RADICAL TRUST IN GOD - 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, May 29, 2016; by Nicole Smith

Our readings today present us with stories demonstrating extraordinary trust in God – Elijah drowning the offerings in water before calling on God to consume them in fire, and a centurion who didn't need Jesus to come to his house to heal his slave.

As I reflected on the lessons in preparation for this morning, these four characteristics of Radical Trust in God emerged: Worshipping God Only, Taking the Right Risks, Pleasing God Not People, and Being Changed through Prayer. I will share how I see these four themes come out through our readings and then conclude with some final thoughts on their possible relevance to us today.

1) Worshipping God Only: All the readings point to the priority of worshipping God alone. In the Kings passage, the people of Israel were challenged point-blank to choose whether to worship Baal, as those peoples around them worshipped, or whether to worship God. In the Psalm, the “new song” we are to sing is one of utter devotion to God.  Paul challenges the Galatians in the epistle lesson to be faithful to the true gospel.  The Gospel reading, too, shows that the centurion, though not a Jew, was fully given to God, trusting God without reservation.

I suppose that it has never been easy to follow God. However, in some ways it feels more confusing now than ever before. Details and perspectives from a wide variety of religions, spiritualities, and other approaches to truth are available via the Internet and other sources to an unprecedented extent which can be totally bewildering to the seeker and believer alike.

And it's not just information overload. The culture of consumerism and materialist values inundates each one of us through all the media, whether traditional or social, with its priorities that are alien to full dedication to God. Jesus says quite simply in Luke 16:13: “You cannot serve both God and money.”

In everything we do as the Church, as well as in our individual lives, we have to wrestle daily to answer meaningfully the question, “What does worshipping God only mean?”

2) Taking the Right Risks: Elijah appeared to be risking humiliation, by calling on God to do the impossible – to consume an ostensibly unburnable offering by miraculous intervention. But this risk was not wild or random. It came from intuitively, prophetically knowing what God was going to do in this situation, through an indefinite, extended time listening to God's plan to bring the people of Israel back to faithfulness. Furthermore, it came from a life stance of radical obedience to God and seeing God do amazing things like this over and over.
    
In the same way, the faith that the centurion had, not to try to control the outcome of his slave's illness by seeing Jesus personally, was based on years of trusting God and knowing what God could do.

Trusting God for our lives always involves risk, but not whimsical or selfish risk. Rather, it is deeply grounded in our knowledge of God and how God has worked and continues to work in our lives. It means listening to God's voice and discerning God's path forward amongst all the voices competing for our attention.

3) Pleasing God Not People: In Galatians 1:10, Paul says: If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant to Christ. Elijah's actions speak in the same spirit as he goes about repairing the altar of God and preparing the sacrifice. Clearly he wasn't interested in winning any popularity contests. The centurion, as a military man, would also have been well-acquainted with not pleasing people.

I think our Christian culture is such that it can be easy to confuse being loving toward others and making them happy, or pleasing them, rather than pleasing God. I'm not saying that our goal should be to try to make people unhappy. But over and over throughout the Scriptures, in addition to the ones we read today,  pleasing people and pleasing God are frequently at odds, and serving God requires being willing to be very unpopular at times.

Yesterday, on Facebook, one of my dear friends shared with me and others of us who preach here regularly a funny video of a church minister who had apparently struggled too long with walking the line between pleasing people and God. He departed from talking about the Scripture and just completely lost his cool. Don't worry, I'm not even remotely tempted to follow his example now. Actually, I am very grateful to you all, the way everyone has been working together so that though Bishop Terry's away, Dianne is still on sick leave, and Marie had to be out of office for almost two weeks, things have been going astonishingly smoothly. It also reminded me of how it isn't any easier for the one who preaches to live by God's word. That, as always, I speak the things I do because I need to hear them. 

4) Being Changed Through Prayer: Something that is implicit in all these stories is what happens to us through a life of prayer. It quite literally changes us. Opening to God reveals possibilities and pathways that are invisible when we are closed off. This is in fact our primary need for prayer: not to change God's mind, as if we knew better than God, or God were unwilling to help us, but instead becoming more ready for what God is already prepared to do in our lives. That can be spectacular as it was when Elijah or Paul or the centurion prayed. It can be as simple but still challenging as gaining the courage to go on when our difficulties feel insurmountable.

So then, Radical Trust in God includes these four aspects: Worshipping God Only, Taking the Right Risks, Pleasing God Not People, and Being Changed through Prayer. But how do I, how do you, live these day by day?  How do we make the leap from what we need to do to how to do it, and how to be it? Thankfully, our relationship with God informs both. It is through the ways we come to know God, the study groups, the personal experiences through which we slowly recognize God's voice and interventions, times of listening to God in prayer – these become the ground from which we can live lives of service with a trust that is radical.

I can't stand here today and tell you what exactly Radical Trust in God would look like in your life. I hope though that what has been shared from the Scriptures brings light as you work out for yourself, through your own relationship with God, what that means.

In closing, I'd like to leave you with this thought: the “Radical” in Radical Trust means both rooted – and in this context, rooted in God – as well as all-encompassing and life-changing. So living as individuals and as a community in Radical Trust in God changes everything.

Pentecost Sunday, May 15, 2016; by the Reverend Hollis Hiscock

Sermon notes from guest preacher and presider, the Reverend Hollis Hiscock, for Pentecost 2016:

Several questions …
    When you watched the television images of destruction caused by Alberta’s “beast” of a forest fire and witnessed the evacuation of thousands of residents from Fort MacMurray, did you see God’s spirit at work in it all?
When you were going through the most difficult situation in your own life, did you feel God’s spirit with you?

A story - When Jesus returned to heaven, he and God had an “exit interview.”
God: How did things go on earth?
Jesus: I did all you asked me to do.
God: What plan did you make to continue your work?
Jesus: I appointed 12 men.
God: How are they doing?
Jesus: So so. One denied knowing me, one betrayed me and the others ran away.
God: What is your plan B?
Jesus: I made no other plans.

That is why Jesus’ followers were waiting – patiently and impatiently – in a house outside of Jerusalem for many days.
    The longer they waited, the more irritable they became.
Some may have wanted to give up.

SUDDENLY … it happened …
    A noise, like a rushing mighty wind, filled the house. Tongues of fire touched everyone. The followers of Jesus were filled with God’s spirit and began talking in many languages.
A curious crowd gathered to see what had happened. Typical reaction. Some wanted to learn more; others dismissed them -‘they’re drunk’.

God sent people the Holy Spirit for many reasons – to help, advocate, guide, protect, comfort, encourage and lead us in our daily living; as well it was a reminder that God is always with us.

That is why we have to see God’s spirit in events and interpret its presence. But to do so we need to adopt the right attitude and perception.

Several examples …

Eric left Newfoundland some years ago and became a truck driver in the oilfields of Fort Mac. His family rented for several years and in January 2016 bought their first house. In April he purchased a new truck. Life was going well for the three of them.
Then came the beast. They fled to Edmonton with a few treasured possessions. Now they are back in Newfoundland. His truck is in Edmonton. Eric found out the house they rented was destroyed by the fire, but the house they bought escaped the blaze. He is waiting to return to his home and job in Alberta. Do they see or feel God’s presence or spirit in their lives? Do we? I hope so.

The singer/songwriter THE WEEKND has won 6 Junos and has a song nominated for an Academy Award. He donated $50,000 to the Toronto church where he grew up and where his parents still attend. His minister said the money was important but more importantly he was glad THE WEEKND was using the gifts God had given him, and he still sees this church as his church. Do we see God’s spirit working in the life of this person? In our own life? I hope so.

During the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, a famous mosque was bombed to pieces. The peace agreement of 1995 guaranteed people could return home and rebuild. In 2001 people began to collect, from rivers and garbage dumps, fragments of the former mosque. Approximately 3,500 pieces were collected. It took 15 years to rebuild the mosque.
    On May 7, 2016, 10,000 people gathered to celebrate its reopening. In addition to political leaders, representatives from the Serbian Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church and Jewish community were present.
    A leader of the Islamic Community told the gathering, ‘Our differences are not a historical mistake. They are God’s gifts and any violence against those differences is an act against God’. Did the people see God’s spirit at work in rebuilding the place of worship? Do we? I hope so

That is what Pentecost is … God being with us at all times, under all circumstances, in all situations.

Margerie Pezzack – the first woman ordained a priest in Toronto Diocese – taught “Pentecost” to her Sunday School children in a unique way. Every Sunday morning at St. John’s York Mills Church in Toronto, the Sunday School would gather in the chapel and Marg would get them to repeat these five words of Jesus, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS (Matthew 28:20).
    She would get the children to raise a closed hand and repeat one word as they extended one finger.
    At Marg’s funeral I told the story of the five words. One of her former students had loaned me a needlepoint working of a hand and the 5 words of Jesus.
    After relating what Marg did to begin her Sunday School class every week, and knowing the majority of those at her funeral were former students, I asked, “how do you respond when I do this?”.
    I raised my hand – the congregation did the same.
    I extended my thumb – the congregation shouted – I
    And so on for the other four fingers.
    That day nearly 600 people repeated what Marg had taught them in Sunday School to help them cope with life.


At Pentecost God sent the Holy Spirit to help us be God’s people in the world.

(I ended my sermon by asking the congregation to follow Marg’s example.
I raised my hand – they did the same – and as I opened each finger we said “I am with you always”.
I suggested that later in the day people should do it once more … and in the future whenever needed.)

IN THE END, CHRIST REIGNS OVER ALL - 7th Sunday of Easter, May 8, 2016; by Bishop Terry Brown

(Homily preached by Bishop Terry Brown for the Seventh Sunday after Easter, Church of the Ascension, Hamilton, Ontario, May 8, 2016.)

 
I think any preacher in Canada this Sunday has some major challenges: It is the Sunday after the Ascension: the earthly Christ has vanished, giving us or promising us the Holy Spirit of truth and wisdom, changing us from disciples into apostles, sending us out to live and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world.

Yet the context this week is a horrific natural disaster, a terribly destructive forest fire in Alberta that has disrupted thousands of lives and may well, in one way or another, impact us all. We might well ask, “Where is God in that terrible fire? Why does God let it continue?” And many other questions may well arise about our Christian understanding of God and nature. Just as we try to embrace nature with love and care, and we think of our observance of Earth Sunday two weeks ago, it explodes and becomes massively destructive.

It is also Mother’s Day, a secular holiday on which we give thanks for mothers and those who do the work of mothers.

And finally, the Anglican Church of Canada asks us to keep today as Jerusalem Sunday, praying and working for peace in that troubled city, “the mother of us all”, the home of the three “religions of the Book”, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. What a mixture for any preacher!

And we should note that poor Julian of Norwich, whose feast day it also is, has been supplanted. We’ll celebrate her in our Wednesday Eucharist.

Perhaps we might start with a quiet prayer for all the mothers who are caught up in the Fort McMurray fire, who are doing what mothers usually do in natural and human disasters, sacrificing themselves to look after their children and preserve their lives. And not just mothers, but grandmothers, aunts, and sisters; and fathers, brothers and friends. And not just Alberta; but all the places in the world where motherhood is fraught with violence, war, poverty, ill health, starvation and lack of opportunity. We pray for the mothers of Syria and Iraq; mothers who are refugees, including in our own community; mothers of Attawapiskat, and, of course, we pray for the mothers of Jerusalem, both Palestinian and Israeli, and their children, that they may live together in peace.

I believe it is good to think of Mother’s Day as a very inclusive holiday, as some have sought to be mothers and not been able, or have lost children, but yet are able to exercise motherly love. Often, in the words of Scripture, “she who is barren has many more children than the one who conceived and bore”. So we give thanks for our mothers and those who have taken the place of mothers in our lives; and pray that good motherly love may be part of our characters, whatever our gender. And that we may have the grace to accept the love of those who wish to be mothers to us.

Bishop Walter, in his Ascension Day sermon, pointed out that Jesus’ Ascension was the point at which the disciples ceased to be simply followers of the earthly Jesus but now, with that earthly Jesus gone, had to become leaders, apostles, not simply disciples; and that we are called to that vocation as the Holy Spirit is poured upon us: to be apostles in good relationships of Christian friendship with one another, but also sent out (that is the meaning of “apostle”: apo-stelein, to be sent out) to the world with the love of God in Jesus Christ.

But what about massive forest fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and floods? Where is the love of the Creator God in all of them? It would appear that God has given us a potentially dangerous world to live in; yet also the skills to live, learn, develop and flourish in this world. Take earthquakes, for example, caused by the earth’s tectonic plates shifting as the earth cools. That we know and can make some provision for. Indeed, we take on the risks of nature and sometimes nature wins. Floodplains have good soil so ancient and even modern civilizations plant gardens and even build cities in them; but floodplains are still floodplains and they sometimes flood. Likewise, forest fires, though immensely destructive, have an element of regeneration in them, they are a part of the cycle of nature, so humanity has to be careful.

To add to the mix, we can make things worse – for example, by massive deforestation, pollution of the oceans, excessive use of fossil fuels, and a wasteful lifestyle. We are all involved. I may be proud that my “carbon footprint” is small because I do not have a car; but I am about to make one very heavy carbon footprint as I fly back and forth across the Pacific Ocean for about the 20th or 30th time. We make our choices and we are called to choose with love.

We also like risky activities – perhaps white water rafting, or skiing or bungee jumping. And then there are our sometimes frail and vulnerable bodies that we do not treat so well through overwork or lack of rest. And then there are human-made disasters: wars, genocides, abuses, unjust economic and political systems, those who are happy to be ignorant or misled by an ultimately destructive ideology, religion or politician.  Indeed, Jerusalem today, with all its violence and instability, is often the result of religions in conflict, religions that have traded their God-given heritage of peace/shalom/salaam for violence and hatred.

This is the world in which we are placed and the world to which we are sent. It may feel like an enormous and impossible challenge. Yet the first apostles, at the Ascension, were sent into a Mediterranean world of war and natural and human disasters, with much less technology than ourselves, and the Gospel flourished.

First, we must make sure that our own house is in order, so that we are sent as a united and loving community (abiding in Christ and in one another, as envisioned by today’s Gosepl), not just as a bunch of individuals. And so we try to work together as a parish, with our various governing, advisory and programme structures; we try to be open to new ministries – new ways of being sent – without discouraging one another or the work of the Spirit. We are called near and far. We are called to be generous to those affected by the Fort McMurray fire: for example, through contributions to the Primate’s Fund. We are called to radical hospitality. We are called to be generous to mothers and those who look after children. We are called to motherly love. And if we want to continue in this building, we are called to the mundane tasks of furnaces, roofs, lawns, photocopy machines, budgets – but also bread and wine, which, blessed, brings it all together and sends us out.

I wanted to preach this Sunday as I am away the next five weeks in Vancouver, Brisbane, Solomon Islands and Fiji. The trip is a combination of work and holiday and I ask your prayers for my travels. Through the social media, many whom I visit already know of our parish. A couple Solomon Islanders have appeared here and more will come. I hope I can put together some sort of parish ministry visit next year to the Solomons that would broaden our vision but also provide some help and support. Marshal McLuhan’s “global village” is here and now and we are sent both locally and globally. And I am sure God’s Holy Spirit will continue to work among you while I am away.

Finally, overarching all of these concerns, is our continued reading of the book of Revelation as our Epistle during Easter and Ascension-tide; we have now come to its end. It is a reminder that no matter what the disaster, no matter what the tragedy, no matter what the difficulty, no matter what the disappointment – and John is writing to terribly persecuted Christians, rather like Middle Eastern and North African Christians today – no matter what the horror, no matter what the death, the Resurrected, Ascended and Glorified Christ reigns over all and will eternally reign over all, bringing all who are faithful to his side and wiping all tears away. So we work with that promise before us of the eternal heavenly New Jerusalem to come.

“The Spirit and the Bride say, ’Come’. And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come’. And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.”

Thanks be to God!

SUN OF ADAM, SUN OF MAN - Earth Sunday and 5th Sunday of Easter, April 24, 2016; by Jeff Bonner, n/TSSF

May my words bring you peace and blessing, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Good morning everyone! 

I am happy to share my thoughts with you today as we observe Earth Sunday.  The Franciscan tradition is closely associated with love for God’s creation and the environment, which I will talk about more later. 

Earth Sunday is an extension into church life and liturgy of the annual observance of Earth Day on April 22.  It can be observed either the Sunday before or after Earth Day, and for us it is today. 

Before we go any further, I’d like to invite you all to join me in a very brief moment of meditation.  Please close your eyes.

Now imagine you are outside on a warm and sunny spring day. 

There's a cool breeze.

But as you look up at the sun, you feel its warmth and brightness on your face.

Okay, you can open your eyes now.  As you imagined the sun on your face, was it a happy feeling?  Now here’s a question, whose answer may seem obvious but you might have never thought about before: isn’t this the same sun that would have shone down on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? 

It is indeed the same sun that God calls good, in the same sky that God calls good, doing the very thing that God calls good.  And we are seeing it from the same Earth that God calls good. 

It seems to me that we have an interesting juxtaposition between our readings this morning for the 5th Sunday of Easter and our observance of Earth Sunday.  Almost a conflict, with the ‘passing away’ of the old world being a good thing.

Elsewhere, St Paul tells us to be in the world but not of it.  St John warns us not to love the world or we will lose our love for God.  And in the Christian tradition, most of us are familiar with the term “fallen world”.  The fact that we live in a fallen world is a typical explanation for why things are not the way they should be.  Some Christians look forward to the end times when all things will be made new, viewing this world as just an evil fallen place that we have to put up with for a while.

I don’t think God is happy with such a low view of his creation.  In the Genesis story, God repeatedly calls creation good.

The problem of course is interpretation of the word “world”.  In one place we are cautioned against loving the world, and in another we are told that God loved the world so much that Jesus endured the cross for it.  The world we should not too easily love is the “world” of humanity – the society that is formed of rigid hierarchies and imbalances that do not serve justice and mercy for everyone.

After all, according to the Biblical narrative, it is not all of Creation that fell.  It was us. Just us.

The sun is the same sun.  The sky is the same sky. The Earth is the same Earth. Whether you view the story of the Fall as a literal story or a metaphor doesn’t matter – there is no moral failure on the part of the Earth.  And there is no immorality in nature that people do not bring by their interaction. Aside from the ongoing processes of evolution and shifting geography, it is essentially the same world it has always been.

And from today’s reading from the Book of Acts, we should remember the admonition to Peter:  “what God has made clean, you must not call profane.” What God has called good, we should not call evil or worthless.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel reading today that we are to love as he loved. This is a present tense commandment, not reserved for some future paradise.  As Bishop Terry said last week, we are called to be Resurrection people and Resurrection communities here and now. 

And because our use of the world profoundly affects other people, I would suggest this includes our interaction with the environment. American author Wendell Berry puts it this way,
“The earth is what we all have in common. It is what we are made of and what we live from, and we cannot damage it without damaging those with whom we share it . . . It is impossible to care for each other more or differently than we care for the earth.”

Fortunately, while disdain for the present world has found its place in some theology, there have also always been Christian saints and mystics who resist that view with a love for creation, reminding us that the call to love as God loves includes the beautiful Earth that God has blessed us with.

Julian of Norwich says, “I know well that heaven and earth and all creation are great, generous and beautiful and good… God’s goodness fills all his creatures and all his blessed works full, and endlessly overflows in them.”

Again, Mechtild of Magdeburg writes, “The manifold delight I learn to take in earthly things can never drive me from my Love. For in the nobility of creatures, in their beauty and in their usefulness, I will love God – and not myself!”

And long before any of them, various Psalms also declare the beauty and majesty of God’s world.  Our psalm today exalts God as the creator and ties all of creation into his glory and praise.

Of course, one of the best known saints relating to nature is St Francis of Assisi, whose spirituality strongly reflected a love for God through love for Creation.  Francis came to see God's goodness at the heart of all matter. For him, all of creation is filled with the abundant goodness of God, manifests the presence of God, and deserves respect and care.  Francis spent a lot of time in nature, and in one story we hear of him even preaching the Gospel to birds in the field.  In his well known Canticle of the Sun, he praises God and thanks him for creation, affirming a theology that respects nature and referring to the rest of creation with terms such as brother, sister and mother.  Of the Earth, he writes, “Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who feeds us and rules us, and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.”

So what does it mean for us as Christians in 2016 to love and care for creation as God does?

Certainly, not all of us are called to be full time environmental activists and educators.  But it does mean we should give consideration to our lifestyle choices.

And we do face a hundred small choices and opportunities every day to lessen our negative impact on the environment around us.  Many of them are little things, but can they add up quickly when we all take part.  Even the smallest house is made up of many little bricks.

These opportunities include recycling and composting, and choosing products and packaging that reduce our waste.  It could mean walking or biking to the store if we can, instead of driving, especially if we’re going for just one or two items we can easily carry. It might include washing our laundry in cold water as much as possible and using the old-fashioned laundry line to dry it when weather permits. 

But one of the highest impacts at home is heating and air conditioning – heating alone counts for more than 50% of our overall energy use.  Setting the thermostat a little lower in the winter and a little higher in the summer is a start.  Then increasing efficiency by upgrading furnaces, insulation and windows can both reduce our energy use and save us money.  At least until they raise the rates, but don’t even get me started on that.

As Bishop Terry mentioned earlier, the Ascension is launching a fundraising campaign to upgrade our heating system.  The new furnaces will be more efficient and easier to maintain, making it a great opportunity for us to reduce our energy impact as a community and reduce expenses in the long term.  I hope everyone will support the fundraising for this project as they are able.

I will leave you with those thoughts as a starting point for your own choices and reading, and encourage you to get outside as you are able to enjoy the blessing of nature a bit more.  And as you do, consider that you walk, sing and play on the same Earth and under the very same sun as Adam and Eve and every person since or to come.

Let us pray together:

O GOD, we thank you for this earth, our home; for the wide sky and the blessed sun, for the ocean and streams, for the towering hills and the whispering wind, for the trees and green grass.

WE THANK YOU for our senses by which we hear the songs of birds, and see the splendor of fields of golden wheat, and taste autumn's fruit, and rejoice in the feel of snow, and smell the breath of spring flowers.

GRANT US a heart opened wide to all this beauty; and save us from being so blind that we pass unseeing when even the common thorn bush is aflame with your glory.  Amen.

RESURRECTION IN DIFFICULT TIMES - 4th Sunday of Easter, April 17, 2016; by Bishop Terry Brown

(Sermon preached by Bishop Terry Brown at Church of the Ascension, Hamilton, Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 17, 2016.)

We are in the midst of Eastertide. The Easter candle burns as a reminder of Christ’s Resurrection and ours, even as we gather for Morning Prayer. Today’s two lessons speak of Resurrection: Peter raising Tabitha from death and Jesus speaking of himself as Messiah and Good Shepherd, leading us to eternal resurrected life.

Yet Resurrection can be difficult for us. We are human beings with different personalities. We have different understandings and practices of leadership. We come from different levels of wealth and education. We have different views about worship. We come from different backgrounds. We are different ages and different genders.

Diversity, then, is a very strong mark of this Christian community and many other Christian communities. But how do we survive and even flourish with all this diversity with all its potential for conflict and division?

We return to Christ’s Resurrection. We are called to be Resurrection people and a Resurrection community. We remember that in John’s account of the Resurrection, the resurrected Christ imparts the Holy Spirit: the spirit of truth and unity. The Resurrected Christ unites those who were divided and sends them out in mission.

What might be some steps in our path to Resurrection?

First, we all need Resurrection; none of us has reached the point of perfect eternal life, no matter how many good deeds we have done, no matter how good our relationships, no matter how good our understanding of the Christian faith, the Bible or the reality of the world, no matter how much we have prayed or meditated. We all fail and are in need of the grace of God.

Therefore, there are always some separations amongst us. It is not our task to accentuate those separations but to work at bridging them, to work at reconciliation. Reconciliation is a mark of Resurrection. Reconciliation requires mutual respect, listening, patience, the recognition that we might be wrong and have to change. Therefore, Resurrection calls us to self-examination and change. It also calls us to strengthen our good qualities; and we all have good qualities. And, sadly, if we are failing in our talents, we are called to recognize that too.

Once the disciples experienced the resurrected Christ, they regained their trust – both their trust in Christ and their trust in one another. It takes some time for Thomas but eventually he comes to trust more than all. Trust is a mark of Resurrection.

Even in the early church, Christians had disagreements. They commended them to calm discussion, to reflection on the Apostolic Tradition and Scripture, to prayer and the Holy Spirit. At its General Synod this July, the Anglican Church of Canada will be engaging in this process as it reflects upon changing the marriage canon to provide for Canadian Anglican clergy to conduct same-sex marriages. Many (on whatever side) are convinced they are absolutely right and know the answer. But history suggests that beating the opposition over the head with our high moral ground is often not the best approach. Resurrection can take new and surprising shapes.

I hope the workshop next Sunday and Monday, described in the bulletin, will help us in these areas of trust, communication and conflict resolution.

When we have disagreements (and they are a part of Christian life), because it is the Resurrected Christ we are proclaiming and not we ourselves, we are called not to personalize disagreement. That is hard to do because we live in a psychological age where the issues can easily get lost in personalities. And we may be shocked by others’ behaviour. Or even lose control of our own.

Thus, another mark of Christian Resurrection is reserve and restraint. The Resurrected Christ does not push himself upon the disciples; he appears and disappears. He encourages and vanishes. He is in the process of imparting the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we are called to display attractive Resurrection personalities: expressing love and concern to others, even if we do not like their personalities and are sure we see all their flaws. Indeed, even if we do not feel like doing it.

That Resurrection transformation prepares us for another mark of Resurrection, hospitality. Early Christians welcomed Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles into the emerging faith in the Resurrected Messiah, Jesus Christ. All were invited to listen and, once baptized, break bread and join together in fellowship meals.  With the refugee cooking programme outlined in today’s bulletin, we have an opportunity to exercise hospitality to new Canadians and be a part of outreach and mission, another mark of Resurrection. And, of course, there is the hospitality of our coffee hour, Bible studies and other church events. But would we consider an open meal of hospitality, without cost, for the whole neighbourhood of Corktown and beyond? Are we prepared for radical hospitality?

Thus, Resurrection also leads to generosity. Resurrection love is generous: not just generous with time and talents but also with money. Generosity, including financial support for the church, is our response of constant thanksgiving for God’s gift of love in Jesus Christ, in His Presence, on the Cross and in the Resurrection, Ascension and Glorification. If we want to continue to be present here as a Resurrected Community on this corner of Hamilton, we need to be financially generous. Our new furnace fund launches next week and I hope you will be generous.

In this small reflection I have made, six characteristics of the Resurrection community have come out: reconciliation, trust, reserve and restraint, hospitality, outreach and generosity. If we work on these, in our personal lives, our institutional life, or relationships, I am sure that God will bless us with Resurrection as the Resurrected Christ blessed the disciples in his Resurrection appearances.

Six, however, is not a very biblical number so perhaps we might, with credit to St. Paul, add a seventh overarching one: love: the self-giving love of Jesus Christ that treats the other as better than oneself, the love that forgives, the love that diminishes oneself so that others may increase, the love that is patient and kind. For the Resurrection of Christ is the perfect Love of God acting in the world: to raise his Son and ourselves from sin and death to new life and ever-growing self-giving love. And all that leads to Resurrection joy that passes all understanding. Amen.

Third Sunday of Lent, February 28, 2016; by Janice Maloney-Brooks

The Gospel of Luke today, tells us that Jesus and his disciples are gathered in Jerusalem, probably early on a Monday morning quarterbacking all the news from the weekend. Sitting in the Grab ‘N Go or the equivalent of a Tim Horton’s, having a double double, Jesus is turning the discussion on to the topic of sin.

Overhead in the corner of this coffee shop is a large TV monitor and a journalist is giving a report on how the Roman troops have stormed the Temple and slaughtered a group of Galileans while they were at worship. The Governor, Pontius Pilate, suspects Galilee is a breeding ground for terrorists and wants to send a strong message to Galilee: we tolerate no insurrection or rebellion.

Everyone stops and listens to the story – many of them are from Galilee themselves. So Jesus, says to his disciples, “Do you think that what happened to those poor Galileans was because they were worse sinners than anyone else?”

You see, back then people thought that when bad things happened to people, it was deserved because they or their fathers or family had sinned. Jesus was about to turn the tables again. Change society’s ideas of right and wrong and what was deserved and undeserved. He explained to them that evil is a power and governors influenced by power do evil deeds – that’s just how it is. He warns his followers: “Unless you repent, you will all perish just like they did.”

Suddenly rushing in comes a late arriving member of their group says, “The Siloam Tower has just collapsed, it has killed 18 people!”.  People start talking among themselves, after all the tower is important and part of the wall built beside the Pool of Siloam, the only fresh water spring in Jerusalem. Maybe it isn’t surprising the foundations slipped then. Jesus asks them again, “Do you think those 18 were worse sinners than everyone else in Jerusalem?”

So let’s unpack this – The question is not were those people the worse sinners – I think we are folks have advanced our personal theology beyond that  - We know that people don’t get cancer because they were rude to the parking attendant. I’m asking – WHAT IS SIN? HOW DO WE MEASURE IT? IS MY SIN GREATER THAN HER SIN? WHY REPENT?
Jesus teaches us that sin violates the great commandment, “Love God and your neighbour as yourself”.
Then what is sin? SIN IS ANYTHING THAT SEPARATES US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD, our neighbour or our self…and we do the separating. The absence of God, living without His love. It’s a lonely place and somewhere I surely don’t want to be.
Now how about, if we’ve only sinned a little bit? Let’s say, not a whole cup of flour, just an ounce and the neighbour has a pound of flour! Jesus says sin is sin and even a little is too much.

How does sin affect us? I heard a friend say it quite plainly the other day. She said GUILT. She said, we live with guilt and then turn on the TV to hear how inadequate we are. I’m not going to turn this sermon into one of those sermons of prosperity from a mega church, you know – everything is good, we are good, God is good, we shall be rewarded. No, neither am I going to turn this into a fire and brimstone sermon from one of the old day preachers. I’m going to ask you, to look inside yourself, and see if there is anything that stops you from feeling the love of God. The whole love of God and a reciprocal love with God. It is unpacking that relationship, I believe helps us to understand the role of sin in this world. It’s the nagging feeling after you didn’t love your neighbor as yourself.  You know, there are actually some denominations that believe if you work hard enough you can actually become “sinless”. At U of T., a doctoral student recently explained his Wesleyan denomination. They believe that someone can actually achieve absence of all sin in this life, it’s called sanctification. All Christians strive for it, but Wesleyans believe it can be achieved, however there is a catch-22. If you claim to be sinless, you already aren’t because you are proud!

Repentance is a major emphasis in this Gospel, it is not a nagging call, but instead it offers an implicit promise of salvation. We need to live lives of repentance because we never know when a tyrant will rise up against us or a Tower wall will fall – or our plane will crash-or a truck will crush our car – or a spasm stop our heart. Repentance helps us in life and in death – it helps us to live as forgiven people – helps us to face death without fear.

I have an absolute favourite movie, and for anyone under 30 in the congregation – I’m sorry. This movie came out in in 1986, called The Mission, starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons.  The film is set in 1750s when a Spanish Jesuit builds a Mission in the NE Argentina and Western Paraguayan jungle. Captain Mendoza (a mercenary and slave trader) has killed his brother in a dual about a woman and as a suitable self-appointed penance is accompanying the Jesuit to his mission carrying in a pack all the weapons of his former life (armour, swords, knives, metal shackles). The weight is absolutely killing him as they climb the high falls.

Suddenly one of the Aboriginals takes a knife – and instead of killing Mendoza as the viewer and Mendoza himself fears – the Native cuts the ropes. It was the Natives on whom Mendoza preyed and that took away into slavery that relieved him of his burden. Now that is reconciliation.

The name our Gospel of today is usually given is The Fig Tree, so that shows you, how important this part of the reading is. Today’s Gospel came in 3 parts – two stories and a parable: The Temple, The Tower and The Fig Tree.

If you are a gardener, you have a long view. You know that when something is planted, it may be months, maybe even years before you see the beauty or the fruit of this mature plant. When Jesus is teaching about this parable, there are a few things we need to keep in mind, especially people like me, with a decidedly non-green thumb.  When this certain man came to the garden with an expectation of fruit, that Fig tree had been planted quite some time ago. It wasn’t just three years the plant had been around. The gardener had planted it years ago! He had planted, tended, grafted, and pruned especially. Cutting off the bits that pull the energy off the main plant and its desire to bear fruit.  We in the Diocese of Niagara, should really understand the idea of pruning in a plant that you won’t gain anything from for years. For you see, it is written in Leviticus and the Jews would have followed this law about the Fig tree – “Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten; But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. And in the fifth year are to eat of its fruits that its yield may increase for you…”  The vineyard owner was ready to eat the fruit but there wasn’t any! It was the 7th year of looking. Symbolically, this parable seems to be teaching that the Jewish leadership has had enough time to repent of their sins, and not just them but us! Remember that John the Baptist said to the multitudes going to see him, “Therefore bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance”.

For us Christians, what are the fruits that should be manifest in our lives? These are the fruits of the Spirit – taught to us by St. Paul in Galatians.  They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Apparently the Jewish leadership were not manifesting the fruit of the Spirit nor the fruit of repentance. Maybe we can ask ourselves, “What fruits are we bearing for the Lord?” “Are we showing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control?”  These are internal characteristics, but what about external manifestations of those fruits? Ministry to others? Are we bearing fruit in furthering the Kingdom of God? Are we giving, praying, forgiving, leading others to Christ, etc. Each of us is different and has different gifts and fruit, but we are all of the same body.
I heard a story at school this week that I’d like to leave you with.

On Valentine’s Day, 2011, Michael Fassbach was boating on Mexico’s Sea of Cortez where he studies whales. You may have been this story on Facebook or the internet somewhere. His crew spotted a large, young humpback whale. It was not moving. Just a small portion of it back was showing above the surface of the water. They came alongside it for several minutes, but it did not move. The concluded it was dead. Then it exhaled and still did not move. Michael cautiously entered the water with his diving mask, knowing that though the whale was near death, it could still kill him with one flick of its tale. He discovered the whale was entangled in a nylon gill net of the sort used by local fishermen. The net pinned is pectoral fins to its side and covered the dorsal fin. The massive net was so heavy that the whale’s tail was fifteen feel below the surface. The radioed for help but none was available. The whale would drown. Though they had only a six inch knife, from the side of their boat they began cutting. It took 30 minutes to free one pectoral fin. The whale, mistakenly sensing freedom, took off towing their boat behind, but after a kilometer it stopped, exhausted. The labored for another hour, cutting and pulling, cutting and pulling, and finally freed the tail. The joy of these 5 people was one thing, their shouts and laughter. For the next hour the whale leapt out of the water high in the air, about 40 times, they were not sure if it was in joy or thanksgiving.

This event can be a parable for us. Some say it is about sinful fishing practices using gill net. Some might focus on the power of sin to ensnare and weigh us down. Like the Native in the Mission and Michael Fassbach cutting the whale free – I hear today’s Gospel  about Christ cutting us loose to the joy of freedom after repentance.

Creator, Lead us all in the dance of joy like that humpback whale, as we repent and reconnect in our relationship with God, each other and our world.
AMEN.

What is our citizenship? - Second Sunday of Lent, February 21, 2016, by Bishop Terry Brown

What is our citizenship? Where is our home? What is our identity?

As Canadians we tend to be proud of our citizenship, identifying with our country’s good features and history, perhaps contrasting it positively with the citizenships of countries less enlightened than ourselves. About ten years ago, when Canadian passports were much easier to alter, I remember being told, “Look after your Canadian passport well, it is worth $20,000 on the black market”. We like and we need human citizenships, human homes, and human identities.

Similarly, we might ask, where is our real home? Our house or apartment where we live with family and pets? Or perhaps a club or organization where we feel at home and to which we have given much loyalty? Or perhaps even this parish?

Similarly, who are we, what is our identity? Perhaps we have an identity based on our profession or place in the family or family history. Perhaps we have an identity based on nationality, or gender or age or sexual orientation. Perhaps we have an identity based on our religious views.

Paul reminds us in the first lesson that as Christians we give a different answer first, before we move on to those important answers. Paul writes, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ”.

Before any human citizenship, as Christians, we are “citizens of heaven”, brought into that divine citizenship through our Baptisms. Likewise, before our earthly homes, our home is heaven; and before any earthly identity, our true identity is “Christ’s own, forever”, the words said as we are sealed at Baptism.

All of our other citizenships, homes, identities, are rooted and grounded in this heavenly citizenship, in which our lives are brought into Christ’s life and transformed by it.

In the lesson Paul makes reference to those “whose minds are set on earthly things”, “whose God is their belly”, those who seek an earthly glory that is really deeply shameful. Instead, Paul reminds the Philippians to imitate himself in bearing the Cross of Christ and loving with Christ-like love.

Aware that our primary citizenship is heaven, that we are Christ’s own above all others, we are transformed into the glory of Christ; the sin falls away and the new redeemed humanity appears.

It is because of this heavenly citizenship, which Paul sees all Christians sharing, that he is so opposed to factions and cliques in the churches he visits. Our citizenship in Christ transforms us from adversaries and rivals into friends and co-workers.

So as we approach our annual Vestry meeting, it is good to remind ourselves of our heavenly citizenship in Christ; and that discussions, decisions and our whole life as a parish is that of a kind of outpost of heavenly citizenship here on earth or, as Scripture also has it, the Reign or Kingdom of God.

I have always been fascinated that, apparently in international law, the building or office in which an embassy is located is regarded as the sovereign territory of that country whose embassy it is. So visiting, say, the Russian Embassy in Ottawa, one has left Canada and is on sovereign Russian territory. Perhaps we should regard our parishes that way: that when we step into the church, we step into a different citizenship, a different territory, a divine one.  When we consecrate a church building, we give it this status. But, of course, that heavenly citizenship is with us wherever we are, and not just in this building.

An earthly citizenship involves paying taxes, enforcing the law through police, perhaps keeping a standing army for self-defence, and a certain level of political conflict as different interests try to assert their power. An earthly citizenship may involve an ideology, such as Marxism in Cuba or democracy in the US or Canada and the nation is mobilized to defend it. An earthly citizenship is political and strives for power.

Heavenly citizenship is different. The goal is participating in and sharing God’s love in Jesus Christ. Instead of rivalry and competition, there is sharing and cooperation.  The poor and powerless are not forgotten or shunted aside; they are valued and given particular honour. Heavenly citizenship regards and respects the “other” as a subject whose views are to be respected, rather than ridden roughshod over. Latin American Liberation Theology speaks of a “preferential option for the poor”.

Heavenly citizenship is also the foundation for beautiful worship, beautiful music and beautiful architecture. The communication of heavenly citizenship is prayer and sharing of insights rooted in the Holy Spirit. Heavenly citizenship gives us confidence and restores us as the image of Christ.

But heavenly citizenship does not make us powerless. In the second lesson, Christ, the premier citizen of heaven, so to speak, is warned that the earthly political power, King Herod, is about to come to arrest him for the miracles he is performing. Jesus is contemptuous: “tell that fox”, he says, that he, Jesus, knows what he is doing; that he is working his way to Jerusalem where he knows he will meet his death; but in the meantime he will continue to heal and cast out demons. The earthly political state has no real power over heavenly citizenship.

Indeed, as citizens of heaven we are called to help transform the nations of the world (starting with our own) into communities that better reflect the citizenship of heaven. And it works. For example, for the last four years churches have been joining doctors and nurses in asking the federal government that medical services be restored to refugees to Canada; many of us in the diocese picketed for that. And now, last week, the medical services have been restored.

Our neighbourhoods, our social organizations, our political parties, our families, our workplaces – whatever group we are involved with – need whatever element of heavenly citizenship we can bring to them. Marks of that citizenship are the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, patience, goodness, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness. Of course, those fruits of our heavenly citizenship must be with us in the parish in our relations with one another; and then they move out with us to those we meet day by day: to our various earthly citizenships, homes and identities.

As we prepare to discuss and make decisions about the life of this parish for the next year, may we remember that we are all, first, citizens of heaven, and it is that heavenly citizenship that we are concerned with as we make our decisions and live out our Christian vocation and vocations in the year ahead. Thanks be to God!