tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16025927136317532312024-03-08T02:42:02.180-08:00Me in my small cornerWe are not alone,
We live in God's world...LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-85468983415903620882014-05-15T09:02:00.001-07:002014-05-15T09:02:40.387-07:00Sermon: The Public Witness of BillboardsHere is my sermon from May 4th, 2014<br />
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had the privilege of attending a worship leadership course in Thunder Bay, Ontario last weekend. I left Winnipeg on Thursday and drove 2 hours to my hometown Kenora, then in Kenora I caught a carpool on Friday and we drove the additional 5 hours to Thunder Bay. It was a long journey. Northwestern Ontario has some breathtaking scenery: I love the pines and the rocky hills, but as beautiful as it was, it was still a long drive. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since I was lucky enough to be the passenger in this car, I occupied myself by reading road signs and billboards. And what I found particularly interesting were the billboards with scripture quotations. Things like:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Seek ye me (Jesus) and ye shall live”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I started to wonder what verse from scripture I would choose if I was planning to put up a billboard. I wonder who is deciding which verses belong on billboards, and why they want the verses to be in the very beautiful but quite old-fashioned King James version. I wonder what verse each of you would choose to put on a billboard. How would you sum up the good news… the meaning of the gospel, in one verse?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The conclusion that I’ve come to personally is that it is impossible to sum it up in a single sentence. Ask me what the good news is right now, and then ask me again in ten minutes and you’ll get two different answers. It’s not that I believe that the Good News changes, but </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I change</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: and whatever it is that God has done for me and continues to do for me through Jesus Christ is so huge that I can’t seem to ever fully comprehend it. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s why I think it’s important to look at the whole of scripture, not just isolated verses. Although isolated verses can give us a word of Good News at a particular time, different verses apply to different times and situations. That’s why we need the whole of scripture, every word. And we need to hear it regularly as we go through changes in our lives. We need the multifaceted word of God to guide us on our journey through this vast land of human experience.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today we continue on our journey through the church season of Easter. The last time I was here worshipping with you, the season of Lent was ending, and in the time between then and now, we commemorated the most important events of the Christian faith: the crucifixion and the resurrection. Now in the season of Easter, we journey with the resurrected Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I pondered today’s lectionary readings for a long time until I noticed something: in the Gospel stories from Lent, Jesus is the main character, the star of the show. In today’s Gospel reading, the focus is on the disciples: what they see and experience. The story has shifted from a story about Jesus to a story about us: the followers of Jesus. And the season of Easter seems like the appropriate time of the year to ask ourselves: “what does it mean for us to walk with the resurrected Christ?”.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today’s responsive psalm reading gave us the words of one person who had a personal experience with the living God. This person was in deep suffering and cried to the Lord for salvation. Then this author tells us that the Lord saved him, and he struggled with the question about what is a worthy human response to the experience of salvation. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What shall I render to the Lord for all his bounty to me?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What can I give back to the Lord for all the good things he’s done for me?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a great question. What do you give the God who has everything… the God who </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">made </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">everything, the Creator of heaven and Earth? The psalm writer decides that all he can offer is his gratitude. He offers public gratitude, “in the presence of all God’s people”.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do we, as disciples of Christ, show our gratitude to God in the presence of all God’s people. Perhaps we give thanks in prayer before meals. Perhaps it is just the way we talk in a casual conversation with someone, expressing our appreciation for our blessings in life as being gifts from God. As much as people like to laugh at football players who credit God for their touchdown, I think that is also a form of testimony, a reminder that the glory of our success has not come because we have done something to deserve it, but because God is generous and bountiful and blesses us. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today’s reading from the Book of Acts described a very public action taken by Jesus’ disciple Peter. In this passage, Peter preaches the Gospel, he preaches salvation and repentance, and his words lead three thousand people to baptism. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peter, as a disciple, goes beyond expressing his gratitude to God publicly. He shares the Good News and inspires people to become baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For many in the Church today, there is a strong desire to share the Good News with the people around us. We want to bring people into this wonderful and flawed community that we call the Church, where we ourselves have experienced salvation. Yet the experience of trying to, as some people call it, “bring people to Christ”, often seems fruitless. Where are the three thousand people who are going to listen to me testify and then go and get baptized? My normal experience goes more like this: bring a friend to church, my friend says it’s nice, my friend never attends church again.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So when I’m pondering the meaning of discipleship, and I look on the behaviours and successes of the early disciples in the Book of Acts, I am left with these unresolved questions about the role of Jesus-followers as people who inspire others to join the faith. Am I trying hard enough to live out this aspect of discipleship?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One comforting response to this issue comes through in Peter’s letter that we heard today. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peter’s words in this passage remind us that discipleship is not something that we have initiated. Discipleship is our natural reaction to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Thank God that it is not good discipleship that makes us Christian, but rather our faith that makes us good disciples. For we are saved by our loyalty to Christ, not by our actions. And we remain flawed human beings, even as our faith compels us to strive to be good Christian disciples. We strive, as Peter says in the letter, “to purify our souls by obedience to the truth” and to “love deeply from the heart”. We do this not to please God, but through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And even with the power of the Holy Spirit that works in us through our lives, we do remain flawed human beings. And perhaps that’s why it is so easy to relate to the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The clueless disciples who can’t recognize Jesus. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These are disciples who have heard the Good News about the resurrection from the women who visited the tomb but are unable to believe it. They have lost hope and are so trapped in their own doubt that they are unable to recognize the Risen Christ when they encounter him. We might wonder how they could possibly have been unable to recognize the one that they journeyed with for so long and who had been the central figure in their lives. Yet this experience of being unable to recognize Christ in contexts where we don’t expect to meet him continues to be a common experience for Christians. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It seems like section 6.2.1 in the Presbyterian Church’s Living Faith: A Statement of Belief Document describes this story almost perfectly when it says:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: none; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are not always certain that God is with us. At times God calls us to live in this world</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">without experiencing the divine presence, often discerning God's nearness only as we look back.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This is exactly what happened to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Looking back, they discerned God's nearness, and they remember that when Christ was with them, even when they did not know it, still their hearts were burning within themselves.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reflecting on this story, I think about how often I see a stranger and do not recognize the light of Christ in him or her. If I became better at recognizing this light in other people I think my behavior would change. If I could recognize the light of Christ in the people around me, in the stranger,I think I would become less fearful and more generous. But I am like the disciples in the story: flawed, human, and kind of clueless.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fortunately in my life God has been persistent. Like Jesus who explains scripture in this passage, God has spoken to me through the Scriptures. God renews my faith and restores my hope. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scripture is a reliable source of inspiration and revelation, but the Emmaus Road story also points us towards another source of revelation: the ordinary.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We know a lot of Jesus stories in which he performs miracles, but it is interesting that in the Emmaus road story the recognition of Jesus by the disciples comes through an ordinary act that anyone might have performed: the breaking of bread. Like Jesus who revealed himself in the breaking of the bread, God reveals himself to us in the ordinary things of life. In meals shared with friends we experience something holy. When I hear the first birdsong outside my window in the spring, I feel the comfort of God’s presence. When my friend in Thunder Bay showed me the crocuses sprouting up through the snow in her yard last weekend I felt the hope of new life and renewal. God speaks to us through scripture, but I also believe that if we pay attention, God is trying to reach us through ordinary things in our day-to-day lives. If we are paying attention, there are abundant clues that God is a God of resurrection: of renewal and hope and grace. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is nothing wrong with being a disciple who needs this kind of reassurance, both from scripture and from the ordinary stuff of life. There are ample examples in scripture of disciples who experience doubt but are brought back to faith through the many ways the Holy Spirit comes to meet us where we are. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today’s scripture readings spoke to me about discipleship, probably because discipleship has lately been a burning question in my mind. This is all part of the magic of scripture for me, that in pondering the word of God I find wisdom for my daily life. And if I had to summarize what I learned about discipleship from this week’s scriptures I would say that a disciple:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">expresses gratitude in the presence of all God’s children.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">lives and acts in response to what God has done for them in Jesus Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Purifies their soul by obedience to the truth.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Loves deeply from the heart</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And a disciple also...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Loses hope.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Regains hope through a the words of a stranger </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Doesn’t always recognize Christ </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Regains hope through hearing the scriptures.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Breaks bread in community.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Has a heart that burns.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tells the story.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the following week, and in every day of our lives, may we be open to the power of the Holy Spirit, and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ help us to live ever more fully into our lives as both flawed human beings and disciples of the risen Lord. </span></div>
LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-36925693139366400872014-05-07T14:55:00.002-07:002014-05-07T14:58:10.484-07:00Assurance of PardonWhen I lead worship I use a lot of prayer that have been written by other people, so I thought I should start posting prayers/liturgy that I write in case it might be helpful to someone else. You know, completing the circle.<br />
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<u>Assurance of Pardon (based on Matt 7:7 and Psalm 51:10)</u><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-c9771992-d8ad-7ab7-e859-7af7e326a759"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like the writer of the psalm, we come to the Lord for help, saying “create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me”. We know that when we seek the help of the Lord in our weaknesses, we shall receive this help, for Jesus has said “ask and it will be given unto you, seek and you shall find”.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-15625559588319334822014-04-04T14:04:00.000-07:002014-04-04T14:09:42.899-07:00TithingI'm working on an assignment for my Teaching and Learning in the Church course and we are looking at Thomas Groome's book "Will There Be Faith?: A New Vision For Education and Growing Disciples". I don't know that I would really recommend this book because you could save yourself some time and get this gist of it by watching this Youtube video:<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPqRSbp-VLo" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPqRSbp-VLo</a><br />
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<br />
For our assignment we have to come up with an example of a topic that you could teach with this approach (it could probably be anything). The topic that came to my mind was money and giving, which led me to this great article about tithing (which I absolutely WOULD recommend reading):<br />
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<a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2013/spring/tithing-law-or-grace.html%20" target="_blank">http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2013/spring/tithing-law-or-grace.html </a>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-47883745640496998832014-02-15T15:54:00.001-08:002014-02-15T15:54:51.259-08:00Ten Commandments Poem
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;">The Ten Commandments in Verse</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">(from McGuffey's
Reader)</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Above all else love God alone;<br />
Bow down to neither wood nor stone.<br />
God's name refuse to take in vain;<br />
The Sabbath rest with care maintain.<br />
Respect your parents all your days;<br />
Hold sacred human life always.<br />
Be loyal to your chosen mate;<br />
Steal nothing, neither small nor great.<br />
Report, with truth, your neighbor's deed;<br />
And rid your mind of selfish greed.<br />
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The Sum of the Commandments<br />
With all your soul love God above,<br />
And as yourself your neighbor love.</span></div>
LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-4445251032954027142014-01-20T09:55:00.001-08:002014-01-20T09:55:26.603-08:00Sermon: Sunday of Week of Prayer for Christian Unity<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is the sermon I preached on January 19th, 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of my favourite things about this particular church is the singing. I like singing the traditional hymns, it makes me feel in touch with the Christians who came before me, the communion of saints, the great cloud of witnesses, the ones who sang these same words and tunes, drawing strength and courage in times of trouble, or belting out their joy in happier times. Another thing I really appreciate about the music in this church is the strength of the voices. It often seems to me that the volume and intensity of the singing doesn’t increase with the size of the congregation in larger churches. I think a lot of people are just mouthing the words. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-2f070fb3-b0c7-77f2-1ef1-bd69e4964742" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I remember when I started attending worship with the “grown-ups”, in that awkward time between being a Sunday school student and a full adult. I knew all the Sunday school songs, but I didn’t know the church hymns. And I mouthed the words. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t mouth the words anymore though. I still sing really really quietly when I’m learning a new song for the first time. Some people are more confident when learning a song for the first time. Those of us who like to sing quietly until we gain more confidence rely on the strong voices of the confident leaders to carry the tune. It is like this in other areas of Church life as well: some people are natural leaders who keep the church organized and accomplishing its mission. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem with leadership is that sometimes natural leaders can get carried away. They confuse their own agenda with God’s agenda. They are singing the wrong tune and throwing off the harmony of the church. This is the issue that Paul addresses in his first letter to the Corinthians. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today’s lectionary passage from this letter was just a preview of what is to come in the rest of the letter. The beginning of Paul’s letter set the tone for the advice that follows. After the initial address and greeting in this letter Paul gives words of encouragement to the Corinthians by thanking God that their lives have been evidence of Christ, and he expresses his confidence that the members of the church in Corinth will be strengthened and become blameless.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><span style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 1; white-space: pre-wrap;">It seems like Paul is softening up the Corinthians before he continues on to present them with some hard truths about the conflict they are experiencing in their church. Next week’s lectionary reading with continue this letter, and we will hear Paul tell the Corinthians that he has heard that they have been fighting amongst themselves. He asks “Has Christ been divided?”. Since the church is the body of Christ, he is really asking “has the church been divided?”. The way he puts it is a little more emphatic and stresses the seriousness of the situation. It is one thing to have divided an assembly of worshipers, but this is more than that, this is a division in the body of our Lord.</span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This week’s passage from Corinthians, combined with next week’s lectionary passage are being used as the focus scripture for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This is a specific week of the year (that is actually 8 days long) celebrated from January 18th-25th. Each year the World Council of Churches, in partnership with the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity publishes worship resources that have been prepared by churches in a specific country for this Week of Prayer. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last year the churches in India produced the material, based on Micah 6:6-8. Their theme was “What does God Require of Us?”. This year, the resources were developed in Canada by a group that met in Montreal and Saskatoon. This group included representatives from the Catholic, United, Orthodox, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches. The representative from the Presbyterian church was the Rev. Amanda Currie, minister and clerk of the Presbytery of Northern Saskatchewan. As I mentioned before, this group used the beginning of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians as inspiration for choosing their worship theme. They named their theme “Has Christ been Divided?”.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the question Paul asks in his letter after he tells the Corinthians that he knows they have been fighting. This remains a serious question to this day, as much of a serious question as it was at the Church of God in Corinth, if not more. Now, not only do we have churches with internal conflict, we also have a multitude of different denominations that disagree on major issues like the role of women in ministry and the status of LGBT people within the church. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The group of Canadian representatives who developed the resources for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity considered the issues in the global church and asked themselves the question: “Has Christ been Divided?”. The answer they came up with was:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“In faith we respond, “No!” yet our church communities continue to embody scandalous divisions. 1 Corinthians also points us to a way in which we can value and receive the gifts of others even now in the midst of our divisions, and that is an encouragement to us in our work for unity”.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think the part of 1 Corinthians that points us in the right direction for our work towards Christian unity is the part where Paul says:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind, just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The line that stands out for me the most is Paul’s insistence that “you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.” It’s an important message to hear in a conflicted church. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When rivalry springs up between different leaders in the church and people start taking sides, it quickly escalates, and in the tumult we sometimes lose sight of God. When we stop thinking about the role of God in our lives and the power of God’s grace to bring reconciliation in our broken relationships, we become overwhelmed by the negativity of the conflict. We are in danger of being lost in the desolate pit, the miry bog of self-doubt. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><span style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">We need to hear Paul’s reassurance that we are not lacking in any spiritual gift, because in times of major stress and fighting, it’s easy to neglect our own spiritual giftedness. God has given each of us the spiritual gifts that we can use to reconcile with each other. How might this change our approach to conflict if we remembered that we are not lacking any spiritual gift that we need to live into God’s vision of peace in this world? How might it change our approach to conflict if we started looking for God’s spiritual gift in our enemy, remembering that they too are a child of God? </span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The group of Canadians who assembled in Montreal to plan the resources for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity were from a variety of Christian denominations that disagree on these things that we think of as major issues in Christianity. Yet they were able to agree on their answer to the question “Has Christ been Divided?”, and they were able to answer “no”. Surely, in the time of togetherness when they developed this year’s theme, they were allowing their spiritual giftedness to guide them, a giftedness that we all possess and only need to realize more fully.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul’s letter to the Corinthians addresses a specific form of church conflict having to do with multiple leaders in the church pushing their own agendas. This is just one source among many sources of disunity in our churches and in our lives. Today’s responsive psalm reading spoke to me powerfully about another issue that often stands in the way of reconciliation in our lives. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the psalm, the writer expresses their joy to God saying “you have given me an open ear”. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I learned this week that this sentence would be literally translated from the original Hebrew as “you have dug ears for me”. I was very struck by this image. These words were written in celebration by someone who had been lifted out of the desolate pit and was now able to hear God’s truth. “You have dug ears for me”. It almost sounds painful, it’s a very physical image, much more than just saying “now I’m a good listener” or “I’ve learned to listen to God”. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wonder about the process of getting one’s ears dug out. What exactly is the muck and the mud plugging our ears and stopping us from hearing God’s truth? I think it must be all the lies that we tell each other, the lies we tell that come from our own insecurity, the lies we tell when we forget our own spiritual giftedness and speak from the worst parts of ourselves. The muck and the mud that stops up our ears might be the words that we are flinging around during power struggles and conflict in the church and outside of the church.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I found much in today’s psalm reading that spoke to me about how to overcome conflict in the church and in our lives. The lines both before and after the part about “open ears” name different types of religious practices that were common at the time the psalm was written. The author says, “God, you do not require these practices, you only want me to listen to you”. A good lesson for times when conflict centres around the “right” way to worship God.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another line in the psalm says “I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation”. What it doesn’t say is “I have explained to everyone in the congregation exactly how wrong and sinful they are”. The person who wrote this psalm has shared their joy, and not their criticism. They have spoken from their own life experience not to frighten people into a closer relationship with God, but simply to rejoice publicly in the good works God has done in their lives. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think this psalm also speaks to me of Christian unity simply by the fact that it is a psalm. The Book of Psalms is something treasured and read by all Christian denominations. It contains the words of our ancestors in the faith. These are the words of joy and grief that the people of God have been using to express their spiritual lives for thousands of years! </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I said earlier that I enjoy singing the old hymns because they make me feel connected to the Christians of the past. The Book of Psalms contains the oldest hymns we have, words used by Jesus Christ himself as he hung on the cross and spoke the words of Psalm 22 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few years ago I spent several months living in France. In my homesickness, I started attending the only Protestant church I could find: a Baptist Church run by American missionaries. In a lot of ways, the theology of this church was very different than the church that I grew up in, but the greatest comfort was singing the familiar hymns. The words were translated into French, but the tunes were the same. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pessimist in me, when confronted with the question “Has Christ been Divided?” “Is the Church divided?” wants to answer yes. But when all the angry, nasty words that have been spoken by the church, in the church, and about the church have been dug out of my ears, sometimes all I can hear is the church singing. The church singing the songs of our ancestors. The church singing in unison. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-39374244209697782432014-01-20T09:51:00.000-08:002014-01-20T09:51:22.075-08:00Acts 10:34 Sermon<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is the sermon that I preached on January 12th, 2014.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I truly understand that God shows no partiality.” </span></span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-1a481015-b0bf-32b9-9806-6baad63b35cb" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simon Peter speaks these words to Cornelius the Centurion and his household in Caesarea, a port city on the coast of the Mediterranean. He’s not supposed to be here. He’s not supposed to be in the house of a Roman citizen. As a first century-Jew, he’s not supposed to be rubbing shoulders with anyone who isn’t Jewish, or even anyone who isn’t the “right kind” of Jewish. But here he is as a result of a strange chain of events that began four days before the delivery of the sermon that we heard in today’s reading from the Book of Acts. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The story doesn’t actually begin with Peter. It begins, like everything, with God. It begins with God and Cornelius, the gentile. Although he wasn’t Jewish, Cornelius gave generously to the poor and prayed constantly to God. He is described as a devout and God-fearing man. And God took special notice of this, and sent an angel to tell him to send for Simon Peter. Cornelius, being a God-fearing man, sent for Simon Peter right away.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, about 60km away in Joppa, Peter is hungry. He is praying on the rooftop at the seaside home of Simon the tanner. He has a vision. The sky opens up and a blanket comes out of the sky and settles on the ground. On the blanket is every kind of animal and reptile and bird you can imagine. And a voice tells Peter to “kill and eat”. But Peter is Jewish and believes in special dietary laws that forbid the eating of animals except those that chew the cud and have cloven hoofs. And many of the animals in this vision do not fit the description of what Peter had been taught was acceptable food. So Peter says “I can’t eat these animals -- I’ve never eaten anything before that wasn’t kosher”. But the voice says “if God says it’s okay, it’s okay”, and this happens three times before the blanket covered in animals disappears, and Peter sits there trying to figure out what it all means. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s when Cornelius’ servants show up, and they tell Peter about the angel that came to Cornelius the Centurion. The next day they all set off together to Caesarea.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">GoogleMaps says that to travel from Tel Aviv (modern day Joppa) to Caesarea it would be a twelve hour walk or an hour and a half by public transit. Peter and the other men didn’t have the option of public transit so it takes them another full day to get to Cornelius’ house. When they get there, they find a house full of people. Cornelius had invited over a bunch of his friends and relatives because he knew that something important was about to happen. When Peter shows up Cornelius falls on his face and worships him. Peter insists that he stand up, saying “I am only a mortal”.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So Peter and Cornelius swap stories about how God brought them together, then Cornelius says “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.” </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Peter says: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality”. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was a remarkable thing for a 1st century Jew to say to a group of Gentiles. This was a dangerous thing for a Jew to say at that time. In fact, when Peter returned to Jerusalem after this incident, he faced serious criticism from the Jerusalem Jews about eating with Gentiles. Little did they know that not only did he eat with them, he preached that God’s saving grace was for Gentiles and Jews alike. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Upon his return to Jerusalem Peter defended himself against the Jews who said he shouldn’t have eaten with Gentiles by telling them his dream about the blanket and the animals. It’s easy to think that this dream is what inspired Peter’s message about the universality of God’s saving grace that he preached to the household of Cornelius. Certainly, God had intervened very directly, giving Peter a vision and sending an angel to Cornelius. This dream was a message from God to Peter telling him that indeed, God shows no partiality and that the community of Jesus-following Jews at that time should cease to discriminate against people who did not follow Jewish law. The Jews in Jerusalem understood this when Peter told them about his dream. They, who had criticized him, were speechless, and when they had let the meaning of this sink in, they praised God, realizing that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God’s saving grace is open to everyone</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Truly, God shows no partiality. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Peter really understood what those words meant. He knew them to be true not just because of the vision he had seen, but the life he had lived. Peter lived a life that prepared him to understand the vision that God gave to him on the rooftop in Joppa. Peter was living proof that God shows no partiality.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From our first introduction to Peter, who was then called Simon, in the scriptures, we have a description of what the Book of Acts refers to as an “uneducated and ordinary” man. He was a fisherman. This ordinary and uneducated man was called by Jesus to be one of his chosen twelve disciples. Some versions of this story tell us that Jesus says to Simon and his brother “follow me and I will make you fish for people”, or the more familiar wording “I will make you fishers of men”. In this version, Simon and his brother Andrew leave their nets immediately to follow Jesus.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the way this story is told in the Gospel of Luke is different. In Luke’s version, Jesus hops into Simon’s fishing boat and preaches from the boat to the crowd on the shore. When he’s finished, he gives Simon some fishing advice. He tells him to put down his nets in the deep water. Although Simon is doubtful because he hasn’t caught anything all day, he obeys and soon he is catching so many fish that his boat is about to sink under the weight of them. It’s a miracle, and Peter’s response is to say to Jesus:</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Simon Peter may have been a sinful man, or he may have been a man racked with doubts about his own abilities. He may have been a cowardly man but none of these weaknesses stopped him from becoming a disciple. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Truly, God shows no partiality.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simon Peter was by no means a model disciple. He often acted before thinking. He was rebuked by Jesus for a few things including cutting off the ear of the slave who had come to help with the arrest of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simon Peter was the one who denied knowing Jesus three times after his arrest. Even when Jesus forewarned Simon Peter that he would disown him that night, Peter insisted that he wouldn’t. When Jesus’ prediction proves to be true, Simon Peter weeps bitterly.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the disciple that Jesus re-named Peter, which means “rock”. I’ve heard it suggested that Jesus might have been teasing Simon with this nickname. A rock symbolizes something firm and dependable. Simon Peter was often undependable. He was unpredictable. He was a self-professed sinful man, a mere mortal. A man who swore he would never deny Jesus, and a man who did deny Jesus. He was a man who </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">wept bitterly</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in disappointment at his own weakness of character. He was the rock on which Jesus said he would build his church.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Truly, God shows no partiality.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Inspired by the vision from God and his own checkered past, Peter spoke these words to Cornelius and the other Gentiles. Our scripture reading today told us the full content of Peter’s sermon to the Gentiles that day, a sermon about forgiveness for all. Words about peace, doing good and healing and a message about Jesus’ triumph over the powers of death. What today’s reading left out was the Gentiles’ response to Peter’s sermon, to his message that God’s saving grace is for everyone, even them.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Book of Acts tells us that hearing these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentiles and they praised God. And they were all baptized.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had to make a decision this Sunday about which text to preach on. Today is Baptism of the Lord Sunday, so it would have made sense to focus on the text from Matthew, the account of Jesus’ baptism. But when I read this text I found that I, like John, was puzzled by Jesus’ need for baptism. When Jesus asks John to baptize him, John says that it’s Jesus who should be baptizing HIM, not the other way around. And I’m not sure that I understand Jesus’ answer, that having John baptize him “fulfills all righteousness”. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To understand Jesus’ baptism, I need to let go of the image of baptism as washing away sin. I need to focus on baptism as an affirmation of God’s community in Christ. This is the community of people that come together to recognize the work of God’s grace in their lives. For us, like for the Gentiles that Peter preached to in Acts, the natural response to the Good News of Jesus is to join together in community. We want to realize the full potential of God’s grace in our lives, and we commit to working towards this together. Baptism is the turning point in our lives where we join the community that gathers in the name of the one who continues to teach us the meaning of grace. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just like our baptisms are pivotal moments in our own lives, Jesus’ baptism is also a turning point in his life story. It is the beginning of his ministry. Jesus Christ at his own baptism, recognized by God as his son is another proof that God shows no partiality. Jesus, the Messiah, did not fit the expectation of his time of what the Son of God would be. He was not a rich King with a large and powerful army. He was a Galilean peasant. God’s son, with whom he is “well-pleased” is not blessed with riches and an easy time while he is on Earth. He is persecuted and executed. </span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Conventional wisdom often leads us to believe that if we live a good life, or a life that is pleasing to God, we will have a pleasant life. This wasn’t true for Jesus. This wasn’t true for many great Christians.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Conversely, we might think that if we are not living “good” lives, if we are sinful, if we are the kind of people who are sometimes weeping bitterly in disappointment at our own weakness of character, God will punish us. That’s certainly NOT what happened to Simon Peter. Simon Peter, the ordinary, impulsive, sinful man became the rock of the church.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the second letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells us about his own struggles with having “a thorn in his flesh”. No one knows exactly what this personal struggle was. Some think it was temptation, or persecution, but the most likely theory is that it was some sort of physical ailment. It was illness, and he begged the Lord to take it from him. And the Lord responded: ““My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The power of Christ is made perfect on the thirsting lips of the crucified Jesus. Power is made perfect in the bitterly weeping denier Simon Peter, the rock of the church. Power is made perfect in Paul who cries out to the Lord in his physical pain. Power is made perfect, and grace is sufficient.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And grace is available to all. Truly, God shows no partiality. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-7392617905308870682013-11-03T17:06:00.000-08:002013-11-03T17:08:42.358-08:00Jer 31:27-34 Hope for a New Covenant and Youtube Laughing BabiesClick below to read my sermon from October 20th for Knox Presbyterian Church, Stonewall, MB.<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are we there yet?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In today’s Old Testament reading, Jeremiah assures us that “the days are surely coming that God will make a new covenant” and write the law in our hearts. What does that mean, write the law on our hearts?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It’s been 2500 years since Jeremiah gave us these words of hope, foretelling a future new covenant. Has God made the new covenant, or are we still waiting to have the law written on our hearts, whatever that means.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-1b00afd7-209e-461f-3370-9cab99a5af03" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trying to wrap my head around this passage, I found myself breaking it down into words. Two key words: law and heart.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The law: the Hebrew word that has been translated as “law” is the word “torah”. Often when we hear the word “torah” used today it is used as a Jewish term to refer to the first five books in the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. But in Jeremiah’s day, these books were still being written and edited, and they did not exist in the form that we have them in today. So what would be the version of the torah that Jeremiah is referring to?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scholars think that although the Israelites in Jeremiah’s day didn’t have those five books that we now call the Torah, they had, at the very least, a written account of the ten commandments. But Jeremiah spoke of the torah that would be written on our hearts, he was probably referring to more than just the ten commandments. Although we are more familiar with the definition of Torah as written material, torah has many different meanings. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In today’s psalm reading we heard a lot about the torah, called God’s Law in this translation. In this ancient poem, the writer says</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh, how I love your law!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It is my meditation all day long.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In The Message, a contemporary translation of the Bible, this line is translated as </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“oh how I love all that you’ve revealed; I reverently ponder it all day long”.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This psalm actually contains a multitude of synonyms for the law or torah, including commandment, ordinances, testimonies, decrees, precepts and words. The torah can refer to not only written teachings, but oral teachings as well. So considering all this background information there seems to be no easy answer to the question: what is the law or torah? What is the law that God is writing on our hearts? Is it the ten commandments? Is it all that God has revealed and if so, is there enough room on our hearts for that to be written?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a Jewish story about a man who approached a famous Rabbi and said, I will convert if you can teach me the entire Torah while standing on one foot. The Rabbi stood on one foot and said “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. That sounds a lot like what Jesus talked about when asked what the greatest commandment is. He replied “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” and “love your neighbour as yourself”.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With all your heart. And we are back to that word again. We think we know what it means. The heart, it’s an organ in your chest, but when we talk about loving the Lord our God with all our heart… we are talking about the heart as the place where our emotions come from. We could easily assume that that’s what Jeremiah meant: God’s law would be written inside of us on the place where our feelings come from.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Interestingly, I learned this week that in ancient Israelite thought, the heart was also considered to be the location of the will. This is important in the context of Jeremiah’s description of the new covenant. The problem with the Israelites that Jeremiah was speaking to when he said these words was that they had broken their covenant with God. This was the covenant God had made in the time of Moses, the one that included the ten commandments written on the stone tablets. The Israelites had broken this covenant, so God was going to make a new covenant. Instead of writing it on stone tablets, it was going to be written on our hearts. Instead of the law being located outside of us, it would be moved inside ourselves. It would be located in the place from where our emotions originate, sure, but it would also be located in the home of our will. This means that we will be able to obey it voluntarily, because the law becomes a part of our very selves. When the law becomes part of our will, what we want to do and what God wants us to do is the same thing. We can keep our end of this covenant. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which brings me back to the original question, are we there yet?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If the law has been written on our hearts, we should be willing and able to love each other, unfalteringly. We should not be doing what is hateful to our neighbour. We should be loving our neighbour as ourself.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And as I look at the world around me, the people I see and read about in the news, I think, “no, we are not there yet”. I think about waking up Saturday morning, going out to my apartment parking lot and finding that several of my neighbours cars have had their windows smashed and been broken into. I think about my own less severe, but still uneighbourly behaviour when I am irritable and short-tempered with my family. I can think about Christian leaders who have hurt people terribly, committing unspeakable crimes. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The covenant hasn’t happened yet. People are still hurting each other. But something really important did happen between the time that Jeremiah made his prophecy about the new covenant and today: Jesus happened. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Jesus Christ we saw God in human form, showing us how we would live if our hearts really were aligned with God’s law. Jesus showed us what it looks like to love each other. And witnessing this changed humanity. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Through the words of the prophet Ezekiel, God made a promise similar to the one in today’s text from Jeremiah. God said:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“ A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This transformation of our hard, uncaring hearts into fleshy hearts that can observe God’s laws, the transformation that Jeremiah and Ezekiel told us about, might be a slow process. This process was initiated by God becoming flesh and living among us as Jesus Christ. Now that we have seen and believed, our hearts must become flesh and be receptive to the spirit of God’s laws. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I see signs of this process. As much as I can look at the world around me and conclude that the law is NOT written on our hearts, I think in the 2000 years since the life of Christ, God has been softening our hearts and preparing them for the time when God will write the law on them.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where do we see God softening our hearts? What are the signs that human beings are treating each other more lovingly? Despite what you see in the media, the amount of violence has actually been decreasing throughout history. We no longer use torture as a punishment for crimes. We have developed health care and social supports to look after each other when we are suffering. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We ARE becoming more compassionate. I believe God has been working through changes in our society to change our hearts. In many ways Globalization has helped us to become more compassionate. With new technologies and ways to communicate, we come to know each other better. And knowing someone is the first step to loving someone.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Having a pen pal has been a common experience for elementary school students for a long time. But only recently have students been able to see the faces and hear the voices of of their new friends and talk to them in real time over the internet. This has been a major step for young people today understanding the lives of people in distant countries. When we come to understand and appreciate the lives of people across the world, God softens our hearts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="240" src="http://www.tampabay.com/resources/images/dti/rendered/2013/02/pas_skype021313_10267544_8col.jpg" width="320" /></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another marvel of technology is youtube, the website where anyone from anywhere in the world can upload a video that they made and make it available for us to watch it at home. We can log onto youtube and watch a video that someone took of their laughing baby, and consider that this video has been viewed an astonishing 9 million times by people from all over the world. And it feels like people are not as different as we might once have thought. When people all over the world can laugh along with a film of a laughing baby, God softens our hearts.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/HttF5HVYtlQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s not to say that that there still isn’t work to be done. But we can trust that God is doing the work. Today’s scripture readings from the epistles and the gospel give us some timely advice about how to refocus ourselves on the positive work that God does to transform our hearts. When we are despairing about the violence and suffering that humans inflict upon one another, we can look to scripture for words of comfort, and we can turn to God in prayer.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, we listen in to his words that tell us that:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“ All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we are despairing about the hateful things in this world, we can read the words of scripture, knowing that they can correct us by reminding us that God is good and gracious and active in our lives. These words equip us to participate in God’s transformation of our hearts.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And just as God can do wonderful things for the transformation of our hearts through the power of God’s word, we can also reciprocate in our relationship to God by coming to God in prayer. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells us a parable about our “need to pray always and not to lose heart”. We can be persistent like the widow in the story, perhaps praying in the words of psalm 51:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Create in me a clean heart, O God,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and put a new and steadfast spirit within me.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In our daily struggle of living, we may be impatient with this process of heart softening. But our loving God is a God who keeps promises, loves unconditionally, and never gives up on us. Pierre Teilard de Chardin, a philosopher and Jesuit priest offers us the following reflection. I invite you to ponder it in your hearts:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Above all, trust in the slow work of God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are quite naturally impatient in everything</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to reach the end without delay.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We should like to skip the intermediate stages.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are impatient of being on the way to something</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> unknown, something new.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And yet it is the law of all progress</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that it is made by passing through</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> some stages of instability—</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and that it may take a very long time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so I think it is with you;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> let them shape themselves, without undue haste.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don’t try to force them on,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as though you could be today what time</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (that is to say, grace and circumstances</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> acting on your own good will)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> will make of you tomorrow.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Only God could say what this new spirit</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> gradually forming within you will be.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Give Our Lord the benefit of believing</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that his hand is leading you,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself</span></div>
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LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-91838738496344077712013-08-15T06:32:00.002-07:002013-08-15T06:32:25.954-07:00I Really Need Church TooI strongly related to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tara-woodardlehman/do-you-really-need-church_b_3751147.html?utm_hp_ref=tw" target="_blank">this post</a> by Tara Woodard-Lehman on the Huffinton Post site. She says that she needs church because:<br />
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"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I forget who I am. I forget who God is. I forget God's Epic Story of Redemption and Liberation and Renewal and Beauty and Hope.</span><br />
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I forget. A lot.</div>
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On top of that, there are a gazillion other demands and voices that are vying for my attention all the freaking time.</div>
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So I admit it. I get tired. And I get distracted. And more often than not, I forget. <br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;" />I need Church, because Church reminds me of everything that's important."</div>
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<br />LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-58665186805300608092013-06-20T12:53:00.001-07:002013-06-20T12:53:17.811-07:00Regina Spektor - Laughing With Sometimes I cry when I'm listening to this song. Today is one of those days.<br />
Here you go, with lyrics in Spanish and English.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FRUQh_7NPBE" width="480"></iframe>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-46030046093825465162013-06-13T18:19:00.001-07:002013-06-13T18:22:04.381-07:00Footprints<a href="http://images2.layoutsparks.com/1/94786/footprints-man-beach-morning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://images2.layoutsparks.com/1/94786/footprints-man-beach-morning.jpg" width="200" /></a>I follow Fr. James Martin, SJ on Facebook. He is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Between-Heaven-Mirth-Laughter-Spiritual/dp/0062024256" style="text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life</a>. He's also done some <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-james-martin-sj/the-not-so-social-gospel_b_1825810.html" target="_blank">amusing blogging</a> for the Huffington Post.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Tonight he's done a really nice<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151418012451496&set=a.139618381495.120357.46899546495&type=1" target="_blank"> post on his Facebook page</a> about the popularity of the story "Footprints", and how its very popularity causes some people to snobbishly discount this story as being insignificant. He says:</blockquote>
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"<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">The Holy Spirit speaks through both "high" and "low" theology, and, besides, why do we need to make such distinctions at all? I'll bet that the Beatitudes didn't sound all that sophisticated either."</span></blockquote>
If you've never read the footprint story before, you should. You can read it <a href="http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo262/Cgarell/FootprintsInTheSand.jpg" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
And below you will find a comic that comes into my mind every time I hear the story...<br />
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<img height="185" src="http://yliapu.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451607369e201761734b4d1970c-pi" width="400" />LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-51328575763395375622013-06-09T12:19:00.000-07:002013-06-13T18:24:08.484-07:00Didn't I Say?Didn't I say, "Don't go there; I am<br />
your friend.<br />
In this mirage of existence, I am the<br />
fountain of life."<br />
Even if your anger takes you<br />
a hundred thousand years away,<br />
in the end you will return, for I am<br />
your goal.<br />
Didn't I say, "Don't be content with<br />
earthly forms;<br />
I am the designer of the intimate<br />
chamber of your contentment."<br />
Didn't I say, "I am the sea, and you are a<br />
single fish;<br />
don't strand yourself on dry land; I am<br />
your clear sea."<br />
Didn't I say, "Don't get caught<br />
in the trap like a helpless bird;<br />
I am the power of flight -- your feet and<br />
your wings."<br />
Didn't I say, "They will waylay you and<br />
make you cold;<br />
I am the fire and your warm desire."<br />
Didn't I say, "They will implant their<br />
qualities in you<br />
until you forget that the best qualities<br />
are here."<br />
Didn't I say, "You do not know from<br />
what direction<br />
your affairs are put in order."<br />
I am the Creator beyond directions.<br />
If light is in your heart, find your<br />
way home.<br />
If you are of God, know your<br />
Benefactor.<br />
-Rumi (trans. Helminski)LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-67910010130501405892013-06-09T08:11:00.002-07:002013-06-13T18:23:06.349-07:00Space Robot Spiritual<br />
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<img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7108/7537674258_4162076063_m.jpg" /></div>
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Happy Sunday!<br />
Here is a youtube video of my favourite children's performers: The Secondhand Pants. They are a group based in Winnipeg. I've seen them several times at the Winnipeg Folk Festival singing out of a science-folktion jukebox.<br />
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<br />LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-22909921239140731462013-05-24T12:52:00.000-07:002013-05-24T12:52:06.086-07:00Five Days after Pentecost<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It took a cannonball to the leg to bring Inigo of Loyola to God. <div>
We know Inigo as St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit order of Priests, but before he was a Saint, before he was even a Priest, he was a soldier eager for recognition. </div>
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We just celebrated <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%202&version=NRSV">Pentecost</a> in the church, and we often refer to it as "the Birthday of the Church". It's a celebration, a joyful time of holy hubbub. Or that's how we seem to depict it. The sermon on Sunday focused on the intersection of mission and mysticism. We were asked to recall moments where we felt close to God, like holding a new baby, or being on a nature walk, or seeing God in the people around us. <br /><br />When I read the account of Pentecost in the Book of Acts though, I feel that there is some discontinuity between the Biblical account of this event and how we talk about it in the church. I think if I had been in the room with the disciples, hearing the violent wind, seeing the tongues of fire, the solid wall of noise as everybody talked at once, I would have been afraid. The NRSV translation says that the disciples were amazed (<a href="http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/1839.htm">ἐξίσταντο</a>) and perplexed ( <a href="http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/1280.htm">διηποροῦντο</a>). Were they amazed, or were they falling to their knees in fear (existanto literally means "removed from a standing position)? Were they perplexed, or were they feeling trapped (the components of diaporonto mean "thoroughly no way out")? Then Peter begins to speak, quoting a terrifying prophesy from Joel about the last days in which the sun disappears and the moon turns to blood. If this was a lighthearted party, he just spoiled the mood. But it don't think it was a joyful party. </div>
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<br /> <a href="http://images2.layoutsparks.com/1/84574/bloody-moon-red-eerie.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://images2.layoutsparks.com/1/84574/bloody-moon-red-eerie.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></div>
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The day after Pentecost this year was the 492nd anniversary of that cannonball in Pamplona that shattered St. Ignatius' leg. Sometimes God doesn't enter your life like a blossoming flower or a gentle summer's breeze. Sometimes God is found in a violent wind, a terrible loss. Sometimes God is found at rock bottom, in the moment when you fall to your knees and can't see any way out. Ignatius found God during his slow recovery from his injury while reading the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vita_Christi">Vita Christi</a>. Whatever the disciples experienced at Pentecost, whether fear or joy, they received what they needed from the Holy Spirit to continue on in their journey as followers of Christ. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></div>
LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-20030771153057321722013-05-12T16:34:00.001-07:002013-05-24T12:52:34.580-07:00On Near-Human Sacrifice or, The Parenting Secrets of the Origami Dog<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="150" src="http://www.origami-instructions.com/images/barking-dog/thumbnails/02-barking-dog.jpg" width="200" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I led worship today in my home congregation, neglecting the lectionary readings in favour of using<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2022:1-13&version=GNT" target="_blank"> </a><b><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2022:1-13&version=GNT" target="_blank">Genesis 22:1-13</a> </b>and<b> </b><b><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%204:1-8,%2013-18&version=GNT" target="_blank">Romans
4:1-8, 13-</a></b><b><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%204:1-8,%2013-18&version=GNT" target="_blank">18</a>.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b>
Why would I choose these texts for Mother's Day? Find the full sermon below. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">* * *</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The dress was
beautiful. Sure, it had a bad case of static cling but this was late winter in <st1:city>Winnipeg</st1:city>, so I didn’t think anything of it. I only
noticed because the young girl was standing next to her mother, and her mother
was fussing over her dress and saying “I should have used a dryer sheet. I
don’t normally bother but this dress really needs it”. The other mother in the
room said “my family doesn’t normally use the dryer, we just hang all our
clothes to dry”. And I felt a strange awkwardness in the room because I think I
was witnessing one of those competitive mom moments. You might know what I mean
by competitive mom moments. That time it was probably the “who’s the more eco-friendly
mom” competition, but other times it’s: who can pack the healthiest lunch, who
can afford the time or money to put their kids in hockey, dancing, swimming,
piano lessons, and sometimes whose kids can sit the quietest in church.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A couple minutes later,
the daughter in the staticky dress walked over to another kid. She started
telling her “my mom can make an origami dog and when you pull its tail it opens
its mouth like it’s barking”. The other kid didn’t reply. So I listened to this
girl tell that same story about the origami dog about six times to the other
child who seemed disinterested. Obviously it was an important story though. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about the story
about Abraham and Isaac? That’s an important story too. It has to be, it’s in
our holy scriptures. Yet it’s a hard story to handle. It doesn’t have instant
appeal like an origami dog. A lot of religious people over the years have
looked at this story and said that it’s about faith, faith so strong that
Abraham would be willing to sacrifice the thing most dear to him in order to
obey God. People say that this story is about God testing Abraham’s faith. That
seems kind of cruel of God though, doesn’t it? And is the kind of God who would
ask someone to kill their child as a sort of test the same kind of Loving God
that Jesus described?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our second scripture
reading today, the letter to the Romans, has an interesting take on Abraham. The
writer emphasizes that Abraham was not justified by works. As in, God was not
pleased with Abraham because of the things he did. The writer says God was
pleased with Abraham because of Abraham’s faith. Maybe God wasn’t pleased with
Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, rather he was pleased with
Abraham’s faith that even as he was preparing to do something awful, unthinkable,
Abraham still believed that God was NOT cruel. That IS strong faith. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But still, if you look
at this story from the perspective of Isaac, who is walking up the mountain,
getting more and more confused, starting to worry, getting tied up, watching
his dad standing over him with a knife, being absolutely petrified, you
probably think: well that is not very good parenting. That’s much worse than
forgetting a dryer sheet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And if you think about
Sarah, Isaac’s mother, watching her husband taking her son away, perhaps suspecting
what was about to occur, you might wonder where is the part in the story where
Abraham talks it over with his wife: “honey, God wants me to kill our son”. A
good father would probably at least run it past his wife before he killed her
only son that she had prayed for all her life. These just don’t seem like that
actions of a responsible parent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And yet – everything
turned out okay. Isaac was not sacrificed and went on to live a good, long
life. And Abraham became a father of many nations, with descendants as numerous
as the stars in the sky. And if Abraham could have been involved in a plot to
kill his son and still go on to be remembered as a great man, there is hope for
all of us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And hope is really
what it is all about. The whole endeavour of parenting is about hope. Hope that
what we do will be good enough for our children and good enough for God. And as
the writer of Hebrews points out, this hope, this faith and trust that we have
in God, is all that God is asking for. He quotes Psalm 32 and says<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="textrom-4-7"><span style="background-color: white;">“Happy
are those whose wrongs are forgiven,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span><span class="textrom-4-7"><span style="background-color: white;">whose sins are pardoned!</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="textrom-4-8"><b><sup><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></sup></b></span><span class="textrom-4-8"><span style="background-color: white;">Happy is the person whose sins the
Lord will not keep account of!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="textrom-4-8"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This
is good news. This is God’s good news: God is not counting our mistakes, God is
celebrating our hope. God couldn’t have expressed this any more certainly than
when God sent Jesus to us to tell us that the greatest commandment is love. We
make mistakes. Abraham, as a human, also made mistakes. But God was pleased
with him because of his faith, and by faith I’m not talking about a belief in
any doctrine or creed, I’m talking about the belief that the greatest
commandment is to love God and love each other, the belief that love is enough.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="textrom-4-8"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So if
God isn’t counting our mistakes, neither should we. And moms aren’t the only
people who are constantly comparing themselves to others, we all do it, and
often we feel that we come up short. That’s why the writer of Hebrews worked so
hard to emphasize for us that we shouldn’t focus on our actions, we should
focus on our faith. And I think it’s important to note that faith doesn’t mean
that you can go around doing a bunch of evil stuff if you can do it while
reciting church doctrine. True faith is the faith that makes cruelty
impossible. If you have faith that God has instructed us that the greatest
commandment is love, everything you will be done out of love. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="textrom-4-8"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So
this is my special message for moms today: don’t worry about what other people
think about your parenting. Spend some time doing something fun with your kids
that you both enjoy. That little girl in the nursery didn’t care that her dress
was staticky, she cared that her mom spent time having fun with her. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="textrom-4-8"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Parenthood,
like any important relationship, is a test. Your success or failure is not determined
by how many mistakes you make, or how well you measure up to what your
neighbours are doing. If you want to do well on this test, keep the faith, and
remember, love has been, is, and always will be… enough. </span></span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-65506229682705394852013-05-10T13:24:00.000-07:002013-05-10T13:27:07.710-07:00Your Long Journey<object height="315" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lLEm_cmS-_k?version=3&hl=en_US"></param>
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<br />
My friend, who is not a believer, made me listen to this song the other day. She said "if anything would make me a believer, it would be this song". She identified with the longing to see loved ones after they have passed on.<br />
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A few days ago I read <a href="http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/05/07/the-heaven-boom/" target="_blank">this article</a> in Maclean's magazine about Near Death Experiences (NDE's). It mentions two recent books written by people who claimed to have firsthand experience of the afterlife. At age 3, Colton Burpo was dead for 3 minutes. He spent that time sitting in Jesus' lap and meeting his sister that had been miscarried that he had never heard about before. After he convalesced, he gradually told his story to his family, and his father (<a href="http://www.crossroadswesleyan.org/" target="_blank">a Wesleyan Pastor</a>) wrote a book called <u><a href="http://heavenisforreal.net/" target="_blank">Heaven Is for Real</a>.</u> Another book about an NDE is written by a neuroscientist, <u><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195" target="_blank">Proof of Heaven</a>.</u> While in a coma, this neuroscientist was guided around the "spiritual side of existence" by a beautiful girl on a butterfly. He was later troubled that no loved ones met him in the afterlife, but after his recovery he saw a picture of his birth sister (he had been adopted) and realized that she was the girl on the butterfly.<br />
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<img alt="butterfly flying" height="200" src="http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/inline/the-mathematical-butterfly-simulations-provide-new-insights-on-flight_1.jpg" width="200" /></div>
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I'm not skeptical about these stories. Of course, the article mentions scientists who try to explain NDE's with material causes: lack of oxygen to the brain, REM intrusions in the brain, etc. But if our consciousness leaves our material selves and lives on after death, there won't be a material explanation for the process by which it occurs. This is a spiritual phenomenon, not a material one. </div>
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I don't see any reasonable argument against meeting loved ones again in the afterlife. I think the loving God that I believe in would give us familiar images to help us in our transition. Certainly, the people who experience NDE's and live seem to express a sense of commission, that they returned to comfort people by telling them about their experiences. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="chapter-2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span class="text Isa-40-1-Isa-40-2" style="position: relative;"><sup class="versenum mid-line" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; left: -4.8em; margin: 0px; position: static; vertical-align: top;"> </sup>“Comfort, oh comfort my people,”</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Isa-40-1-Isa-40-2" style="position: relative;">says your God.</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span class="text Isa-40-1-Isa-40-2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; position: relative;">“Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Isa-40-1-Isa-40-2" style="position: relative;">but also make it very clear</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span class="text Isa-40-1-Isa-40-2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; position: relative;">That she has served her sentence,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Isa-40-1-Isa-40-2" style="position: relative;">that her sin is taken care of—forgiven!</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span class="text Isa-40-1-Isa-40-2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; position: relative;">She’s been punished enough and more than enough,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Isa-40-1-Isa-40-2" style="position: relative;">and now it’s over and done with.”</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="text Isa-40-1-Isa-40-2" style="position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> Isaiah 40:1-2 (The Message)</span></span></span></span></div>
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LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-35598746218653429132013-05-06T10:49:00.000-07:002013-05-06T10:49:25.641-07:00The Queen James BibleInteresting thing I just stumbled upon: <u>The Queen James Bible</u>. It's a version of the 1769 King James Bible that re-translates parts typically used to condemn homosexuality in order to clarify the historical context of the verses. You can read the Editor's rationale for their treatment of these passages <a href="http://queenjamesbible.com/gay-bible/" target="_blank">here on their website</a>.<br />
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Apparently King James himself was most likely a homosexual or bisexual himself. I wonder what he would think about this new book named in his honour.<br />
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<br />LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-92115617564299217922013-04-30T17:55:00.002-07:002013-05-10T13:35:20.872-07:00You are the potash of the earth<b><i>“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot."<br />Matt 5:13</i></b><br />
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In our last Greek class of the semester, our Prof blew our minds explaining this passage. Now I feel that it is my Christian duty to share this information with you.<br />
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First of all, we need to know that the way that this passage is normally translated from the Greek messes with its meaning. A more literal translation of this passage would read:<br />
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<b><i>"You are the salt of the land; but if the salt has been made useless, with what will it [the land] be salted?"</i></b><br />
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Once we realize that the word <b>"taste"</b> in the English is an interpretive flourish by the translator, it is easier to understand why my Prof made the outlandish claim that this passage is not about table salt, it's about <b>potash</b>.<br />
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Potash is also a salt, a different salt than NaCl (table salt), but a salt nonetheless. And the Greek word τὸ ἅλας that we find in Matthew's gospel isn't the word for table salt. It is a generic word for all salt, including salt like potash that is used today as fertilizer (and was used as fertilizer way back in Jesus' day as well).<br />
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The more common interpretation of this passage is that the "salt" that Jesus refers to is something that preserves food. So metaphorically, theologians suggest, Christians are what "preserve" the Earth.<br />
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But I think my Prof is right when he says Christians are not the "preservers" of the land, <b>we are the "fertilizers"</b> of the land. My Prof might be in the minority of theologians who suggest this, but I have come across <a href="http://www.anabaptistnetwork.com/node/291">others</a> (including a former CMU Prof who<a href="http://www.helium.com/items/1672028-origin-and-meaning-of-salt-of-the-earth" target="_blank"> blogged about this</a> in 2009). The idea of Christians as a salt fertilizer is consistent with the Christian idea that we lose our identity, we <b>dissolve our ego</b> and become one in Christ so that we can serve God (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+10%3A39&version=NRSV">Matt 10:39</a>).<br />
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He made some further claims that I have not been able to verify but he also said that when potash is in the soil, its potassium leaks out, and the potash becomes gypsum, something that is "thrown out and trampled on": further support for the notion that this passage is about a salt fertilizer, not a salt preserver.<br />
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So if Jesus says that we are fertilizers of the Earth, what does that mean for us exactly? Unlike the more traditional thinking, we are not meant to purify the Earth, rather, we are meant to scatter and be the agent that allows good things to grow.<br />
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I can't help but think about the decline of the Christian church in reference to this passage. Perhaps at the height of Christendom, the land was a little too salty, and it choked out the other plant life. We have biblical references to the practice of over-salting a city to destroy it (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+9%3A45&version=NRSV">Judges 9:45</a>). Soil that is too salty is lifeless. I think the significance of Christians as fertilizers, a significance that has been obscured for too long due to mis-translation, is Good News for Christians today. It seems to be telling us that the decline in Christian churches may not be as worrisome as we think: we are simply returning to the <b>right concentration of Christian fertilizer </b>required to do God's work.<br />
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LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-49343878759442893162012-12-16T21:20:00.001-08:002013-05-10T13:30:47.169-07:00Step 1: Take the plank out of your own eye<span class="text Matt-7-3" id="en-NIV-23320" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj">“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?</span></span><span class="text Matt-7-4" id="en-NIV-23321" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;"> </sup>How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="text Matt-7-5" id="en-NIV-23322" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj">You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."</span></span><br />
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<span class="text Matt-7-5" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj">Matthew 7:3-5</span></span><br />
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<span class="text Matt-7-5" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj">I finished reading <i>Red Letter Revolution </i>by Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne a few days ago (and it was awesome and I highly recommend it). The term "red letter" is referring to those Bibles that print Jesus' (alleged) words in red. The cover of this book says "what if Jesus really meant what he said?", which is eerily similar to that Gandhi quote I blogged about <a href="http://meinmysmallcorner.blogspot.ca/2012/12/i-heard-this-today.html" target="_blank">here</a>. Anyway, this advice about the plank in the eye popped into my head today, and I thought, "this is one of my favourite red letter quotes".</span></span><br />
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<span class="text Matt-7-5" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj">What's yours?</span></span>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-37979225119131377112012-12-12T11:12:00.003-08:002013-05-10T13:31:30.177-07:00Shane Claiborne on Politics<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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"Governments can do lots of things, but there are a lot of things they cannot do. A government can pass good laws, but no law can change a human heart. Only God can do that. A government can provide good housing, but folks can have a house without having a home. We can keep people breathing with good health care, but they still may not really be alive. The work of community, love, reconciliation, restoration is the work we cannot leave up to politicians. This is the work we are all called to do." </blockquote>
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Shane Claiborne in <i>The Red Letter Revolution</i> LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-33824585649196225692012-12-07T10:21:00.000-08:002013-05-10T13:36:19.989-07:00The Prayer of Oscar Romero by Bishop Kenneth UntenerThe kingdom is not only beyond our own efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
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We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s word.<br />
Nothing that we do is complete.<br />
The kingdom always lies beyond us.<br />
No statement says all that could be said.<br />
No prayer fully expresses our faith.<br />
No confession brings perfection.<br />
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.<br />
No program accomplishes the church’s mission.<br />
No set of goals includes everything that we are about.<br />
We all plant the seed that one day will grow.<br />
We water the seeds already planted, knowing that they hold promise.<br />
We lay foundations that will need further development.<br />
We provide yeast that produces efforts far beyond our capabilities.<br />
We cannot do everything.<br />
Knowing this enables us to do something, and to do it well.<br />
Our work may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way.<br />
Our actions present an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.<br />
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.<br />
We are the workers, not master builders.<br />
We are ministers, not messiahs.<br />
We are prophets of a future not our own.<br />
Amen.LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-73800328184770718962012-12-07T10:14:00.000-08:002013-05-10T13:39:31.900-07:00I heard this todaySomeone asked Gandhi what the difference was between him and most Christians.<br />
He answered: "I think he meant it"LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-663799224034691322012-11-22T08:15:00.004-08:002013-05-10T13:36:54.429-07:00i thank you God for most this amazing<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">i thank You God for most this amazing</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees<br />and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything<br />which is natural which is infinite which is yes<br /><br />(i who have died am alive again today,<br />and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth<br />day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay<br />great happening illimitably earth)<br /><br />how should tasting touching hearing seeing<br />breathing any--lifted from the no<br />of all nothing--human merely being<br />doubt unimaginable You?<br /><br />(now the ears of my ears awake and<br />now the eyes of my eyes are opened)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">--ee cummings </span></span>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-89071938779860455182012-09-12T07:14:00.001-07:002013-05-10T13:37:25.750-07:00Daily dose of Jesus on the radio this morning<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SO5Y1OuQIxo?fs=1" width="459"></iframe>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-42659310055661122252012-09-11T08:16:00.000-07:002013-05-10T13:38:18.723-07:00Hope for September 11th<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I was singing some hymns this morning and I opened the page to one called "Hope of Abraham and Sarah" in the hymnal <b>More Voices </b>(it's number 148). I sang it and remembered that today is September 11th, and it seemed that today of all days, this is the song that everyone should be singing. The text (below) is written by Ruth Duck, and the music is by Judith Snowdon, who studied composition at the Canadian Mennonite University (where I happen to be studying right now). So it's been a morning with some interesting coincidences. Or perhaps some (subtle) signs.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Hope of Abraham and Sarah </b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Hope of Abraham and Sarah, friend of Hagar, God of Ruth, </b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>you desire that every people worship you in spirit, truth.</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Meet us in our sacred places, mosque and synagogue and church.</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Show us paths of understanding; bless us in our common search.</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Root us in our own tradition, faith our forebears handed down.<br />Grow us in your grace and knowledge, plant our feet on solid ground.<br />Cultivate the seeds of sharing in this world of many creeds.<br />Keep us open, wise in learning, bearing fruit in loving deeds.</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Hope of Abraham and Sarah, sovereign God whom we adore,<br />form in us your new creation, free of violence, hate and war.<br />So may Torah, cross and crescent, each a sign of life made new<br />point us toward your love and justice, earth at peace and one in you.</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Amen.</span></div>
LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602592713631753231.post-43675752669951657242012-07-13T07:34:00.001-07:002013-05-10T13:39:11.413-07:00Mary Oliver reads "The Summer Day" (aka "The Grasshopper")<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/16CL6bKVbJQ?fs=1" width="480"></iframe>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08279385573063205130noreply@blogger.com0