The Pastor's Sermon - Reformation Sunday - 28 October 2012

...now, irrespective of law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

• Let's talk about the reality of the world.
• Here's one view of the world: in this world, you get what you pay for and you get what you work for and you get what you deserve and that's the bottom line. With suspect grammar, one science-fiction writer put it this way: “There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!”
• This is the world we live in. Value for your dollar and let the punishment fit the crime. We call this justice and we pursue it vigorously. It is what we want in all our dealings with each other on every level.
• This is why achievement and the desire for rewards and honours is so important. We love our trophies, our medals, and our certificates. This is how people are motivated, or so I've been told.
• When things go against our concept and understanding of justice, we claim that things are unfair.
• Yet we have “hints” that the world God created and God's dealing with creation does not work that way. For example, my wife has a coffee cup with a saying based on the wisdom of the First Nations peoples printed on the side. It says “When the Great Spirit sends the dawn, he sends it for all.” The dawn is everyone's without regard to good or evil, deserving or undeserving.
• In a similar way, the dog is an amazing animal. In most cases, they are loyal to their people despite their people's unworthiness. Let's face it; do any of us deserve the love and loyalty of such an animal?
• These two poor, limping examples show us that justice is not the only thing there is in this world. These two examples also lead us to the real topic of the sermon – the Reformation.
• The Reformation brought to light a teaching of the church that had never really been lost, but that had been buried very deep under a host of other things. This teaching is nothing less than the primacy of grace.
• There was a time in the church's life when grace (or the presence of God, which is another way of explaining grace) was seen as a reward for good deeds or a good life. Saying it rather simplistically, if you were good enough, you would know grace. The Reformation confronted this idea. In fact, the idea that grace cannot be deserved or achieved or earned remains the cornerstone of the Lutheran understanding of theology and interpretation of Scripture.
• There was a time in the church's life and history when grace was seen as something given in response to the profession of faith or a decision to follow Jesus. A true Reformation understanding of grace hold that the grace of God comes before any of those things. As Paul put it: “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” Saying that we must profess something or proclaim something to deserve grace turns faith into another work. Faith is reduced to a check-list or a proof of your worthiness rather than an expression of trust in a loving God. I think we can all see that the Reformers wouldn't stand for that.
• When Luther heard the words “...a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” , he received such a tremendous sense of freedom that he felt he had been “born again and ...have entered paradise itself”
• It is grace – God's free give received in trusting faith – that is our heritage as Christians and our particular proclamation as Christians in the Reformation tradition. This remains our special gift to the church; to continue to proclaim, remind, and uphold, in the face of a world that treasures accomplishment and self-justification, the value, centrality, and power of God's grace in our whole lives.
• No matter what we look like, what we've earned, what we've gained or lost, who we are, or who we think we are “... there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...”
• In the face of the reality of the world and the reality of God's action in the world, it has to be asked: do we want justice or do we want grace?
• As Christians, the answer is always “grace.”

The Pastor's Sermon - October 21, 2012 - Pentecost+21

And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."

• When we hear or read this Gospel passage, I think we are often struck by the request of James and John. It seems to go against all that we know of Jesus' teachings. To request not simply special treatment, but the highest places in the Kingdom of God... that's pretty gutsy request. There's no wonder why the other disciples were bothered and angered by this request. It seems that James and John did not understand what it means to be part of the Kingdom. It also appears that the other 10 did not either.
• The question then is: do we understand what it means to be part of the Kingdom?
• James and John requested the honour to be at Jesus' right and left “in your glory.” That would seem to be a wonderful thing and a great honour. The right and left hand seats to either side of the greatest man you know would be an honour beyond all imagining. You would also have the ear of that great man at the head of the banquet table. In this light, there would be no wonder why the other disciples were angry with the two brothers.
• Jesus goes on to tell them that sitting at his right or left is not his to give and that they would have to receive the same treatment that Jesus receives. He also says that greatness is seen in littleness and the first will become last. Jesus came to serve rather than to be served. His life would become “a ransom for many.” Jesus tells this to all the Twelve, and not just James and John. They all needed to learn the meaning of leading and they all needed to learn the meaning of following Jesus.
• To follow Jesus is to turn your whole life upside- down. Greatness becomes service and being first means being beyond last and, indeed, being a “slave of all.”
• To live the life of Jesus means to die. With that, everything is turned upside down. Imagine, if you will, standing on your head and seeing how things look. The well-rooted hang suspended and dependant on something beyond themselves to keep them rooted. Left is right and up is down. Our great cities hang from a string above the clouds. What we call strength become weakness. What we seek as life is actually death and death leads to life.
• The glory of Jesus is nothing less than what we would consider his humiliation. Did you ever consider what Jesus meant by saying “but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared."? Think now, whom would such a place be prepared for? Great sages of the faith? Brilliant theologians or missionaries who have given all they have? Saints whom everyone looks to for inspiration? Who knows? Maybe there's room for everyone at Jesus right hand. But those places – to the left and to the right – were prepared for those who would be there when Jesus was in his glory.
• In John's Gospel, scholars say, Jesus goes to the cross as a king processing to mount his throne and receive his crown... which Jesus does in John's Gospel. It is the same in Mark: “And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left.” When Jesus came into his glory, a glory we don't wish to see and don't understand, he had the ones for whom the places were prepared at his right and left.
• This surely was not what James and John wanted or expected. Nor was it what they meant. Yet it is what happened.
• What if James and John were asking to be Jesus' good right hand and strong left hand in his mission? That might be a bit different, but since we know that the disciples didn't really 'get it', the two brothers might have seen this as a path to privilege and glory as surely as the throne. Maybe the other disciples were disturbed and wanted the same as well.
• We can doubt the understanding of the Twelve, but I don't think we can question their sincerity.
• It would take the sad vision of the death of Jesus and his mysterious and blessed resurrection to bring his friends to understanding. They would all drink of the cup he drank from and be baptized in the same bath.
• This was not an easy lesson to learn and it is no easier for us, today, so many years later. Still, the lesson is the same.
• To follow Christ is to be completely transformed or turned upside down if you will. If it takes a day, a week or our entire lives, so be it. The lesson is the same... “... whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."

I had the weekend off.

If you're wondering why I didn't post my sermon from last Sunday... I didn't preach! I had the Sunday off and Pr. John Boehmer graciously covered for me.

I was taking part in the reenactment of the Battle of Queenston Heights in Queenston, ON, on the Niagara River. 200 years ago, to the day, the battle was fought there. An American invasion of Canada was defeated by British regular troops, Canadian militia, and First Nations warriors. General Sir Isaac Brock, the senior military office and the govenour of Upper Canada (today's Ontario) was killed leading a charge.

If we do nothing else, let us pray for peace... between Canada and the United States and within the nations, and for peace in the entire world.

The old song says "Let there be peace on earth... and let it begin with me." Peace be with you all!

The Pastor's Sermon - Pentecost+18 - 7 October 2012

The Pastor’s Sermon

for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost,

October 7, 2012 -- Thanksgiving Weekend

Disclaimer: At the request of a few of the congregation, I’m ‘publishing’ the text of my sermon ‘as written. I cannot guarantee that I will deliver the sermon ‘as written.’

• There are days when the readings do not fit the celebration. On such days, I as pastor may change the readings or I may put them aside. Considering the readings that are assigned for this Sunday, you can see why I might put them aside, especially considering the time of the year we are in.
• We are caught today because this weekend is also the celebration of Thanksgiving and the readings from the Lectionary do not lend themselves to a thanksgiving celebration. So I have decided not preach on them.
• There is a saying that goes like this: “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.” This quote is attributed to Eckert von Hochheim, a 14^th Century Christian teacher and theologian who is better known by his title, Meister Eckert. There is some evidence that this man was an influence on Luther, but it is not conclusive.
• Still the idea that a prayer of thanksgiving would be the best holds true. That our society puts aside a day to give thanks, to “count our blessings”, and rejoice in them is a wonderful thing. To give thanks is at the centre of the Christian life, for our relationship with God -Father, Son, and Spirit- is based on gratitude.
• There really is no other way to put it. We live our lives in thanksgiving. Even the central act of Christian worship, the Lord's Supper, is an act of thanksgiving. Another term for it can be found in your bulletin; it is called “the Great Thanksgiving” and rightly so. There may have been time when you heard it called “Eucharist.” This comes from the Greek word that means “giving thanks.” It can't get much more plain than that.
• One of the things I find attractive about our shared experience as Lutheran Christians is the fact that we are saved by grace. What had to be done for justification and salvation is done already and freely given to us. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. Remember the confession: “We are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
• One of the problems we have with gratitude is this: we sometimes don't know where to start. There is often so much to be grateful for that we don't know where to begin. On the other hand, our troubles are sometimes so many and so pervasive that we can't begin. There is so little to be thankful for that we can't make a start. I could be that our blessings or our pains are so many that we can't even begin to begin!
• This is where our little exercise comes in for today. Each of us will get a little slip of paper. At the top, it says “I am grateful for...”. A few little words followed by an ellipsis (the three dots) and then the rest of the paper.
• I'd like each of us to write something on that paper; I'd like each of us to name something we are grateful for. It doesn't have to be huge or profound, like a recovery from an illness or a life- changing event... although it could be. It could be as simple as a good night's sleep or real butter at breakfast or a comforting memory or song. You know yourselves best; just right it down – simply and truthfully.
• I'll have a basket here for you to put your notes of gratitude in when you come up for Holy Communion after the prayers of the Great Thanksgiving. At the end of the service, we'll all offer a prayer of thanksgiving for these things and whatever else we might be grateful for. The slips of paper will be gotten rid of; I promise I will not read them. What you have to say is between you and God. Prayers can be written, you know.
• I'd ask you to take a moment to write something down now.
• {At this point, the president of the congregation and I distributed the slips of paper and pens. Once this was done, I went back to the pulpit}
• A prayer like “thank you” is as simple as can be and yet it is quite profound. Jesus says in today's Gospel reading “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." Gratitude and thanksgiving are so simple a child can do it, yet so profound that there might be no end to it. To be truly thankful is to be child-like before God and “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."
• It's good to put aside a time for giving thanks. We do it every Sunday as a church and we might do it every day as individual Christians. Still we need reminders that “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.”

The Pastor's Teaching - Pentecost+18 - 30 September 2012

This will be the first of my “Teaching Sundays.” With the council's permission, these will take place about every 4 to 6 weeks on Sunday's when Holy Communion is not celebrated. Issues and topics of current interest or of interest to the congregation will be discussed. {If you have suggestions or questions, I'd recommend you speak to me or better, give me a note or an e-mail.}

• The topic today is the recent announcement of the study of a document referred to as The Gospel of Jesus' Wife.
• This so-called Gospel is a small piece of papyrus about the size of a business card. Papyrus is a paper-like substance processed from a type of reed called the papyrus plant, found often in the Nile delta region of Egypt. It had been used for thousands of years in the region as what we'd call paper. On this small piece, the writing, in black ink, is in an ancient language called “Coptic”, a Middle Eastern language related to Aramaic, but using letters related to Greek. The document in question has 8 incomplete lines and a hint of a ninth. It appears to have been torn or cut from a larger page by persons unknown.
• The popular media have jumped on this because one of the incomplete lines contains the phrase, “Jesus said to them, 'my wife...'” Some have said this is evidence that Jesus was married. The scholar leading the study, Prof. Karen King of the Harvard Divinity School, has NOT made this claim and in fact has cautioned against reading too much into the document. This, of course, will not stop others from jumping to conclusions.
• First, what is a Gospel? A Gospel can be the early Christian message in literary form, hence the “Good News” which is the original meaning of “Gospel” in Greek. A Gospel can also be a certain type of literary document. We don't have terms to properly differentiate these two meanings at present.
• As a working title, this scrap is referred to as the Gospel of Jesus' Wife because it is an example of a portion of a Gospel-style writing and it deals with a reference to Jesus' wife within a conversation between Jesus and his disciples. There is no name attached to this scrap to identify the “author” such as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
• According to those studying the scrap, it probably dates to the 4^th Century A.D., the era when Christianity first spread into Coptic-speaking southern Egypt. It is seen as having been copied from a 2^nd Century document. The verses on the papyrus are found in other early Christian writings, most from the apocryphal writing, the Gospel of Thomas and one from Matthew's Gospel. Thomas was an early Christian gospel that was not accepted by the Church as an authentic witness to the person and ministry of Jesus. {There are other “gospels” not accepted by the Christian Church, like Phillip, Mary, Secret Mark, Peter, or the Gospel to the Ebionites to name a few.}
• The issue of the discussion is family and discipleship. Who can be a disciple appears to be a concern here. There were concerns about marriage, family life and discipleship that were controversial and this papyrus says more about those concerned than about Jesus.
• Professor King has repeatedly stated that this papyrus is of little or no help is discovering the historical Jesus and is of more use in studying the controversies in the early Church. It shows that some Christians were supporting the value of marriage by holding that Jesus was married as a response to the rise of the institution of monasticism in Egypt and the church's glorification of asceticism and the celibate life. {Asceticism is a life-style of self-denial and austerity that characterizes the life of monastics in just about every religion. At this time in church history - the 4^th Century - many devout and serious Christians were going into the Egyptian desert to live the life of a hermit as a response to what they considered the laxness of Christians after the Church was legalized.}
• Other Christian documents of the time reflect this concern as well. Sermons by important bishops, the writing of major Christian theologians, and the documents of Church councils all show that there were numerous controversies throughout the Christian Church. What it meant to be a Christian, and how one was to act as a Christian were important issues. Our own time has it's own issues and they might make no sense to the next generation.
• So what does this mean to us? I'd venture to say not a tremendous amount, although it all might be of great interest to scripture scholars and historians.
• It does not challenge the canon of the Scriptures. Each document needs to be looked at as a whole and if the whole document does not show itself to be Good News, it can be left behind. This “document” is not whole; it is a scrap with a handful of incomplete lines.
• It does not tell us anything about Jesus. A single reference to “My wife...” on a scrap of papyrus tells us nothing. We don't know what came next in the document and we may never know. One of the best responses I've hear on this point comes from Jon Stewart of The Daily Show. Appearently he consulted his rabbi, who had been studying this papyrus. Since the line is incomplete, Stewart said may it really says "My wife... if I had one!"
• This find is not simply trash. It confirms that there were controversies over marriage, celibacy, and discipleship in the early Church and that those controversies were not just the arguments of bishops and theologians. But this is nothing altogether new to those who know church history.
• The document may well be authentic; there had been concerns that it was a modern forgery, but it appears to be a true 4^th Century document. The papyrus, the ink, and even the damage to the papyrus are proving that. It's antiquity makes it important, but not necessarily relevant to all. T
• he Gospel of Jesus' Wife uses passages from the Gospel of Thomas, a hard-to-understand book coming out of an unorthodox tradition within Christianity. As such, it should make any student of the Bible wonder about it's source and the motivation of the author. 
• So, we have to ask ourselves: would the knowledge that Jesus was married have any effect on our faith and our practise? Would a married Jesus change what we believe? Such a Christ might be seen as more accessible to the average person. Such a concept might also be troubling because it challenges so many other beliefs and what is held as scriptural truth. Let's leave aside any question of possible children for another day.
• At it's best, this Gospel of Jesus' Wife is a tiny portion of an ancient document that reflects the concerns of it's times and in that it is rather interesting to some. As it stands – incomplete, derived from other sources, and sensational because somebody says it is (but notably not the scholars studying it) – it might be taken as a historical and academic curiosity rather than an earth-shaking revelation. As it stands, it tells us nothing certain about Jesus Christ.