Recent  Sermons

Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16    Luke 14: 1, 7-14 

The writer of the book of Hebrews this morning provides us with a practical, if not lofty, list of what it means to live in God’s way.  We are called to love one another, welcome newcomers, remember those in prison and those who suffer, and respect the bonds of marriage.  The followers of Jesus are to be free from the love of money, being content with what we have.  We are reminded that God will never abandon us, which gives us the courage to love boldly.  But are we really aware that to love boldly is risky business?

The generosity of spirit, of time and material goods that is implied here stands in contrast to the way many of us live.  We tend to be more self-focused, worried as we are about the future and what it holds for us.  We prefer to be more careful. 

Yet this passage paints for us a picture of folk who are true to their faith.  They don’t worry about the future.  They are risk-takers.  They associate with the weak rather than the powerful.  They have a startling ability to keep things in perspective, to be willing to do the right thing and only worry about the consequences afterwards.  Their focus is on those who are in need of help.

And then we move to the description of the party that we read about in Luke’s gospel.  Based on what we read, I’m glad I missed it.  It could not have been very pleasant for anyone: tension is thick and almost everyone seems to be worried about the impression he or she is making.  Except for Jesus, there are no risk-takers here.  The religious leaders are watching Jesus and Jesus is observing the behaviour of both host and guests.

It starts out awkwardly for the host when Jesus chooses to heal a sick person on the Sabbath.  Bad timing.  Then Jesus challenges the customary behaviour of the guests, who are scrambling for a better place around the table.  Jesus reminds the guests of the wisdom from Proverbs about allowing the host to invite them to an honoured place rather than choosing the best seat for themselves.

But isn’t it scary to risk being overlooked?  Maybe the host won’t notice me if I am not in view.  Worse, people might conclude that I am best suited for the lower position, if I make no effort to promote myself. 

Then Jesus addresses the host about hospitality.  Don’t worry about your status or how you may benefit when you welcome people, he says.  Overcome your preference to focus on useful or reciprocal relationships.  Do something really different, Jesus suggests.  Invite to your parties people who seem to bring little with them; the people who don’t usually get invited to parties   Wow!  That’s risky business.

A boatload of Sri Lankan refugees comes to Canada.  In their homeland, they face persecution and prejudice.  They have short-circuited Canada’s immigration process.  They will cause a further drain on an already over-burdened health care system.  Are these the people Jesus wants us to invite to the party?

A Muslim community in New York City seeks to build a mosque just a few blocks from the site of the former World Trade Centre.  Those who lost loved ones on 9/11 say that to have a mosque so close would be like rubbing salt in their wounds.  Are these Muslims the people that Jesus wants us to invite to the party? 

Our faith calls us to have confidence in God’s larger purposes.  As followers of Jesus, we are called to risk inviting what might seem to be the wrong people to the party.

There was a couple in Lowville, ON, a village just north of Burlington who went to Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton each week and lead the inmates there who were interested in a bible study.  Then on Sunday after church, they went to Maplehurst and brought 2 or 3 of the men to their home for lunch.  Risky business!

I want to tell you a true story told by the Rev. Steve Willey, a former minister at Humbercrest United Church in Toronto. 

A community chaplain working in the heart of Toronto was invited to speak at a breakfast at one of the downtown churches.  His ministry was with men who had been recently released from prison.  His job was to help them make the transition back into the mainstream of society by offering them pastoral care and personal support.  A noble undertaking to be sure!  A silence came over the audience when he told them that he had most recently been working with a man who was one of the city’s most notorious sex-offenders.  He told those gathered that every Tuesday morning, in the very room where they were now sitting, a small group of men met with this fellow to encourage him to stay with his treatment program and to offer him a supportive community that would hold him accountable on a weekly basis.

For months, this man had no permanent residence.  The group went from one church to another with an appeal for assistance in helping this man find an apartment, but there was no response whatsoever.  Nobody wanted him in their back yard, and they frankly didn’t care where he went or what happened to him.  Finally, through a contact in an Alcoholics Anonymous group, they were able to rent an apartment.  They could have stopped there, having done more than anyone would have expected for such a disreputable person.  But they didn’t stop, because there was one last thing to do: they threw him a house-warming party!

Jeremiah 1:4-10        Luke 13:10-17

I came upon this statement made by the bishops of the Church of England when they met in 1888.  They were concerned about observance of the Sabbath.  It reads:

The principle of the religious observation of one day in seven is of Divine and primeval obligation, and was afterwards embodied in the Fourth commandment.  The observance of the Lord’s Day as a day of rest, of worship and of religious teaching has been a priceless blessing in all Christian lands in which it has been maintained.  The growing licence in its observance threatens a grave change in its sacred and beneficient character...The increasing practice on the part of some of the wealthy and leisurely classes of making the day a day of secular amusement is most strongly to be deprecated.  The most careful regard should be laid to the danger of any encroachment upon the rest which on this day is the right of servants as well as their masters, and of the working classes as well as their employers.

The language is a bit dated, but I wonder what those bishops might have to say now, in today’s fast-paced, technological, consumer-driven society about Sunday observance?

Certainly we are instructed by scripture to set aside a day for rest and worship.  The Jewish tradition had a whole body of teaching about do’s and don’ts for the Sabbath and clearly in our gospel lesson this morning, Jesus has crossed the line by healing this woman on the Sabbath.  The synagogue ruler was concerned about the ritual purity of Israel of which strict observance of the Sabbath was an important part.  Jesus, on the other hand, was concerned about human need which he put before ritual purity.  In the gospels, Jesus has many conflicts with Jewish authorities regarding Sabbath observance and in Mark’s gospel, he sort of sums up his position by saying, “The Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath.

But the world we live in seems to have forgotten the Sabbath.  Life for many has become a mad race of striving and grasping.  We see people push their bodies beyond their limits.  We see parents who do not have time for their children when they are hurt or afraid.  We see people who are so preoccupied with achieving that they miss the quiet moments where their spirits can be nourished and refreshed.  We see people who do not feel safe enough to be kind and generous to one another.  We see people who cannot take time to taste the blessings of the world around them.  The whole experience of being alive seems to melt into one huge obligation and the chorus goes up, “I’m so busy!”

I’m so busy...  And we seem to say that to one another with a certain amount of pride.  The ability to withstand stress has become a mark of real character.  The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and others.  This has become the model of a successful life.

Silly us.  How have we allowed this to happen?  How did we get so terribly lost in a world so saturated with striving and grasping that there is little time for joy and delight.

The bishops of the Church of England of 1888 thought they had problems!  They spoke about what a blessing a day of rest was in all Christian lands.  In today’s global community, where do we find a day set aside for rest?  Accommodation has been made to people with other customs and religions who recognize other days of the week as Sabbath.  As well, the power of the voices that represent commercial enterprise has made the day almost obsolete.

Wayne Muller, in his book entitled Sabbath, provides a wonderful example of the way consumerism drives the world in telling the story of the Kellogg’s cereal company.  I may not have all the details right on this as I read it a few years ago, but it goes something like this.  During the depression of the 30's, instead of laying off his workers, Mr. Kellogg gave everyone reduced hours.  His employees very much enjoyed spending more time with their families and having the opportunity to pursue hobbies in their leisure time.

As the depression eased, the workers chose to remain on reduced hours and more workers were hired.  During the war, however, when the labour pool was reduced, the workers were required to return to full-time labour.

Some years later, the company was responding to a recession and again, Mr. Kellogg suggested that everyone return to reduced hours.  A new mind set had emerged, however, and the workers refused.  Consumerism had set in.  Rather than enjoy the opportunity for more leisure time, the workers now wanted to maintain the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.

Sabbath is a God-given gift.  The bishops had the right idea.  It is a human need to take time out, to give thanks for the beauty of the world around us and the blessings that have been heaped on us. 

It would seem that a Sabbath day has gone the way of dial telephones.  Perhaps we need to redefine ‘Sabbath’.   Rather than a day set apart, perhaps we need to regard Sabbath as a state of being that allows us to find peace in the midst of everything else that is going on.  But, where can we find Sabbath given the world we live in?

I was part of a study group a few years ago where we wrestled with this question.  I will share with you some ideas I heard there.  One couple celebrated each evening meal when neither of them needed to rush off to a meeting by having lighted candles on the table and quiet music in the background.  They used the time to really listen to one another and connect as a couple.

Another woman has a severely disabled child that needs her constant attention.  She told us that she has learned to take Sabbath time when she is standing in line at the bank or supermarket.  She doesn’t fret about another line that is moving more quickly, but instead enjoys the peace of merely ‘being’.

    Isaiah 1:1,10-20    Luke 12:32-40

Here on this table I have placed a Communion Set that Herb had commissioned for me as an Ordination gift.  We spent two hours with a potter one Saturday morning making decisions about what shape these pieces would take.  What shape would the chalices be?  How high should they stand?  How large should the plate be?  Should it have a raised edge?  What shape of pitcher would best complement the chalices?  How large should it be to hold enough grape juice?  Would it be possible for it to have a dripless spout?  The potter had all these things under her control.  In her hands a shapeless clump of clay was going to take whatever shape we determined.  And if the clay failed to co-operate, it would come off the wheel and the potter would begin again.  What power the potter holds over the clay!

The analogy of the potter and the clay is one used often in scripture to describe the relationship between God and God’s creation.  We find it difficult to find adjectives grand enough to capture the full nature of this Creator God who, like the potter,  has the power to destroy and utterly re-make.  I looked through some hymns in the ‘Nature of God’ section of our hymn book and found words like omnipotent, all-powerful, tower of strength, measureless might, almighty king, roaring, looming thundercloud of glory.

And yet hidden in our reading from Luke’s gospel is a further image of the nature of God.  The setting is a household where the master is absent.  The servants know the master will return but they don’t know when.  The master is just that, ‘master’, and like the potter can do what he wishes with the household and servants.  When he returns, however, he uses his freedom in a most astounding way.  He completely reverses all expectations.  Instead of demanding service of those in his hire or requesting an accounting of how they occupied themselves in his absence, he puts on an apron and waits table for those who have waited for him.

In this story, Jesus uses the analogy of the master to give us the image of a sovereign God who is above all and is supreme in power and authority, a God who can do anything, but chooses to  serve.  And who is served?  The servants.  Those hired to serve are served.

I was a little afraid to put this sermon title in the bulletin.  Even though I saw some men in aprons out here yesterday, I was afraid we might have an all-female congregation this morning.  I was afraid with the title ‘The Master in the Apron’ you might be expecting a real pulpit-thumper on women’s rights.  But the phrase, ‘The Master in the Apron’ seems to sum up very nicely the paradox with which we seem to be dealing.

In this story we have a master, a boss, who, not unlike the potter,  holds supreme authority.  A master who is expected to take leadership, to maintain control.  This master, merely by virtue of who he is, can do anything he wants and he chooses to put on an apron and serve those in his employ.

We live in a world that highly values power, authority and control because it makes for order.  We hear voices who insist that we need more of that sort of thing in our school systems and in our homes.  We saw plenty of power displayed during the G-8 and the G-20.  That was deemed to be necessary to provide protection for visiting dignitaries. 

The high school I attended is an example of what happens when such attitudes are carried to extremes.  The school was ruled by an iron hand.  There were few discipline problems because we lived our days in dread.  Anyone the principal caught stepping out of line was backed up against the lockers in the hall and yelled at in a voice that could be heard all over the school all the while having his finger hammered into your chest.  No excuses allowed.  School teams that lost to their competitors were ridiculed during the morning announcements.  Behave, achieve, win.  Nothing else mattered.  And the iron fist was going to make sure it happened.

Of course, things have changed at that school, but from time to time voices in the town can be heard to say: We wouldn’t have these problems if the school were run like it was in the 50's.  A God who, like the potter, utterly destroys that which does not measure up, fits into that world view.  But where is the love in that?

On the other hand, think of what happens when that master stoops to serve those who serve him.  The master is then exposed to all that throbs within those human hearts.  Names take on faces.  The faces have stories.  Stories of joy and pain, success and failure.  A caring relationship is established.  The master now knows something of how it feels to be a servant.

I remember a friend telling me about a Supervisor in the hospital where she did her nurse’s training back in the days when hospitals had nursing schools.  When things got really heavy on the floor and the nurses were about at their wit’s end, this Supervisor would roll up her sleeves and work beside them doing bedside care until the crisis passed.  This Supervisor had the respect and co-operation of everyone who worked for her.  And the decisions made by her as Supervisor were informed by her first-hand understanding of what her staff was really experiencing.  Her decisions were rooted in love and caring.

And so we are left with this paradox.  We have the image of God as potter, having complete, we could almost say ruthless power over the clay.  And then we have this image of the servant God.  What are we to do with that?

I would suggest that there is a point at which the analogy of God as potter breaks down.  It is true that the potter has complete control over the clay, the clay being an inanimate object.  We, however, have power of our own.  We have choices to make.  We can choose our response to the Creator.  We have the freedom to fight the will of the Creator or allow ourselves to be molded by the Creator’s will.