, if I don’t get my favourite movie, my favourite artist, my favourite musician, my favourite entertainment. For some there is only one single task: to get to the final destination, to get to “heaven” as fast as possible, and nothing, not even the needs of our sisters and brothers, should divert us from focusing all our energy on this one goal. Many see this kind of religion revealed in texts like today’s reading from Isaiah. “In the days to come,” Isaiah says, “in the days to come.” Yes, then, and only then everything will be better, will be resolved. In the meantime, let’s focus on getting there.
But this kind of future-oriented faith is not the faith to which God calls us. Neither God’s self-revelation in our Bible, nor God’s unique self-revelation in Jesus the Christ tell us to focus on getting to the end, while ignoring what it means to be on the journey with fellow sojourners. Christianity is not some cheap consolation that puts off God’s reign and bliss to a future date. God does not want us to live in anticipation of some age to come. But God wants us to live now so that we can discover God’s reign, which is here, which has already broken into our reality ever since that day when the angel announced unto Mary that she had conceived of the Holy Spirit and was pregnant with the Saviour of the world.
Biblical prophecy like today’s reading from Isaiah is far from being simplistic and one-dimensional: We would miss the point, if we would only interpret it as revelation about future events. Biblical prophecy is not just about “days to come,” but it is also about here and now. The prophets were not fortune-tellers who could make predictions about the future. But God’s prophets speak God’s wisdom, God’s will, and God’s truth into the reality of our existence, into the reality of now. Biblical prophecy holds up a mirror and reminds us what is already going on around us.
In this sense, Isaiah proclaims something that is happening around us: “The mountain of the LORD’s house is established as the highest of the mountains. Out of Zion already goes forth instruction. And nations are already beating their swords into ploughshares!”
But wait a minute!!! What the heck am I talking about? How can I say such nonsense when the reality of war and oppression is all around us, when North Korean tyrants kill their South Korean sisters and brothers and when sabre-rattling is heard all over the globe?
At last Thursday’s brownbag lunch, we had a wonderful discussion about current events. And we also discussed the looming crisis on the Korean peninsular. I had a rather bleak outlook, while some others were more optimistic and shared their general hope that war most often can be avoided by supporting and aiding those inside the country. This didn’t really convince me, especially because I believe the members of the North Korean leadership to be power-hungry, oppressive, and irrational despots with little regard for human life.
But then our new seminarian-intern spoke up.
Will shared a story about a friend, who through a program at Trinity Western University right now is teaching English to North Korean children and adults. It doesn’t seem like much, but by simply being present in her student’s lives, Will’s friend puts a human face on what the North Korean propaganda brands as “imperialists oppressors.” In a small way, Will’s friend is defusing the animosity, is building bridges across the divide, and is beating swords into ploughshares. She is revealing that God’s reign has already come among us – even in North Korea.
And this is true, not just on the big geopolitical scene. All over the world, followers of Jesus oppose injustice, work for peace, build bridges, and mend broken relationships. In every corner of our planet, God’s reign is revealed by those who dare to exit the family van, dare to take the Good News of God in Jesus Christ beyond our church walls, beyond our Sunday services.
When someone kneels at our healing station, receiving God’s healing of body, mind, and soul, then out of Zion already goes forth instruction. When our Altar Guild adorns this sacred place, then the LORD’s house is already established right here in our midst. When we provide for formation and study, then the Word of the Lord already goes forth from Jerusalem. When members of our choir enrich our worship, then nations already are taught in the way of the LORD. When our Homeless Outreach Worker embraces a homeless man and connects him with volunteers in our Advocacy Office for shelter and food, then nations already are streaming to God’s holy hill. When we open our doors to host the Vancouver Men’s Chorus, Sing City, the WestEnd Community Choir, the Food Bank, twelve-step groups, and other organisations, then many people already are going up to the mountain of the LORD. When our Labyrinth Guild unites people regardless of where they find themselves on the journey of faith, then spears already are beaten into pruning hooks. When feet are washed not minding the dirt, the bruises, the smell, or the history, then we have already been taught in the ways of the God of Jacob. When we exchange the peace with gusto and joy, then war is no longer taught amongst us. When we hold hands as we walk up to receive Christ’s body and blood, then we are already walking in the light of God. When we in whatever ministry welcome strangers and when we through whatever ministry reach out to the lost, the unwanted, the hurting, and the forsaken, then God’s vision is already alive in our midst.
Yes, we are a long way from the fulfilment of God’s reality. But this doesn’t mean that God’s reality hasn’t dawned on us yet. Yes, the day of Jesus’ triumphant return is yet to come. But this doesn’t mean that the evils and powers of the world have not already been overthrown by his birth, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension. Yes, only God’s Spirit will finalise the vision she revealed to the prophet Isaiah in today’s reading. But this doesn’t mean the Spirit isn’t nudging us to discover how this vision is taking shape all around us already.
Advent is not about anticipating the return of our Saviour. Advent is about celebrating Jesus, who has already come among us.
[The Reverend Markus Duenzkofer delivered this sermon on November 28, 2010.]
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Isaiah 2: 1-5 ~ Bible Reading for November 28, 2010
In days to come
the mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the LORD!
Posted by stpauls on November 26, 2010 under Webmaster Blog |
Special Commemoration of Dr. Peter Jepsen-Young: Some 20 years ago from coast to coast Canadians watched on the CBC the journey of “Dr.Peter” as he struggled with and eventually succumbed to HIV/AIDS. It was a courageous and prophetic witness to the beauty of life in all its God-intended diversity and it succeeded in making the HIV/AIDS-pandemic and issues of human sexuality a prime concern for Canadians. Dr. Peter gave HIV/AIDS and homosexuality a human face and opened Canadian hearts and minds to these issues.
At the time, Dr. Peter and his family were members of St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Vancouver’s West End. To honour his prophetic courage, the people of St. Paul’s Anglican Church will unveil a plaque inside the church on 5 December 2010 at the 10 a.m. celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Dr. Peter’s parents will be present for the occasion. (In addition to being the second Sunday in Advent, 5 December is also the Sunday following World AIDS Day, which commemorates the ongoing fight against this dreadful disease around the globe.)
[Reprinted from the Diocese of New Westminster Parish Mail, November 19, 2010.]
Posted by stpauls on November 21, 2010 under Sermons |
Great!
Just what we need on a day when we are about to baptise a wee bairn… On a day when we get together to celebrate the promise of new life in London Evelyn-Jules; when we delight in her beauty; when we ooh and ah over the awesomeness of human birth and human life, especially in infancy; when we get wobbly knees at the wonder of a little child’s smile and a child’s tiny hand holding on feebly to our fingers; when we are filled with love; on a day like this, we get these radical readings that disrupt our celebration, destroy any sense of wonder, and disturb our peace.
What were those who picked the readings for today thinking? What was the priest thinking, for crying out loud?! Why do we have to hear about death and destruction on a day like this? Why do we even have to hear about death and destruction at all? This is supposed to be Good News. How can the death of God’s son be good news at all? How can the account of anybody’s death be good news?
Traditionally, the church has interpreted the crucifixion as a sacrifice on our behalves. Our behaviour, our selfishness and ignorance, our lack of love for ourselves, for our neighbours, and for God – all these lead to death, lead to death of body, mind, and soul. But because Jesus died, we don’t have to die anymore. One death is enough! God sacrificed his only Son, so that we are no longer subject to the consequences of our sins, no longer subject to eternal death. Jesus’ death was on our behalves, was in our stead. God’s Son died on the cross – for us.
This is how the church has made sense of the gruesome reality of Jesus’ crucifixion. And, yes, this is truth, divinely revealed truth that we proclaim: Because of Jesus’ death, our sins are dead. And this not just truth, it is good news, too. It is good news for the many who are weighed down by those moments in their lives when they hurt themselves, when they hurt others, and when they hurt the love of God. It is good news for the many, who struggle with the power of guilt and shame and spiritual emptiness. It is good news for all of us, as we now can claim eternal life. It is good news! God has taken it all away: God has crucified every pain, every darkness, every sin, and every death on the cross of Jesus Christ.
But it leaves some with a bitter taste in their mouths…
Atonement theology is good news, but it is also not without problems. And I, for one, think it is problematic enough to make us examine and expand our interpretation of God’s self-revelation in, by, and through Jesus’ crucifixion and death.
There are two major problems, as I see them.
The first problem is this: What kind of God needs the sacrifice of his Son in order to atone for the sins of humanity? Can we still speak of God as loving, as caring, and as compassionate if he abandons his son on the hard wood of a cross? Can we still speak of God in ways that transcends an anthropomorphic interpretation of the divine, when God seems to act just like we do, when God seems to need a vengeful death? Why would God need bloodshed for our reconciliation?
These are serious questions. And if the church just dismisses these questions, judges them as inappropriate, or, even worse, if the church dismisses the questioner, and judges the questioners as inappropriate, then we are grieving the heart of God. We must listen to these questions and hear what the Spirit of God is saying to us through those who ask them. This does not mean we have to abandon the church’s traditional interpretation. But it might force us to explore new and additional avenues into understanding Jesus’ death on the cross.
One way of starting to find answers to these questions is to take seriously the incarnation. If we really hold fast to what was divinely revealed: that God took human form in Jesus, that in Jesus God is fully present, that Jesus is God – then Jesus’ death on the cross is not so much the death of God’s son, the death of somebody else (which, by the way, would not be a sacrifice at all, but would be bloody murder), but Jesus’ death is God’s death, is God’s self-sacrifice, is God’s willingness to experience pain and death, our pain and death – and redeem it.
Every aspect of our lives can be penetrated by God’s redeeming love, because God does not shy away from the human experience, whatever and how horrendous it might be. Even our darkness, even our death, even the horrendous, painful, lonely, abandoned death of a crucified criminal can be held in God’s loving embrace. God is there. God is here. God doesn’t run away, but stays put. God does not exit stage left when times get tough, or dark, or even deadly. God does not abandon humanity, does not abandon you or me. God will never let go of each and every one of us. God is there, waiting for us with outstretched arms, even when darkness, sin, and death seem to swallow us for ever. Even when pain, failure, and violence seem to squash us, God offers to take the burden on himself, just as much as he took the cross on himself.
I do believe and hold fast that this is indeed good news for us all. It gives us one entry point into understanding God’s love as revealed on the hard wood of the cross. It is good news for burdened bodies, minds, and souls.
But there is another problem, which makes many run for the hills when they hear of Jesus’ death.
Jesus’ death is the liberation from the power of our sin and death.
But doesn’t this mean that we are the reason for Jesus’ death in the first place? Isn’t it our misbehaviour, our failure to behave in such a way as is pleasing to God’s sight that brings about the Jesus’ crucifixion?
And it is true: We bring about the cross by rejecting God’s love, God’s will, and God’s commandments. We drive nails into the hands and feet of Jesus as we lie, cheat and steal, as we long for what is not ours, as we objectify the sacred beauty of other human beings, as we exploit our sisters and brothers, as we enslave children as cheap labour, as young girls and boys are abused and forced into sexual dependencies, as we murder one another in our pursuit for world domination, and as the reality of the global economy is a far cry from God’s reign of justice. Every time a child is born into hunger and starvation, every time a child cries for her mother killed by our wars, every time a child’s health is threatened by our violation of the environment, and every time a child is taught to disregard God, to disrespect his neighbour, or to disdain his own beautiful self, the spear is pushed harder into Jesus’ side. God cries out in agony, because of us.
But it is so easy to turn this prophetic truth into something that has nothing to do with the Gospel. All too quickly, fingers are pointed, guilt is assigned, others are judged and blamed, and the heavy burden of shame is shouldered by many. Then the cross is liberation no more; it is a heavy yoke, too heavy for us all. Condemnation and judgemental criticism don’t build up the church. They depress God’s children and scatter them to the four corners of the earth. And God will not stand for this! “Woe to the shepherds, who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, … [who] have driven them away, and [who] have not attended to them,” reveals Jeremiah. If the ordained and lay leaders will not take care of the flock in love, then God must and God will! God will overcome our fear and dismay. God will overcome, but not through guilt or shame. God will overcome through love and compassion.
Today, we will baptise London Evelyn-Jules. In her baptism, she will be linked to the love of God by a bond that no-one can sever and nothing can ever destroy. As water will run down her head in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, this beautiful, wonderful, and lovable child will be placed under the reign of the crucified and risen Christ Jesus.
However, the reign of Christ is nothing like what we see and experience in the world around us. The message of the cross reminds us that Christ’s reign is quite different from the lordships, kingships, and dominions of this world. It is not a lordship that seeks to rule and lord over us. It is not a kingship that fosters hierarchies. It is not a dominion that judges, shames, or condemns. God is not high above, waiting for us to reach up and up in desperate search for a distant king.
Rather, the reign of Christ seeks to serve all of God’s children by strengthening the weak, by healing the sick, by binding up the injured, by bringing back the strayed, and by seeking the lost.[1]
Today, London Evelyn-Jules will join this serving, loving reign of Christ and she won’t remain alone. She will find companions on the way, companions like Mother Theresa and Desmond Tutu, like Francis and Clare of Assisi, like the apostles Paul and Mary Magdalene; and London Evelyn-Jules will find companions like the ordinary members of this church, who in their extraordinary lives died to the ways of this world and found eternal life and joy by serving Jesus and by serving others. Today, God will join London Evelyn-Jules to the love of Jesus, who comes the other way, who meets us in our joys as much as in our pains, who embraces us in our successes as much as in our failures, who holds on to us on sunny days, on rainy days, and on all the days in between, and who offers to be with us in life, in death, and even beyond death.
[The Reverend Markus Duenzkofer delivered this sermon on November 21, 2010.]
[1] Cf. Ezekiel 34:1-10
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Luke 23:33-43 ~ Gospel Reading for November 21, 2010
When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!”
The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Posted by stpauls on November 20, 2010 under Staff Blog, Webmaster Blog |
The Advocacy Office can use donations of any toques and gloves or mitts (adult sizes). The weather is getting colder and the street population we serve appreciate anything warm. If you have pieces of fleece fabric, Ellen will make toques and mitts from them. Blankets, quilts and sleeping bags are always in need. PS: We always need coffee.
Posted by stpauls on November 14, 2010 under Sermons |
The ninth day of November seems to have been tied to the fate of my German homeland for quite some time.
On November 9th, 1848, Richard Blum, a member of the post-1848 German Revolution Parliament was executed, thus ending Germany’s first feeble attempts at democracy.
On November 9th, 1918, Wilhelm II, King of Prussia and German Kaiser was forced to abdicate and leave the country. A Republic was declared and the new government quickly entered into peace negotiations, which led to an end of World War One at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. This ended not only the expansionist ambitions of the House of Hohenzollern, but it also was the beginning of the end of European colonialism and imperialism all around the globe. The horrendous death toll, for example, of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli and of Canadian troops at Vimy Ridge not only helped stop the Kaiser’s thirst for power, but also was the birth of national identities, which allowed for a more egalitarian and democratic structure under the crown.
On November 9th, 1923, Adolf Hitler and some of his criminal friends for the first time tried to take over government by staging a coup in Munich. This was the first time the Nazi-party moved into the focus of attention beyond the borders of Germany.
And on November 9th, 1989, after a tumultuous summer and autumn the Berlin Wall finally came down, liberating East Germans from the yoke of Stalinist oppression.
Indeed, the ninth day of November is a significant date in the calendar of the German people.
However, I missed out one other important event.
On November 9th, 1938, a German diplomat died of wounds, inflicted by a man who had learned about the violent injustices his Jewish family had to endure under the Nazi regime. The Nazis used this assassination to stir and organize pogroms all over Germany. What since then has become known as “Kristallnacht,” due to the shattered glass of over 1400 synagogues that were destroyed should better be called “Pogrom-night.” Over 400 people died in this government-steered rage.
And the established churches, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Reformed, United, and Old Catholic alike, stood by. Some uttered hardly heard protests, but most looked away (or even participated) as the sacred worship places of Jewish sisters and brothers were desecrated, as God’s chosen people were murdered and raped, and as God himself was violated. Already in 1933, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer had called for the church to be more outspoken, to cry out loudly against injustice and oppression. Bonhoeffer demanded that the church must offer active resistance, must, in his words, grab the “spokes of the wheel” to stop the state from racing towards the abyss. But his prophetic words were not heeded and the institutional church became complicit in the injustices of the Third Reich. Religious institutions watched without shame as God’s heart was broken over 55 million times, every time a beloved child of God was sacrificed on the altar of terror, violence, and war between 1933 and 1945.
Of course, in hindsight it is easy to judge and condemn. And it is easy to assert that today we would do things differently. But would we? Only decades after allied troops with unbelievable sacrifice had liberated the concentration- and death-camps was the German church willing to acknowledge Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a martyr. Even though he had paid with his life for his faithfulness to God and for his prophetic witness during demonic days, for many he had been a traitor to the country. The idea of “My Country Right or Wrong” was prevalent even after the war. The Nazis were an abomination, but you still had to support your country when times got tough, right? And of course the church couldn’t possibly engage in active resistance. The church should stay out of politics!
“My Country Right or Wrong” isn’t just a German issue and it isn’t just an issue faced by those living under oppressive regimes. Many still do argue today that church and politics don’t mix. They hold that the church’s job is to take care of souls only. The church should not be involved in active resistance to war and oppression or in prophetic witness to justice and peace, so they say.
Many have used scripture, like today’s reading from the Gospel according to Luke, to justify just this kind of attitude. After all, doesn’t Luke just confirm that the church should stay out of the business of politics, because our job is to take care of souls? Wars, terror, oppression, horror, death, and all the things that harm us in body and mind are just part of our existence, are just part of the way things are meant to be, right?
I remember lamenting the pain and darkness all around us in one of my sermons not too long ago. And somebody objected loudly, because the pain and darkness was willed by God, he argued. It was all just part of the birth pangs of the day to come, when Jesus will overcome the darkness for ever. The objector, who was a random visitor, believed that there is no reason to lament. In the end, we are destined for a better life, a better existence in heaven. So, don’t worry about the injustices around you. Worry about going to heaven. Yes, it really isn’t the church’s job to get involved in this earthly existence.
Sorry. Wrong. This kind of attitude is not biblical! It is not biblical, even if it gets espoused by so called biblical literalists. It is in fact contradicting the biblical witness, opening the door for the heresy of Gnosticism to creep into the church. For all their rhetoric that decries the mainstream church as heretical, it is surprising how off and how unbiblical fundamentalist theology really is.
The fundamental problem with this kind of fundamentalist theology is that it assumes we all have an immortal soul, which death separates from the body at death to return to God. Our bodies are mere vessels that can be disposed of. Such distinction between body and soul came to the Christian church through Greek philosophy and it was twisted by Gnostic beliefs, which operated out of a dualistic system: On the one hand there is created matter. Everything created, everything earthly, was viewed as finite, bad, corrupted, and evil. On the other hand, everything spiritual was seen as infinite, good, heavenly and divine. Our spirit is supposedly trapped in a body and it is only logical, that one would not want to remain part of earthly things. Heaven, here we come! Or better: Heaven here our spirits come!
But this kind of theology does not jive with God’s self-revelation. If that were so, we would have to throw out today’s reading from Isaiah and many other scripture passages, too. Yes, Isaiah speaks of a new way of being, which will allow us forget the pain and agony of our present existence. And therein lies our hope, especially as we remembered last week the saints and other loved-ones who have died and as we remember today those men and women who lost their lives in defence of liberty.
The dead will indeed be reborn into an existence that will be void of weeping and crying, void of any form of distress. But this new existence is not in heaven. It is a new earth, which is connected to our present day as much as Jesus’ earthly life is connected to his post-Easter, post-Resurrection identity. Just as it is the same brother, the same friend, the same Lord and Master, who died and who was raised in his entirety, so in the vision of Isaiah, God reveals that the new earth is connected to what God had created at the beginning of time. Why would God destroy what he had once created?
Furthermore, because death did not have the final word and could not hold captive the Crucified for ever, God’s eternal Love broke forth from the grave to overcome death and bring forth a new reality: The new earth, God’s reign has already dawned. And as citizens of the new earth we are part of God’s plan to bring about justice and peace, even now, even here.
Luke’s words are a reminder that while change is as much part of our lives as the air we breathe, things don’t get better. There is no such thing as eternal progression. The world will always suffer, and God’s children will always be in pain. Conversely, things don’t get worse either. We are not spinning down a spiral. And there are no reasons to give up on the world, to give up on our sisters and brothers.
We cannot and must not give up on working for peace and justice. The reality of darkness and death is “an opportunity to testify” (Luke 21:13): Testify not to a Gnostic understanding that promises a better existence in heaven, but to an understanding of God’s self-revelation. It is an opportunity to testify to the way God created us as holistic individuals with bodies that are part of God’s plan. “Soul” in the biblical sense is our total existence, is who and what we are in its entirety. And Jesus came into the world to save us not by taking only a bit of who we are to a better place. But God embraced us in Jesus Christ, and embraced all of us, all of who and what we are. And God deeply cares about our human existence.
Salvation is not just about reconciling with God. Salvation is as much about justice and peace as it is about the preservation of creation, which God created as good, which God affirmed as good by becoming human in Jesus Christ, and which God is revealing more clearly in its beautiful goodness since the Resurrection. This is a process that includes our active participation and that will only be completed on that day when God will be all in all.
[The Reverend Markus Duenzkofer delivered this sermon on November 14, 2010.]
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Isaiah 65:17-25 ~ Bible Reading for November 14, 2010
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD– and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent– its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Luke 21:5-19 ~ Gospel Reading for November 14, 2010
When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”
They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?”
And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.
“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.”
Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
Posted by stpauls on November 7, 2010 under Sermons |
The festival of All Saints is one of the oldest celebrations in the calendar of the church. The Christian East first introduced a festival to celebrate the saints some sixteen hundred years ago. According to the Greek Orthodox calendar the first Sunday after Pentecost is still called “The Sunday of the Saints.”
In the Christian West, the first recognition of saints was a commemoration of the martyrs on May 13th, emphasizing earlier traditions of remembering those who had died for the faith and who therefore were alive in God and close to God’s heart.
The celebration of a feast for all Saints on or around November 1st came to Western Europe from the Celtic Church in the 8th century. The content was thoroughly Christian, but the date had actually been “stolen” from pre-Christian Celtic traditions. On or around November 1st, the Celtic people of the British Isles celebrated “Samhain.” Samhain was initially and primarily a harvest thanksgiving. But Samhain also included some aspect of commemorating the dead. The Celts believed that the border between our world and the world of the dead became “thin” on Samhain. Fall was a time of death for many animals and plants and as these deceased animal- and plant-spirits penetrated the gate between life and death, the gate opened wider allowing for the greater numbers, but allowing also for the dead to reach back into our world.
We might smile at this kind of spirituality and maybe consider it even underdeveloped. But not so fast…
The Celts were a people with a culture that was deeply rooted in what the earth provided. And they had great observation skills. They were trying to make sense of what they saw and experienced. And maybe these early people observed something that is part of God’s creation, but to which we no longer have access in our busy and often times disconnected world… After all, if we really believe that God is the Creator of all, is omnipotent and omnipresent, then God was very much part of the lives of the Celts, too, even if they did not understand God’s profound presence in their lives.
This does not at all mean we have to embrace pantheism, panentheism, or even paganism. There is only one God, who created the heavens and the earth. There is only one God, who is the source and the end of all being. There is only one God and it is the one God, who is fully and uniquely revealed in Jesus Christ.
But God desires profoundly to be known by His creation. God in fact yearns to be known by us. God wants for us to encounter Her, so that we might be fully embraced by the Divine whoever we are, whatever we are, and wherever we find ourselves on the journey. We really cannot set limits to the way God seeks to be present and reveal Himself in our lives and in the lives of others. It is God’s business. And God sometimes chooses voices from the outside to remind us of a truth we might have forgotten. God sometimes uses surprising people, in surprising places to make God’s will known to us.
This does not mean that everything goes. There are perceptions that don’t help us move forward deeper into the mystery of our triune God. But, we must be open for God’s voice to speak to us in surprising ways. This is why the discernment by the community of faith in light of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason is so essential.
As we consider the insights of the Celtic people in their celebration of Simhain, we must remember this: Those who have died cannot reach back into our lives on their own account. The biblical revelation of God’s reality assures us that the dead are in the arms of God. They are not wandering, aimless spirits, separated from empty bodies that roam the earth or an underworld looking to communicate with us. But at death the soul, i.e. one’s complete identity, enters into the loving embrace of God. The dead are secure and safe. They are at rest. They are at peace, immersed fully in God – until that day when all shall rise again to life and when the children of God are resurrected to inhabit a new earth where there will be no more pain or death, but where justice and peace will penetrate every fibre of our being, and where God’s love will reign for us to enjoy forever.
This does not mean we are cut off completely in this life from those who have gone before us. We can witness to the immortal bond of love that binds us together as we commend the dead to God’s care in prayer. In the celebration of baptism and other sacraments, we are united intimately and viscerally with the church of all ages. And of course, the lives of those who have died still impact us in our own lives today.
Maybe this is what Celts experienced when the days got shorter and the sky grew grey: The echoes of those who had gone before grew stronger and the memories of the deceased moved closer to the conscious. And maybe God in Her infinite wisdom appointed this time of the year not for the dead to be able to reach back into our world or for us to be able to reach into the reality of the dead. But maybe this is the appointed time for us to experience glimpses of that peace, which surrounds those who rest in the arms of God. Maybe November is indeed a thin time, not unlike thin places where God’s love seems palpable in sensual ways.
I wish we would reclaim some of the ancient Celtic insights for us. Not because, we should all become pagans again. Far from it. This is no call for a problematic and dangerous syncretism. But as I learned about the traditions of Simhain, I wondered whether the ancient Celts actually have something to teach us in our days when too often the questions about death and dying and about those who have gone before us remain unanswered or are answered in rather unsatisfactory ways.
As I said, the Celtic festival of Simhain was celebrated at the end of the gathering of the harvest. Samhain was a Thanksgiving. And isn’t this what All Saints’ is all about? It is a Thanksgiving. We give thanks for the harvest of the saints, the rich, diverse, life-giving, and profound harvest of the saints, who have gone before us. Maybe November is the time for us to look at the saints, to listen to the echo that they have left behind, and to commemorate the lives that they have lived. This celebration might even involve more than our minds and memory, but also our senses and everything connected to the earthly lives of the saints. If God touched a human being, do we really think this amazing encounter didn’t have an impact on the cosmos and didn’t leave behind traces of the encounter for us to discover? The echoes of the lives of the saints can be heard, felt, tasted, seen, smelled, and spoken of, even today.
I believe that this kind of veneration is “meek and right,” because in the end, it really isn’t about the saints. It is about God, who revealed himself, not in a vacuum, but in and through the lives of individuals: individuals who lived millennia ago, individuals who live in our own day and age, and individuals whose birth is yet to come. These individuals are channels of God’s grace. Like candles, God lit these saints with the flame of the Holy Spirit, whose light pierces any darkness and can never be overcome, not even by death. If the veneration of the saints helps us to discover this very light, then let’s do it.
If this form of veneration, however, becomes more about the candle than about the flame, more about the saint than about the Spirit of God, then we no longer give thanks in an appropriate way.
And we also no longer celebrate the saints in an appropriate way, if our veneration is limited to the lives of those identified by the church in a special way.
This is why today’s reading from Luke is so important.
Unlike Matthew, Luke sets Jesus’ Beatitudes not on a mountain, but on a field, among the people. God’s people don’t have to climb high to find God, but God in Jesus Christ comes the other way, comes among them, comes among us, whoever we are, and wherever we find ourselves on the journey. And God affirms that the love of God is not just for special people. God embraces all people, especially the poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those who are hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed on behalf of the Son of Man. The saints are a diverse multitude, loved by God, embraced by God, and never forgotten by God. And they are not perfect. They are like you and me, they are you and me, stumbling along, but rejoicing in God’s gift of life and trusting in God’s promise of love.
Today we celebrate the saints. Today we celebrate those, who in baptism have started their journey with Christ, who will let God’s life-giving Spirit penetrate every fibre of their being, and who trust that they will be embraced by God’s love in intimate ways, even beyond death. Today, we celebrate the saints, both those whose faith is a public witness to God’s love, and those whose faith is known to God alone.
[The Reverend Markus Duenzkofer delivered this sermon on November 7, 2010.]
