RECENT SERMONS

given at

DUNDAS STREET CENTRE UNITED CHURCH

  July 12, 2009

July 5, 2009

June 21, 2009

June 14, 2009

JULY 12, 2009: Pentecost 6, Yr.B
Acts 15:36-40
John 8:1-11

“Practicing What we Believe”

Today we are addressing the second of the suggested sermon topics - namely talking about and living out our faith in our own workplaces, or stated another way taking the faith we profess on Sunday to work on Monday. This is a topic that is timely and relevant, and one that is near and dear to my heart too. When I first felt a sense of call in my 20's I really believed that God was calling me to remain in my existing profession and live out my call as a committed lay person, taking my faith into my workplace. I felt and I continue to believe that is a very high calling and one that is absolutely critical. It was also one that I struggled with myself. As time went on I accepted that God was calling me into the ministry but I have to admit that I felt in some ways like this was a cop out. You see I had found the first calling, taking faith to work, very difficult and I had not excelled at it. As a minister I can talk about faith as much as I want, in fact people expect me to do just that. So I have always had tremendous respect and regard for the lay people in every church who week after week, come to church and then take their faith into their own places of work. I hope and pray that in these next few minutes together we might open some thoughtful ideas that will add something of value to this discussion and to this important task.

Ed in his solo “This is My Commandment” set a tone for this sermon and indeed for any sermon as we remember the central message of the Christian faith - that we love one another as God has loved us. Nowhere is this commandment more applicable than in our workplaces where we are often called to work with and among people that far from loving we perhaps don’t even like.

Betty read for us two passages from scripture that give us clues about how we might frame our discussion about taking Sunday’s faith to work on Monday. In the passage from Acts we hear of Barnabas and Paul parting company. Although both Barnabas and Paul were apostles they were not part of the original twelve but rather ones who had felt called to discipleship. They had been on journeys together and had worked as a team, keeping a busy and demanding schedule. One of the younger apostles, John (who was called Mark) had disappointed Paul and in Paul’s eyes had not measured up to the standard. He solution was to cut him loose. No second chances here. Barnabas, recognizing that we all make mistakes, especially when we are young, wanted to give Mark a second chance and take him with them on another missionary journey. A difference of opinion arose that was so sharp that they parted ways and we never really hear of Barnabas again. The epistles are filled with Paul’s work. It would have been easy for Barnabas to agree to cut Mark loose and continue on with Paul. It would have been a much better “career move” for Barnabas and he likely knew this. He also knew what his own principals were and he was not prepared to compromise them for the sake of fame. He believed in second chances and including those who are “weaker”. For these principals he was prepared to compromise his own career. To do less would be to compromise his soul. Like Barnabas we too face tough decisions many times in our own working lives. This passage shows us quite clearly how we are to conduct ourselves as followers of Christ.

In the second passage that Betty read for us, John 8:1-11, a group of leaders trying to trick Jesus, brought before him a woman caught in adultery. The law is quite clear in this regard and the consequence is death by stoning. Jesus who has been preaching love to God, neighbour and self and who is himself living under the law is confronted with this angry mob demanding justice. His answer - let the one who has not sinned cast the first stone. One by one they walk away. In John’s gospel we are given a clear message about how we are to treat others.

In both of these passages and indeed all through the gospels Jesus employs that age old method of teaching - modeling. This gives us an appropriate standard by which we can conduct our own personal life and behaviours and indicates how we are to act towards others. In these passages we have been shown examples of what we commonly refer to as “modeling”. Most people agree that modeling is the most effective teacher. Well so what? What is the difference between witnessing to our faith and simply being a good and decent human being? After all what we have been reading about and talking about fall in the category of decent human behaviour. Are they not the same thing? Not exactly. Modeling good decent human behaviour is a central part of modeling behaviour that all of us as Christians are called to. It is in essence the ‘minimum standard.” But it is not the whole story.  A couple of months ago I was having lunch with some other clergy. It was the same week that the United Church had responded to the ads that were being placed in buses by atheists. If you recall, the ads by the atheists read: “There probably isn’t a God so relax and enjoy your life.” In response the United Church placed its ads: “There probably is a God so relax and enjoy your life.” Some of the ministers at this gathering were incensed that the church was not more definitive in its response. They were all set to write a letter to the moderator with their concerns. I was not among them. In fact I believe that the church’s response was a very good one, because it opens the door for dialogue and interaction. No one is going to believe in God because I tell them that they should or that it is a good thing to do. They will come to understand God and/or accept God because they engage in active discussion and wrestle with the issues in their own lives. These ads provide a way to initiate some of that discussion and wrestling.

Again look to the example of Jesus. When confronted with the kinds of questions that we are (or could be) he engaged the people using their language, the language of the day. But he did not stop there, he went further. Think of some of the stories that are familiar. In the parables he used the language, the symbols and the examples that were common and well known. When people came to him trying to trick him with words he turned their words back on them. A good example is when they asked “who do we pay taxes to God or Caesar?” (all the while knowing full well what the answer was), Jesus said “whose face is on the coin?” “Caesar” they replied. Fine, “then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what belongs to God.” Then they had to figure out what he meant and to hear their own words which they had used to try to trick him. Remember that wonderful exchange between Jesus and Pilate close to the end of Jesus’ life when he is brought before Pilate for questioning?

Pilate: Are you the King of the Jews?
Jesus: It’s you that say I am.
Pilate: So you are a king.
Jesus: My kingdom is not of this world.

Jesus engaged his audience. He made them work and he made them think. He spent more time preaching by example or modeling than he did with words. We can learn from this, and we can model this very thing today. We are not going to go fishing on the Sea of Galilee or walk on water, but we can do exactly what Jesus did by engaging people in honest dialogue and wrestling with ideas. Just as he used the language, images and symbols of his time so can we in our time. We can (and must) engage people with the common language of spirituality.

Last Thursday evening at the summer reading group we discussed an article that talked about the difference between spirituality and religion. It’s a hot topic these days, one we have talked about here on Sundays. After some discussion we came upon this definition crafted by Rabbi Shapiro which many found helpful:

Religion is about belonging, community, shared values, shared rituals, and mutual support. Spirituality is about living life without a net, forever surrendered to reality and meeting each moment with curiosity, wonder, gratitude, justice, humility and love. The two are not antithetical. Religion is often a container in which spiritual practices are preserved and passed on. Some people find the container as helpful as what it contains and choose to belong to a specific religion. Others simply take what they need from the containers and fashion their own way. I do a bit of both.
                                          by: Rabbi Rami Shapiro - in Spirituality and Health, July/Aug. 09

In our discussion we came to the conclusion that part of the current appeal of spirituality is that many people are lacking a sense of connection, a sense of relationship, a sense of wonder and awe. Spirituality provides a way to have that. However the Achilles heel of spirituality is that it can become very inward focused. What are we to do with this new found peace, or connectedness that we find through spirituality? (Note: this is also known as piety or personal piety and has been a facet of Christian faith for as long as the faith has been around). Belonging to a group of believers gives one an opportunity to take this spirituality to a new place or level and that is the place of using it in the service of others.

In this time and place we can do what Jesus did, use the language of the day (i.e. the language of spirituality) but not stop there. Go farther. I want to use two specific examples to illustrate. There is much talk and much written these days about Sabbath, the practice of taking a day or a period of rest each week or each period, however that is defined. In the current culture lots of good things are cited for taking a regular rest time or down time, such as spending time with family, to engage in meaningful social pursuits, to restore appropriate work/life balance. Sabbath is as old as life itself. God created the world in six day and on the seventh day God rested, we are told. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy (from the Ten Commandments). Sabbath is essential for our well being. Sabbath is the time that we pause to remember who has created us, to remember in whose hands we rest and to do all the wonderful things that are named above. By engaging people where they are and then taking the discussion further we do exactly what Jesus did every time the authorities tried ensnare him. Like us he lived in trying times that were hostile to faith and certainly to his brand of faith. The same kind of dialogue can take place with stewardship as the current culture has adopted that basic tenet of the Christian faith into their language. As we see in these two examples from current life, using current language we offer to the discussion a sense of how our faith informs what we believe and how we put that into practice.  We are then able to move it past the individual nature of spirituality to a collective response. For example “I do this for my own spirituality and then my religion (my membership in a larger group of spiritual pilgrims and seekers) allows me to take this further to reach out to others in what I could not do alone.

The workplace has changed and continues to change. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last. Our founder John Wesley confronted exactly the same thing in 18th c. England that was going through the Industrial Revolution. Wesley was a clergyman in the Church of England. Attendance was down and no one was much interested in attending church. Sound familiar? So what did Wesley do? He did not hole himself up in an office counting numbers and rearranging the existing churches. He went to where the people were. He engaged them in the issues that were important and critical to their lives. He used the language of the day and took it farther. His brother Charles, rearranged bar tunes and saloon songs with theological words to teach illiterate people the faith that for the most part had been the domain of the educated and the upper classes. His contemporary George Whitfield, set up Sunday Schools to teach children how to read and write. Without these basic skills they would have no hope of ever climbing out of poverty, or getting out of the factories and mines where they toiled long hours as child labourers. Sunday was the only day the factories were closed and therefore the only day that children could learn. He seized the opportunity before him. We must do the same.  In a very practical way in our time we need to:

    1) offer opportunities for worship other than on a Sunday morning. With the fall of the Lord’s Day Act in Ontario in 1993, Sunday has become a day of business and commerce. Many people are required to work on Sundays and in some workplaces there are incentives to work or do extra shifts on Sundays. For a young person who has no experience of the Christian faith and is offered overtime to work on Sundays, it’s an obvious choice. We must follow Wesley’s example and take faith to the people. One way we can do that in this time is by offering worship at times other than Sunday mornings.
    2) talk the language of spirituality to those seeking (and there are lots of them)
    3) be open and willing to change

When we are attentive and faithful, when we are honest about who and what we are, when we engage in this time and in this place in the ways God call us to now, then we have nothing to fear. We can and will go forward with confidence and we will be able to model for others and for ourselves that great commandment that has stood the test of all time.
Let us now go and do just that.

Amen

Rev. Catherine Tovell
Dundas St. Centre United Church
London, Ontario
 

July 5, 2009: Pentecost 5, Yr. B
2 Corinthians:5-12

"The Dance of the Spirit"

Today I am beginning the sermons that were suggested by members of the congregation. I am delighted with the response to the invitation to suggest topics for sermons in July. We have received eight suggestions in total and I will address all of them. Obviously with only four Sundays in July some of these topics will be dealt with in September and through the fall. I must say that I have my work cut out for me - some of the suggested topics are challenging ones, and they will no doubt get this old brain working over these next few months. Obviously these sermons will not be the definitive answer to some of these questions but will I hope serve as a way to open up more discussion and study for all of us. So thank you to all of you for your interest and participation.

This morning I am attempting to address one of the topics suggested and that is the connection between a sound and active spiritual life and the maintenance of a holistic general life. In other words, “what is the connection between the spirit, or the soul and the maintenance of healthy general living?” We began to touch on this topic last week with our third in the series on faith when we looked at “faith to accept”. Specifically faith to accept when we do not get what we hope for (and we talked about the difference between a cure and healing). This morning (I hope) we will take that theme a bit further.

Anyone who is involved in a 12-Step Program will be very familiar with the importance of having a spiritual life. It’s not that the rest of us do not need a spiritual life - quite the opposite - but we can learn much from those who are in 12 Step programs. One of the things that these programs teach is that you can do all the right things, make good choices, stay away from situations that trigger but if you are going to maintain long term sobriety, you have to be anchored to a spiritual centre. Because when the temptations arise, and they always do, it will be the belief in and reliance upon something larger than life itself that will make the difference.

Men and women have expressed this for many years and I know that many of you have incredible stories of faith either from your own life, or from the lives of those you have known and loved. Stories that speak of a faith that overcomes incredible obstacles, or provides resilience or patience that can seem unbelievable or unthinkable.

Sadly, we also know of many situations when men and woman who have overcome incredible obstacles, slip and fall in the midst of seemingly ordinary circumstances. What is it that brings a person through a crisis but then does not sustain that person when the crisis subsides and ordinary living takes place again? I’ve said over and over again that we are placed in a long history of men and woman who have faced these challenges before us. The Bible is full of these stories and so that is a good place to start our search for answers. Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth might shed some clues on this question for us.

Before we look at this passage and try to adapt it to our own life I think that it is important to understand what was happening in Corinth when Paul was writing this letter. Paul was defending himself from people outside the Corinthian church who had made charges against him to try to threaten his influence and leadership in the church. So the passage that we read is a treatment of his apostolic ministry. Paul as you remember was not one of the original twelve but later declared himself an apostle of Jesus Christ because he had been called by God. Many of his opponents were themselves Christian apostles or missionaries who were justifying their ministry by appealing to such things as signs and wonders, visions and revelations, or other ways of demonstrating power. So in a sense Paul "boasts" to play the same game as they are. Paul makes the point quite clearly that religious experiences cannot legitimate one's discipleship. Rather discipleship comes through weakness and suffering. Now this may seem rather unappealing to those of us who want to offer ourselves as disciples. Another way of saying the same thing is to speculate that Paul is recognizing that his apostleship cannot be demonstrated by a recitation of his otherworldly experiences, but only by the effectiveness of his this-worldly service as an apostle. Weakness, insults, hardship, persecutions and calamities are more frequent and typical of apostolic life than are visions and revelations. They also place us much more in direct touch with the experience of Christ. This was true in Paul's time and it is certainly true today. Paul’s work as an apostle was to let the life of Jesus be declared through his weaknesses. He talks specifically of that weakness as a "thorn in the flesh" given to him by Satan. In both Jewish and Christian literature Satan is sometimes portrayed as an agent of God's purposes. Paul very much sees this thorn as part of how God works through his life. Countless theologians have speculated as to what the problem was. They have come up with everything from visual problems, to anxiety, to the persecution that Paul constantly experienced. The most common belief was that Paul had some kind of physical or mental illness. Whatever the illness or problem was is really rather irrelevant. Paul didn’t name it, probably for a couple of reasons. Remember he was talking to the Corinthian church who already knew him. So they likely knew what his thorn was. When we are talking amongst people we know there is no need to keep stating the obvious. Secondly (and this is speculation) Paul likely didn’t name it because once something like this is named it can cause further competitiveness, and comparisons. Oh, it’s that - we’ll if I only had that to deal with I could do what you do too. Let me tell you about my cross! Paul obviously could not have accomplished the work he did with an acute illness, so it was probably a chronic illness that did not stop his work but rather acted as an aggravation, and perhaps slowed him down a bit. What is important is that three times Paul asked God to remove this thorn from his flesh and three times God declared that his grace was sufficient for Paul's continued work. Paul did not try to transcend or dismiss his weakness. Rather he accepted it and let it acknowledge his total dependance on God. Through his weakness the grace of God could be revealed.  Paul is not saying that "weakness is power". He is saying that the grace of God will be revealed through weakness. Paul accepts that in his weakness, God will provide the necessary tools to do the jobs that God has in mind for him.

I think it is important for us to note Paul’s word in verse 7 .... “Therefore, to keep me from being too elated (and some translations use the word “proud”), a thorn was given me in the flesh,.........” In other words, to keep me remembering who has brought me to this point I have a messenger, a way of never forgetting. Otherwise the temptation to believe that we have done it ourselves is too great. Once we internalize this temptation we are headed for trouble.

On Friday Dianne and I attended the graduation at Quintin Warner House for three men, who having worked very hard were graduating from the substance abuse treatment program. At these graduations there are other graduates who offer congratulations and words of wisdom. One man spoke very compassionately about the need to stay connected, to take one day a time and to begin and end each day in prayer. By doing this he said you stay in tune with the one who brought you sobriety and the one who will be there each step of the journey.

How easily any of us can forget that important lesson. We all have crosses to bear, thorns in our side. Those thorns rather than being unfair or cruel are ways that we like Paul can stay connected to the one who has created us, redeemed us and set us free.

So to come back to our question of the connection between our spiritual well being and our general holistic self, it is about a relationship. One that we nurture, make time for and cherish. One that we put above all else and one that will sustain us in all that life can throw at us. So do not be ashamed of, or afraid of the thorn in your side. Acknowledge it and turn it over to the one who calls you by name.

Amen.

Rev. Catherine Tovell
Dundas St. Centre United Church
London, Ontario