​Young at Heart Message

Today we are continuing our sermon series on Care for Creation by talking about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

From the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “climate change presents the single biggest threat to development, and its widespread, unprecedented impacts disproportionately burden the poorest and most vulnerable. Urgent action to combat climate change and minimize its disruptions is integral to the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
 
How many of us here have smoke detectors or fire alarms systems of some kind in our homes?

Of course, we all do – or at least, we all should.

Why do we have these in homes and other public buildings?

Well, because they are warning systems.

If a smoke detector goes off in your home, you know that most likely, one of three things is going on:

1. Probably the most likely reason a smoke detector is going off is because the battery needs to be replaced.

2. Or, perhaps you’ve burned supper and smoke is inconveniently billowing out of your stove.

3. And of course, most worrisome is that there is an actual fire somewhere in your home.

A smoke detector or fire alarm serves as a warning in all of these cases. It is, in essence, a call to action.

In order to get the noise to stop, you need to either:

1.   Replace the battery.

2.   Remove the smoke by opening windows or fanning the smoke away from the detector.

3.   Put out the fire.

If you do not do these things, the noise will not stop.

And, in some cases, if you do nothing, the situation could get quite a bit worse.

If you don’t take the burning supper out of the oven, it could go from smoke to fire and you’d have a much bigger problem on your hands.
 
Likewise, if you don’t put out the fire, or get out of the home, your life could be in danger.

But, there are very few of us who would do nothing at all if the smoke detector went off in our homes.

At the very least, the sound is annoying so we want to stop it as soon as possible.

And, at worst, it could mean our lives are in danger, so we want to ensure the safety of ourselves and our families.
But doing nothing is not a viable or wise option.
 
Let me share an example with you. This example is about a carbon monoxide detector and not a smoke detector, but the example is similar.

I once rented a beautiful old farm house from a family.

One night, I heard the tell-tale beeping of a detector going off somewhere in the house.

Of course, when something like that wakes you in the middle of the night, you are always a little disoriented at first.
So, I couldn’t tell where the beeping was coming from.
 
This beeping was also different from the single short chirp of a low battery warning.

It would beep as though it was going off, and then it would stop. It might start again briefly, but then it would stop again.

Eventually, the beeping stopped and I couldn’t figure out where the sound had been coming from, so I went back to sleep.

The next night, the same thing happened again.

This time, I was a little more prepared to investigate.
 
But again, before I could figure out which detector was going off, the alert stopped again.

This was getting weird.

The third night, the alert started and did not stop.

I finally figured out where the sound was coming from. And this time, because it wasn’t stopping and because it was the third night in a row this had happened, I decided I needed to call the fire department.

It was the detector in the basement, directly across from the furnace.
 
So, finally, the warning system got me out of the house.

It was a very cold night in Wisconsin, so I started my car, and myself - and four dogs - waited there for the fire department to show up.

It was about 3:00am, and this was a volunteer fire department in a small town where I owned a small business.

So, it was bad enough that this alarm woke me up, but it was extra embarrassing to have the fire department see me in my pajamas!
 
And, of course, by the time they arrived, the detector was quiet.

To my humiliation, they found absolutely nothing to be concerned about.

So, I apologized and I swore up and down that the alarm had gone off for three nights in a row.

They all assured me they would rather I call than not heed the warning, and that’s why they do what they do – to keep people safe.

But I was still annoyed at this point, and began to wonder what exactly was going on here.
 
The next day, the landowners came to inspect.

And, they found in the chimney a dead owl. It had been preventing proper ventilation, so occasionally a shot of carbon monoxide would hit the detector, causing it to alert.

But, the point in sharing this story is that these warning systems exist for a reason, and if we don’t heed them, we could end up in a much worse situation.

If we had not found the cause of the issue, it could have caused worse problems, including a potential fire in the chimney eventually.
 
The Message

Warning systems are an important part of keeping people, animals, buildings, and the environment (among other things) safe and secure.

If we ignore warnings long enough, something much worse may eventually happen.

Now, the Book of Revelation is a confusing and difficult book to understand.

And today’s sermon isn’t intended to explain every aspect of this book.
 
We would not have enough time in today’s message for this.

But the passage we heard today describes four angels blowing trumpets that send huge (and scary) warnings to earth.
The first trumpet causes hail and fire to fall from the sky, burning up 1/3 of the trees and green plants.

The second trumpet caused 1/3 of the sea to turn to blood, killed 1/3 of the sea creatures, and destroyed 1/3 of the ships on the sea.
 
The third trumpet caused a star to fall from heaven, turning 1/3 of the water bitter and undrinkable.

And the fourth trumpet caused 1/3 of the sun, moon, and stars to go out so that there was 1/3 as much light as before.

Just like the smoke detectors in our homes are a warning system that tell us to pay attention to something, these trumpets similarly invite us to pay attention.

Essentially, the warning here is a call to action – an invitation from God to “wake up! Turn back to Me – I will keep you safe from harm.”
 
The symbolism in Revelation can be difficult to understand or explain, but if we see this passage not as some kind of predictor for the climate concerns we are seeing today, but instead as a call to take action – to heed the warning signs and do something before things get worse – we can see how these images in Revelation may feel similar to what we have been seeing in our world recently.

In the passage we heard from Job today, God is responding to Job’s question about the nature of God.

And God’s answer seems to indicate that perhaps humanity is not the centre of the natural world.
 
Instead, there is a sense that the world was not created for us. Rather, we were created to care for the world.

There is a difference here between these two things.

Thinking that the world was created for us puts us at the centre of things. It makes us feel entitled to use natural resources irresponsibly.

But if we think of ourselves as being created to care for the world, we can approach our role in the world very differently.

And we can approach our use of the resources the earth provides differently, too.
 
If we consider our role in the world in this way, we can see and know that what we do to the earth has consequences.

Care for creation should be intuitive, spiritual, and filled with respect and awe.

But often, our systems of production, consumption, and exploitation have blinded us to this.

Over and over in scripture we are asked to open our eyes.

This passage in Revelation is asking us to open our eyes.
 
And, it’s not just opening our eyes that’s important.

We are also being asked to take action. It is not enough to simply see.

Likewise, it is not enough to just ignore our smoke detectors when they go off.

We must take action when the warning system indicates there’s a problem – even if we cannot see the root cause of the problem immediately.

The earth can only give us so many warning signs before something worse happens.
 
In Calgary, one of our favourite topics of conversation is… the weather.

And every time I talk with anyone about the summer weather, the smoke comes into the conversation.

And it seems that most everyone agrees that we can expect to be dealing with summer smoke each year going forward.

It is hard for us, as individuals, to do anything about this. We know that.

And yet, these recurring fires are a warning sign. One of many warning signs, in fact.
 
So how long do we allow these warning signs – these metaphorical smoke detectors – to wake us from our slumber before we begin to take action?

What action can we take?

The answer may not be completely clear to us right now. But God has given us beautiful minds and hearts to care, to think, to plan, and to listen.

And I want to reiterate Dr. Seuss’s famous words from last week: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
 
I received a call from someone in our congregation this week sharing some ideas they had about things we could do as a church to take small action steps.

And I am so grateful that some people are starting to think about these questions.

What I challenged that person to do was to start having conversations and sharing these ideas with all of you.

In fact, we have already made a recent change that will have an impact on the environment: we recently installed automatic faucets in the washrooms.
 
I immediately noticed the water savings the first time I used them.

If more of us start thinking these things through, there is likely much more we can do. We all have to care a whole awful lot.

And that is our call from Revelation.

We must be alert, aware, and mindful of Earth’s warning systems.

And we are called by God to care for our world.

There is a song by Matthew West called “Do Something.” In that song, he sings:
 
Well, I just couldn't bear the thought of
People living in poverty, children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, "God, why don't You do something?"
God said, "I did, I created you”

God created us to take action.

So, may you leave here today with a passion in your heart.

May you leave here wondering about what actions we are being called to take.
 
May we continue to have conversations with one another about these important topics.

May we heed the warning signs and, rather than waiting for them to become louder and more persistent, may we continue to take the steps to do something now.

It is not an easy task, I know that. God knows that.

But God created us to care – a whole awful lot.

We have the power to begin to make things better.

May we live into our power, our care, and our concern for others and for our world. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
​
God of steadfast loving-kindness, you show mercy to generation after generation. Forgive us for the ways we have harmed your creation, and help us to see a way forward by guiding us to make wise choices both personally and as a community. Let our eyes and minds be open toward restoration and stewardship of this gift that you created and have called humanity to care for. Amen.

Young at Heart Message

Today we are continuing our sermon series on Care for Creation by talking about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.

From the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “energy is crucial for achieving almost all of the Sustainable Development Goals, from its role in the eradication of poverty through advancements in health, education, water supply, and industrialization, to combating climate change.”
 
I was hesitant to begin this sermon series because, in today’s world, if you try to talk about climate change or care for creation, it is immediately assumed that you are getting political.

And that’s primarily because somehow, care for creation and our climate has become a polarizing topic over the last several years.

But the reality is, conversations around care for creation and for our world have been around for a very long time.
The Moravian liturgy on creation was published in our Book of Worship in 1995.
 
If we used that liturgy in full today, we would find that it resonates just as well with the issues we are facing today as it did then.

But, there are some other examples of how the conversation and awareness campaigns around caring for creation have been discussed over the years.
​
In fact, I want to share three examples that encourage kids in particular to care for the environment (and there are many more examples, as we heard earlier today in our opening meditation).
 
First of all, did you know that Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax was written in 1971?

The premise of the book, for those of you who are not familiar, is that a man called “The Once-ler” develops a product called a “Thneed” which requires that he chop down trees for production.

The Lorax repeatedly tries to get him to stop chopping down the trees, but he is so driven by money, power, and greed that he does not heed the Lorax’s warning.
​
Eventually, he chops down every single tree, so there are none to be found. The animals must leave their homes because they can no longer live without the trees.
 
At the end of the book, the famous line from The Lorax is:

In other words, it is not only our responsibility to care about the environment, but it is our opportunity to make a better world.

In many ways, Dr. Seuss was ahead of his time and was predicting the consequences of the way that humans have forgotten our call to care for the Earth.

Our second two examples take me back to my own childhood. I am not sure how many of you will remember either of these examples.

First, there’s Captain Planet, which originally aired from 1990-1992.
 
It resurfaced again from 1993-1996.
​
As a kid, I remember watching Captain Planet and I also remember, even then, the feeling of responsibility for caring for the environment.

The theme song went like this: “Captain Planet, he’s our hero! Gonna take pollution down to zero.”

So again, even in the early 90’s, there was an awareness that we might be pushing the environment harder and further than we should be.

And our last example is another one from my childhood that I remember fondly. This one is a bit more obscure and I find that many people have never heard of it.

Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest was a movie that released in 1992.
 
Robin Williams played a lovable and comical, and a bit erratic bat named Batty Koda.

Batty famously warns about human development in the rain forest by saying, “First, all these trees go. Then come your highways, then come your shopping malls, then come your neon signs, and then… toxic waste!”
​
The “bad guy” in this movie is a character named Hexus who is actually created from the smog and smoke and fumes of the machines that are destroying the rain forest.

At the end of the movie, one of the characters has a seed which he has the opportunity to plant.

The fairies and the other creatures of the forest wait expectantly for him to plant it, and one of the characters says to him, “For our children, and our children’s children. Help it grow.”

Once again, this movie highlighted a growing awareness of and concern for the destruction humans have been doing to our planet for a long time.

So, this isn’t a new issue, and it’s not just a today issue.
 
The Message

In fact, our scriptures open with God’s first creation being light, i.e. the sun.

And as we heard last week, the very first book in the Hebrew Bible – Genesis – talks at length about our responsibility of caring for God’s creation, which God entrusted to humans as one of the first acts of God toward humans.

As we know, the sun is a powerful source of energy that makes all life possible. Without the sun, human, animal, and plant life could not survive.
 
We are then told in Genesis 1 that a “wind” from God swept over the face of the waters.

This “wind” is ruach in Hebrew, which is sometimes translated as the breath of God.

So, the mighty breath of God created the earth as we know it.

And in creating the earth, God also offered in God’s very first acts, two sources of energy to sustain the world: wind, and sun.

These are two powerful sources of global energy, and they are named in the first chapter of the very first book of the Bible.
 
That should mean something to us right off the bat.

The Gospel of John also opens with creation, describing life coming into being through God.

That life is named as “the light of all people.”

We are told that Jesus was with God at the very beginning of creation, and that not one thing came into existence without Jesus.

This recalls Proverbs 8:22-31 and the creation of Wisdom, personified in the Hebrew Bible as a woman (she is often referred to as “Sophia” in the Greek).
 
She is the first of God’s creative acts and was brought forth before the beginning of the earth.

She, Wisdom, witnesses the formation of the earth and the sea, and she rejoices and delights in the creation of humanity.

The writer of John uses this image of God’s wisdom as firstborn, and calls it reason, or Word.

John opens his Gospel with: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.”

Here the feminine Wisdom becomes the masculine Word, and John uses this title for Jesus.
 
The enlightenment or Wisdom of God becomes Jesus, the Light of the world.

Light, throughout the New Testament, is often portrayed in juxtaposition with darkness and connected to the divine, to life, and to Jesus.

The heavenly city on earth, presented at the culmination of the book of Revelation, is lit by the glory of God, and its lamp is the Lamb (Revelation 21:23-25).

Light is not only a necessary resource, but one supplied by God.
 
So what does all of this mean for us as we think about ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all?

I had originally planned on starting today’s sermon by outlining just how much I rely on energy on a daily basis.

I consider myself to be *fairly* mindful of the environment and my impact on it. But as I was going through the exercise of noting how much I rely on electricity, natural gas, gasoline, and other non-renewable energy sources, I realized that I actually cannot say that about myself at all.
 
In Canada, and likewise in much of North America in general, we rely heavily on natural gas, wind, hydro, and fossil fuels as energy sources.

We are starting to see more solar panels around the city, but it is still not a primary source of power.

We are also incredibly fortunate to have access to these resources. Most of us at this point could not easily survive without the energy we have easy access to, and yet, we take that energy for granted every single day.

Just look at our sanctuary.
 
First of all, the lights are on. Then we have screens to project my sermon. We have an A/V system that allows microphones to project my voice.

We have a coffee maker to make coffee, and a hot water kettle to boil water. We have a fridge to store food and beverages, and a dishwasher to save us a lot of time washing dishes.

And of course I’m sure there are many things I’m forgetting.

But the point here is this: we are fortunate that we have access to these things which have become necessities in our lives.
 
Not everyone does have access. In fact, in many parts of the world, our consumption rates would look like luxury and extravagance.

And I don’t say this to make us feel guilty. We could not easily get “off the grid” even if we wanted to. The access to these resources is so ingrained in our culture that giving them up or reducing our use is quite difficult, if not impossible in some cases.

I say this instead to make us aware of the amazing gifts we have in accessing these energy sources.
 
And, I mention this so that we can wonder together if there are ways that we could – either individually or as a church – reduce our impact on the environment together.

In the resource provided by the Board of World Mission, they offer three different examples of churches across the world who are utilizing solar energy.

I would be happy to share more information on these stories and how they made it possible if people are interested in exploring this as an option for our church.
 
But in the meantime, let us, together, become more aware of our impact on the environment and our church’s impact on the environment.

And, let us give thanks regularly for the resources we have access to every single day that we are so accustomed to that we forget that others may not have the same luxuries.

And most importantly, let us remember that God created the sun and the wind as just two examples of energy sources that were there at the beginning, sustaining humanity well before access to other resources became available.
 
As we continue on our journey exploring the concepts around Care for Creation, may we all remember Dr. Seuss’s famous words:

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

May we be people who care. May we be people who act. May we be people God can rely on to care for creation as we were called to do.

Amen.
 
Let us pray: 
​
Dear God, you called forth light, creating life-giving energy and warmth in the form of the sun. You then gave to the world your Son, who is called the Light of the world. May your Holy Spirit guide us now, to share that light and energy with the abundance of life that surrounds us. Give us the courage to care a whole awful lot and to be agents of change for the betterment of our world. Amen.

The Message

Today we are continuing our sermon series on Care for Creation by talking about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring access to water and sanitation for all.

From the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “water and sanitation are at the very core of sustainable development, critical to the survival of people and the planet. [This goal] not only addresses the issues related to drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene, but also the quality and sustainability of water resources worldwide.”
 
A healthy human being can survive approximately 1-2 months without food. Some people with larger stores of fat (energy) can survive longer without food, as long as they have access to water.

On the other hand, human beings can only go 3-5 days without water, but that number can be affected drastically by variables such as environmental temperature and activity level.

We can see why this UN goal is such an important one globally.

Having no access, or very limited access, to water can be a detriment to survival for humans.
 
We in Calgary have some experience with restricted access to water.

This past year or so, we’ve had two instances of water restrictions that we have had to manage.

Now, granted, we still had access to the water we needed for survival, and most of us still were able to do even minor “unessential to survival things” as well.

The water restrictions were inconveniences for us, but not really a threat to our survival, luckily.
 
But, there are places in the world where access to clean water is challenging, at best, and a threat to survival, at worst.

I’ll talk about some examples from the Moravian Church later, but for now, let’s look at what the Bible has to say about water.

Water is mentioned in the Bible approximately 722 times.

In today’s readings, we heard just four of those examples. We also know that Jesus refers to himself as living water or providing living water.
 
So, the Bible has a lot to say about water.

In Matthew 10:42 and 25:35, two of the passages we heard today, Jesus tells us plainly that if someone is thirsty we are to give them a drink of water.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus describes himself as living water and invites all who are thirsty to come to him (John 4:10; 7:37-39).

The prophet Jeremiah describes God as a spring of living water (Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13).
 
In both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, we find life happening at a well.

Rachel and Jacob meet at a well and begin a life together (Genesis 29:9-14).

Jesus reveals his true nature as the Messiah to a Samaritan woman at a well (John 4:7-26).

Water is clearly a central biblical motif, understood both as a basic need for mortal life and as a metaphor for eternal life in Christ.

The story we heard about Hagar asks us to wrestle with some concepts that are challenging for us.
 
Hagar is referred to as a slave in this story, and she is treated as such, which can be very challenging for us to hear and read about today.

And while that is not the topic of today’s sermon, I do want to acknowledge the difficulty for us of reading about the way she was treated, especially by Abraham and Sarah who are often held up as the founders of our faith (this is why Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are known as the “Abrahamic” traditions, after all).

So, we approach this story with caution and for a specific purpose related to water.
 
In Genesis 16:1-16 and 21:8-21, water plays an integral part in Hagar’s story of life and death, divine favour, and human subjugation.

The Hagar stories are set near or in the Negev Desert, where water is very scarce and people had to work hard to access it for survival.

During the rainy season, there may have been some free-flowing water for humans and animals, but the semi-nomadic people primarily relied on wells that they dug by hand.
 
Imagine if we had to find a water source and dig our own wells by hand today. Survival would certainly be more difficult for us!

These wells that they dug by hand would then become owned by the person (or family) who dug them.

Individual families would commit the location of their own family well to memory and then they would hide it from others so that no one else could access it.
 
In this story, Hagar, an enslaved girl, first runs away from the harsh treatment of Sarai, her mistress (owner).

She finds a known, public spring of water on the way to Shur, where she meets God and names both God and the life-giving spring.

After returning to Sarai, as God has asked her to do, she continues the nomadic life with Abraham’s family and gives birth to his son Ishmael.

As Ishmael grows, so does Sarai’s jealousy.
 
Hagar is again banished along with her son, with only a skin of water, into what is now land that was completely unfamiliar to her.

This is a death sentence, and she fears death for both herself and her son.

In fact, she abandons her son under a bush because she knows he is dying and she cannot tolerate hearing him take his final breaths.

God finds her once again and reveals to them that they are sitting by one of the hidden wells that someone else had dug (and presumably owned).
 
God disregards the fact that someone “owns” the well and gives a drink of water to those who need it.

In this story, God is actually rejecting the notion that water, and access to it, can be owned or withheld.

God clearly demonstrates that water is for all.

Water is life, and life-giving.

It can be hard to for us to think about water as free, because many, if not most, people who live in cities pay for their water.
 
Access to water is owned by the city, and in theory, the city can choose how and when to allow access to it.

For example, in Calgary, if the city needed or wanted to, they could turn off water to areas of the city, limiting access as needed.

There are other famous examples, like the water issues in Flint, Michigan from 2014-2019. In this case, the decisions the city made impacted not just access to water, but in particular the quality and cleanliness/health of the water.
 
Those of us who have access to clean and healthy water can take that for granted.

But I want to share some examples of how Moravians are addressing some of these issues around the world.

These are just a few examples, but I think they are worth noting. As I share these examples, I would invite us to think about creative ideas for ministries in our community – whether they are water-related or not – that might be rolling around ready to be talked about.
 
Example One: Well Cleaning in Nicaragua

After hurricanes Eta and Iota hit Nicaragua in 2020, many wells were flooded with contaminated water, leaving communities without a source of clean drinking water.

The Nicaraguan Moravian youth organization, AJECIM, requested a small grant from the Board of World Mission to purchase a water pump.

The youth team traveled from community to community draining and cleaning wells.
 
As the wells were naturally replenished, the water would then be safe to drink.

This work continues, and the youth lead the entire endeavor.

Example Two: Cleansing Waters in Wisconsin Rapids

As I mentioned, many of us take for granted the access that we have to clean water, not only for drinking, but also for things like washing dishes and doing laundry.
 
Wisconsin Rapids Moravian Church became aware that people in downtown WI Rapids, especially those who were renting, were spending over $50 a week to do laundry at the laundromat depending on their family size.

As they were exploring ways that they could help people manage this challenge, they learned that high school students in particular were missing class because they were ashamed of going to school in dirty clothing.

This sparked an idea for a laundry ministry.
 
After considering multiple scenarios, WI Rapids Moravian Church landed on creating an outreach ministry that involved them meeting people at the laundromat to help pay for their laundry needs.

So now, people who need assistance contact the church and set up a time for volunteers to meet them at the laundromat so they can assist with helping them afford to do laundry.

It may seem like a small thing, but for the people they help, and especially for the high school students, it is a huge benefit.
 
Example Three: Water as a Community Resource in Cuba

In rural Cuba, some household water sources are located next to livestock holding pens, which contaminate the water used for drinking, cooking, and bathing.

Over ten years, ARMF (a mission foundation started to support the Moravian Church in Cuba) has installed ten water purification systems in Cuban communities.

These systems aren’t placed in individual homes.
 
Instead, they are placed in central locations so people in the surrounding community can access the clean water.

When the water systems are installed, they work with neighbours to understand how the system will be maintained and operated.

This approach aligns with ARMF’s broader approach of building relationships with local communities across all aspects of their work.

In rural Cuba, clean water isn’t just a health necessity.
 
It is life and dignity.

Clean water is the difference between spending hours boiling contaminated water or having time to work, learn, and rest. 

As you can see, these examples of projects that help provide access to clean water in different ways based on community needs are making a difference in the lives of these communities.

Water is a resource that should not be taken for granted. Not everyone can afford to access clean water.
 
Our church does support the Board of World Mission through some of our donations, including our Birthday Box donations.

And, it is worth considering some of the creative ministry ideas around accessing clean water, and ways we might be able to support water (or other) initiatives here in Calgary.

Today we have heard Biblical stories that talk about both the physical and spiritual importance of water, and we have heard some practical examples of the ways Moravians are helping neighbours access clean water.
 
My hope in helping us think through these ideas and examples is that we might start to become more aware of how Care for Creation intersects with our faith life, and our call to “give one of [Jesus’s] followers a cup of cool water.”

By doing so, we welcome others as we welcome Jesus.

So, may we become more aware of the ways we can welcome Jesus by welcoming and caring for our neighbours - both locally and globally.
​
And, may we lift in gratitude our access to life-giving water on a regular basis. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
Dear Jesus, you have taught us that when we give a drink of water to a stranger, we have quenched your thirst. You, who are living water, thirst for liberation for all who are oppressed. How can we help to let justice roll down like a river and righteousness like a never-failing stream? Putting our trust in you, we pray. Amen.

The Message

This week, we are starting a 6-week sermon series on Caring for Creation.

This idea came from a resource we were given at the recent Provincial Synod by the Board of World Mission.

The resource is titled “Everyone Wants a Better World.” It is intended to be a Bible study, but I am adapting it for this sermon series.

The exciting news is that I will also be getting some copies of this so we can do a Bible study this Fall.
 
But for now, I’m excited about this sermon series.

This resource is based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

It actually has three different units. Unit one is “Care for Creation.” Unit two is “Care for Each Other,” and Unit three is “Care for Right Relationships.”

Each unit explores different goals set forth by the United Nations.

The topics in this 6-week series are:
 
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Clean Water and Sanitation
Week 3: Affordable and Clean Energy
Week 4: Climate Action
Week 5: Life Below Water
Week 6: Life on Land

These are important topics for us to discuss as a church and as citizens of the world because not only are we affected individually by these things, but of course so is our country and the world.
 
The six goals we are discussing in this sermon series are about stewarding the earth in ways that ensure all people have access to clean water and affordable energy, and that animal and plant life (birds of the air, fish of the sea and all that creeps along the face of the earth, every plant yielding seed and every tree bearing fruit) are cared for in a responsible and resourceful manner.

My sermons during this series are likely going to follow the study guide pretty closely. The Board of World Mission has done a wonderful job creating this, and they are the experts on these topics.
 
I could not say anything about these things any better than they could, but I will adapt some of it as necessary to fit our context or to add my own stories or examples as needed.

So, with all of that said, let’s reflect on the Bible passages we heard earlier.

Before we do that, Matthew 5:5 says, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

But what does it mean to inherit the earth?

To inherit something means that you receive it as a gift.
 
It means you become responsible for it. You become a steward of the resource you have been given.

The earth is a gift and a responsibility.

To be meek means to be humble, to know our place and our purpose, and not to wield power over the earth or its inhabitants.

In our passage from today, Jesus invites us to observe nature and learn from it, to look at the birds of the air and the lilies in the field.
 
It is difficult to learn from nature and animal life if they are compromised or in danger. It’s also difficult if we don’t pay attention to them or desire to learn from them.

It may appear on a surface reading of this passage that Jesus is simply inviting us to worry less, to birdwatch and smell the roses, but it is more than that.

There is economic anxiety in this passage. The framing isn’t about anxiety more broadly, but about the worry of not being able to put food on the table or clothe oneself.
 
In this context, it is worth asking: How do those who are economically disadvantaged attend to ecological disasters when there are more immediate threats to their survival?

How does privilege intersect with environmental action?

We know that those most affected by climate change are in lower socioeconomic brackets, and yet these same people are least equipped to deal with these issues, both mentally (as this passage stresses) and in practical terms.
 
This passage also calls us to examine how our privilege connects us to rights and resources that are not available to our neighbours.

As with many things about our lives and about life in Biblical times, it is complicated.

We are given dominion over the earth and all that is in it.

We are called to keep the earth (Genesis 2:15), to till it and maintain the resources the earth gives to us (Genesis 1:28-31).
 
Later in Genesis (9:2-3), we are told not only that we can eat the plants that all living beings share, but also that every living thing can be food for us.

This is a huge resource matrix – a complicated, interwoven inheritance that depends on our understanding of the environment and how all life is interconnected, from the bottom of the ocean to the outermost reaches of our atmosphere.

And yet, our wisdom is limited.

The disciples couldn’t still the storm raging on the sea; they called out to Jesus, and he rebuked the wind (Mark 4:39).
 
We can’t shout at a tornado or a hurricane and tell it to behave.

When Job demands that God answer his question about the suffering he is enduring, God responds by asking whether Job understands the big picture.

God asks Job, “Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth from the womb… who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt?” (Job 38:8, 25)

The answer to this rhetorical question is, “Not humans.”
 
God did.

God created the world and is the author of the natural order; God also created Job and holds Job and all living things in hand (Job 12:7-10).

God loves Job as deeply as God loves all of creation. But Job is not in charge of the world (and neither are we!)
And Job’s good behaviour does not entitle him to a life without suffering.

Here is the conundrum, though. We want Christ-like control over the winds and the waves, but we cannot have it.
 
God makes it clear that we are not in charge of nature; instead, our responsibility is to care for the earth.

Humanity is in relationship with something powerful, unpredictable, and divinely created.

However, what we do to the earth will have consequences, and we have been given minds to navigate cause and effect within the natural world.

Care for creation should be scientific and intuitive, as well as spiritual and filled with respect and awe.
 
We might call the issue of climate care a “wicked problem.”

This term is not being used in this case as a moral judgment. Rather, it is a technical term used in social policy circles to denote problems involving complex, intersecting issues without clear origins or outcomes.

Other examples of wicked problems include poverty, homelessness, refugee crises, and healthcare inequalities.
 
Pastor and scholar Rebecca J. Copeland writes, “Wicked problems do not have universally shared definitions of what the problem is, and, indeed, every wicked problem is enmeshed with other problems.”

Climate care certainly meets this definition.

How do we address this issue from a Christian perspective?

Here is where scientific inquisitiveness and faith-filled attention intersect.
 
We have been given amazing and curious minds that seek to solve problems, and we have been created in the image of God with deep, compassionate souls that seek to care for the earth and humanity.

How do we reconcile our understanding of science with our understanding of God?

Copeland believes we need to bring our faith-filled attention to the issues of climate care and other wicked problems.
 
She suggests expanding our understanding of sin beyond individual actions or an outside force from the devil, seeing it instead as relational, multigenerational, communal, and sometimes unintentional.

From this perspective, we have to recognize that sinful systems are constructed by humans and can therefore be repaired by humans through repentance and determination.

Framing these complex problems with language and understanding from both science and religion may bring us closer to creating a better world.
 
The Good News of all of this is that there is hope. 

Hope for a better world, yes, but also hope that because God has created us as intelligent, problem-solving, social beings, we have the tools we need to start to address climate care collectively.

Indeed, we have already been working both individually and collectively.

We know that what we have been doing so far may not be enough, but we also know that we have the capacity to learn, grow, and own the mistakes we have made in the past.
 
This is not a problem we have necessarily created personally, though we contribute collectively to a system that perpetuates the problem.

But we can also be part of the solution. We can get the engine running if we are willing to work together, trusting both science and our faith in God.

And thinking through these concepts in this sermon series is one way we can start the engine.

May you leave here today hopeful for a better tomorrow… hopeful for a better world yet to come.
​
Amen.
 
Let us pray: Creator God, from the face of the deep, you called forth land and gave the waters their boundaries. You commanded lights in the sky, and named day and night. You created humanity in your image and told us to take care of creation. As your gift of the earth has provided all that we need, teach us to protect and care for it. Amen.

The Message

Today’s Gospel passage is one of the most widely known passages, even among people who are not actively Christian.

And of course in churches, we like to cite this story as a basis for our ministries.

At the heart of it, this story is about feeding people.

It is about hospitality and generosity, love and compassion, and it’s a little bit about Jesus proving to his disciples and to the people who he is.
 
But this story is also about more than all of this. So let’s dive in and take a closer look.

This story starts off by telling us that Jesus crossed Lake Galilee to try to go somewhere that he could be alone.

This is not the only time in his ministry that Jesus tries to take time for himself.

This is an important aspect of Jesus’s life as well as his ministry, but it also emphasizes his devotion to prayer life and the balance needed between serving people and taking time to recharge.
 
This is an important reminder to all of us that alone time, prayer time, and solitude are necessary elements of a healthy spiritual life and a healthy life in ministry and service to others.

So, I appreciate that this story starts off with a note that Jesus was trying to take some time alone.

And, I also appreciate the next part of the story, which is that despite his attempt to be alone, the crowds of people followed him.

The story simply says that when Jesus got out of the boat, he saw the large crowd.
 
It doesn’t really say if he got his alone time or not, but we can probably safely assume that the only alone time he got was in the boat.

And yet, he is filled with empathy and compassion for the people who are so desperate for healing, for answers, for teaching, and for kindness.

So he spends time with each person who needs it, healing and serving.

As the day turns into evening, the disciples realize that they have been out there all day serving people.
 
It’s getting toward dinner time, and they are starting to be concerned about the fact that people are going to need to eat soon.

I suspect that in good faith, and out of concern for Jesus, for the people, and also likely for themselves, the disciples suggest that Jesus encourage the crowds to leave so they can go and buy some food in the surrounding villages.

But Jesus responds by suggesting that they feed the people themselves.

Of course, this is where the fame of this story comes into play.
 
The disciples tell Jesus that they only have five small loaves of bread and two fish.

My guess is that they only anticipated feeding themselves, and this was probably not even enough for them, at least in their minds.

But Jesus has different plans, so he takes the food they have, blesses it, breaks the bread and hands it to his disciples.

(Does this sound familiar to anyone? The theme of breaking bread and handing it out could be a whole sermon on its own, but that’s for another day.)
 
The disciples presumably start passing the food around to people, and as it turns out, there is not only enough to feed everyone, but there is enough that they end up with a tremendous amount of leftover food.

The story claims to have fed 5000, but that only includes the men. If we factor in another 5000 women, and let’s say two children for everyone two adults, we are talking about 20,000 people who were fed that day.

That’s pretty amazing!
 
But the part of this story I think is the most amazing is not that the people were fed.

Jesus does that throughout his ministry, and while it is amazing work, I think the most amazing part of this story is the lesson in it for us.

Often this story is used in churches to talk about how we should be feeding people, caring for the poor, etc.

And I’m not saying we shouldn’t be doing that! But there is another lesson here that I think is equally important for churches to keep in mind.
 
How often do we look to God for miraculous intervention when the gifts are, in fact, right there in our hands?

How often do we complain about what we don’t have, or what we used to be able to do, and overlook the miraculous power of the gifts that we do have?

I think we tend to do this as individuals, but also as churches. And the lesson in this passage is that actually, what we do have is enough. We can do ministry with exactly the gifts we have right now.
 
Yes, perhaps it has changed over the years. Maybe we had more members, or more energy, or younger people, or more money, or more enthusiasm, or a better feel for the needs of the neighbourhood in years past.

Likewise, individually, maybe we were younger, stronger, more energetic, less burdened with the baggage of life, or more carefree in years past.

But we always have gifts at our disposal, even if those gifts are not the same gifts we used to have.

Let me give you an example.
 
When I was doing my CPE (clinical pastoral education), I was working in a continuing care retirement facility.

These types of facilities have independent living, assisted living, memory care units, and skilled nursing units.

I was working in the skilled nursing unit one day when I went in to visit a very elderly woman who was completely bed-ridden.

I had visited with her before, and I found her delightful.
 
Everyone who worked with her found her delightful.

As I was visiting with her, she was lamenting about the fact that she could no longer do much of anything. She could not even leave the bed to use the bathroom.

And she’d been in this position for over a year.

But, she turned to me with a smile on her face and she said, “you know, I ask myself often why I am still here. What purpose do I serve? I can’t contribute anything anymore…
 
“But then I think, well, maybe my purpose here is to bring a smile to all of your faces. I know not everyone here is easy to work with, but if I can be the person who cheers up the staff, maybe I can make other people’s lives just a little bit better.”

This woman had lost all of her skills. She was incredibly capable most of her life, and she had accomplished a lot in her younger years.

But this season of her life brought new lessons for her. And instead of wallowing in her inability, she tried to use the gifts she still had.
 
Sure, she may have had fewer gifts than she once had, but she still had lungs that allowed her to breathe, she still had facial muscles that allowed her to smile, and she still had a voice that allowed her to offer delightful words of wisdom to the caregivers around her.

The point here is this: Jesus showed us that rather than lamenting about the gifts we don’t have, or that we wish we had, we can recognize the gifts we do have and use those to do good in the world.

Sure, maybe things have changed over the years for our church.
 
Maybe we have had to let go of some things that we used to do.

But what gifts do we have? What is right in front of us, just waiting to be shared, multiplied, and offered in service to others?

God doesn’t see us or our church in terms of what we used to have or what we used to be able to do.

God sees us just as we are right now, and God loves us just the way we are right now.

And Jesus showed us that God wants us to use the gifts we have now.
 
So, as you leave here today, take with you this lesson from the story of the loaves and fishes.

Look at your life and your church just as they are now, and think about the gifts – both large and small – that are right in front of you.

And then, wonder how you might use those gifts to serve others, to serve God, and to demonstrate love, hospitality, compassion, kindness, and empathy to those around you.

Amen.

Let us pray:
​
Gracious God, we thank you for the gifts you have given us throughout our lives, and for those gifts that we have in our hands right now. We know that we are not always aware of the gifts we have in each moment, and that we spend a lot of time lamenting about the gifts we no longer have. Help us to notice all of the gifts in our lives - big and small - and to use them to do your work in this hurting world. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

Young at Heart Message

Years ago, shortly after my return to church after a long hiatus, I attended a worship service at a church back home in Wisconsin.

This was a church I had never been to before, but I decided to attend because someone I knew had suggested it.

Things went fine until the pastor of the church started to preach. I don’t know what passage he was preaching on specifically, but he began to talk about his father.
 
He shared that his late father was most certainly in hell.

He began to give reasons for it, and while I can’t remember exactly what those reasons were, some of the things he listed were common, everyday things that many people do.

He didn’t live the healthiest lifestyle, he made some poor decisions in his life, and he didn’t expressly accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour.

This sermon made me incredibly uncomfortable, and it took me a long time to parse out why.
 
Part of the problem was that every person in that room most likely committed some of the same “egregious” sins that he claimed that his father had committed.

So this pastor stood up in front of a congregation and essentially called them all sinners and implied that they were going to hell.

It certainly didn’t leave a great feeling in my heart, and I didn’t feel like I received Good News that day, that’s for sure.

It also didn’t sound like the Jesus I knew.
 
This is similar to another story I came across as I was preparing for today’s sermon, and I’d like to share that story with you as well.

The author, David Lower, shared about his time spent as a chaplain in a hospital.

While he was on duty, he received a call to a dying man’s bedside.

When he walked into the room where a lovely old man was taking his final breaths, the man’s eldest son introduced himself.
 
The son introduced his dying dad to the chaplain and then said, “I’m pleased to report that Dad’s been saved for 27 years now, thank God, so there’s nothing to worry about here.”

He continued, “The reason I sent for you is because you may want to pay a visit next door. That poor man - he’s…”

His voice dropped to a whisper and said:

“...unsaved. Unchurched. You know what I mean?”

David goes on to say the following:
 
“I did learn that his dad’s neighbor was at peace, surrounded by loved ones after a laudable life of service to others. What I’ll never forget is the revealing picture I caught as I walked away. The two rooms shared a doorway, with a thin partition between. I stood in the doorway and saw two families, probably with very different worldviews, surrounding their departing loved ones in pure expressions of love. The beauty on either side of the wall was similarly striking and holy, and it was hard to imagine God feeling anything but glorified by it all.”
 
In other words, this man’s experience with these two families was nothing but love for a dying family member.

It is a stark reminder that there are many different ways that God’s saving work can be made manifest in people’s lives, and we may not be in a position to determine that ourselves, or at first glance.

It begs the question about whether or not we ever need to be in a position where we are responsible for judging people’s faith, or their mistakes.

And this is where I want to begin talking about our Gospel passage from Matthew today.
 
The Message

Just like last week, we receive a parable from Jesus followed by an explanation. This time though, the explanation claims that it was Jesus who made it.

However, Jesus does not typically do this work of explaining parables like this, so it is more likely that Matthew added these explanations later to make things easier for people to understand, or perhaps to place his own interpretation on the parable.

But the reason Jesus tends to speak using parables is because it’s up to each of us to discern the meaning for ourselves.
 
So of course, pastors get to do the work of trying to explain what the parables might mean in today’s context, but our explanations are our own interpretations too.

All of that said, I want to think about this parable in terms of the two stories I just shared with you.

In both of the stories I shared, one person is taking it upon themselves to judge what others do and, in particular, to try to determine who is saved and who is not, OR, who is faithful and who is not.
 
I don’t know about all of you, but that is not a job I would ever want. Thank God that a pastor’s job isn’t to make that judgement call!

The parable of the weeds and the wheat can be interpreted to portray what appear to be “insiders” and “outsiders” of heaven.

But when the land owner is asked whether or not the servants should pull the weeds, he responds by suggesting that instead, they allow the weeds to grow along with the wheat until the harvest, at which time they can be separated.
 
The two story lines playing out in a single field portray the coexistence of good and evil, with their outgrowths growing side by side, intertwining.

If the servants try to gather the weeds, they might struggle to tell the difference between plants. They might get rid of the weeds and uproot the good growth, too.

So the gathering and separating will not be done until the harvest time, when angels will reap and gather the good wheat into the barn and discard the rest for burning.
 
Followers of Jesus - presumably characterized as the servants in the fields - are encouraged to be patient and trustful that good growth is still occurring and will prevail, even when the weeds seem rampant.

It is not their job to separate good from evil because in the end, the doers of evil will be cast out.

Then, all that will remain is the good, shining like the sun.

The lessons Jesus is trying to communicate about God’s kingdom can be seen throughout history.
 
And, indeed, they can be seen in this moment, too.

We can all see weeds. That is essentially what the pastor at the church I attended was saying – he could see the weeds in the field and he wanted to pick out the weeds and uproot them himself.

Likewise, the son of the dying man in the hospital saw his neighbour as a “weed,” to use this same metaphor. He couldn’t see the beauty in the man’s life because of his determination about his faith (or lack thereof).
 
We can all see weeds – or what we think are weeds.

But, maybe we shouldn’t make it our business to try to separate the weeds from the wheat.

As servants of Jesus, we can help nurture, feed, and cultivate the good growth that’s been planted by sharing the Good News and doing our best to love one another, heal one another, and seek the lost like Jesus.

There’s more than enough for us to do and worry about in this lifetime that we can allow God to do the picking and separating when it comes to people.
 
Thank God we aren’t called to do that work. We are simply asked to love one another.

We are asked to look out at that field and appreciate the wheat alongside the weeds, knowing that we don’t need to worry about separating it all because that is ultimately God’s job.

It’s our job to nourish and help both flourish as best we can, and to remember that everything and everyone are intertwined.
​
And, in the end, we are simply called to love and be loved. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
Gracious God, we sometimes forget that even weeds can be beautiful. When we find ourselves wanting to parse out the weeds from the wheat, help us to remember that it is your work to do that, not ours. Guide us instead toward appreciating the weeds and the wheat being intertwined together, and help us to do as you call us to do, which is to love both. In your holy and gracious name, we pray. Amen.
 
Resource: The Christian Century, In the Lectionary, David Bower, Sunday July 20, 2014

The Message

This week’s message was difficult for me to figure out how to preach.

This is interesting because it seems like this passage should be fairly straightforward.

My guess is that many of you could stand up here and preach a decent sermon on this passage without too much trouble.

So why is it a struggle for me?

I think the hangup for me is that I am not a gardener or a farmer.
 
Planting and growing doesn’t come naturally to me. So relating to a passage that is about sowing and planting isn’t easy for me.

So, I’m tasked with explaining gardening and planting to a room full of… experienced gardeners and planters.

On the other hand, this parable should be fairly understandable to the average person, which is why Jesus uses it.

So, what is he saying? I know that Matthew gives us his interpretation of the parable in our reading.
 
But let’s review what Jesus is telling us.

He gives us a parable about a farmer who is attempting to plant a field. And as he sees it, there are four different places that seeds could be placed as the farmer is planting.

Option 1: Some of the seeds fall along the road and get eaten by birds.

Outcome 1: The seeds don’t grow at all because the birds eat them. The birds are nourished, but the seeds cannot produce anything because they are not in soil at all.
 
Option 2: Some seeds fall on thin, rocky ground and begin to grow quickly.

Outcome 2: These seeds dry up and are scorched because they were planted too close to the surface. They couldn’t establish deeps roots.

Option 3: Some seeds fall in places where thornbushes were already growing.

Outcome 3: The plants that were already there choked the new seeds out and prevented them from growing.
 
Option 4: Some seeds fall on good soil.

Outcome 4: The plants produced 100 or 60 or 30 times as much as was scattered, making up for all of the seeds that could not grow.

Now, Matthew gives us his interpretation of what this parable means, so let’s summarize that as well.

Matthew believes this parable is talking about different types of people.

Person 1 (seeds eaten by birds): People who hear the message about the kingdom, but don’t understand it.
 
These types of people are, according to Matthew, susceptible to manipulation or “evil” ones, and the message is snatched from their hearts.

In other words, the message doesn’t “grow” because these people cannot understand it for themselves, let alone share the message with others.

Person 2 (seeds that fell on rocky ground and dried up): These types of people gladly accept the message and accept it immediately. But, they don’t have deep roots, so as soon as life (or spreading the message) gets hard, they give up.
 
These people might initially be excited to hear the message and might be enthusiastic about sharing or spreading the message in the moment, but they allow life to distract them.

Perhaps they get side-tracked, or they experience a consequence to sharing the message and they quickly give up.

Thus, the message doesn’t move very far with this type of person either.

Person 3 (seeds that fall among the thornbushes): These types of people hear the message as well.
 
But, according to Matthew, they start to worry about the wrong things – needs and desires in this life. They are also fooled by the desire to get rich (financially or otherwise).

The message gets choked out for these people and cannot spread, either.

Person 4 (seeds that fall on good soil): Lastly, these types of people hear the message and understand, and willingly and gladly spread it.

These are the people who will spread the message widely and produce more than what was planted.
 
So, this is Matthew’s interpretation of the parable that Jesus shared.

And there is a lot to appreciate about his interpretation.

The main thing that I appreciate about it is that the four options/responses normalize not just differences among people but the ways that different teachings may be received (or not) by one individual.

And, it is possible for a person to be all four different soils at various times in life.
 
It also leaves room for life circumstances.

Sometimes we are “good” soil – fully open and available to receiving what God is trying to plant within us.

But sometimes, we are not open to receiving so the seed doesn’t even reach us, or it does but it dries up quickly when things get hard, or it gets choked out by other priorities.

It’s important for us to remember this as we think about things that might come up for us in life. Sometimes, we are open to receiving – ready and willing to take the next steps.
 
And other times, we are not as open to receiving.

And we ebb and flow between these different states of receptivity throughout our lives.

On the other hand, I think it’s also important to remember that this parable could apply to everyone and everything else around us all the time as well.

There may be times in life when we try to plant seeds and we desperately want them to grow, but they don’t.
 
Maybe we’ve been trying to get a new job, or have a baby, or retire, or improve our relationships, or any number of other things, but things just don’t seem to be working.

In these cases, we can remember this parable and it might be worth asking ourselves if we have done everything we can to cultivate the soil we are attempting to plant in.

Let’s use finding a new job as an example.

Have we updated our resume?
 
Have we gotten enough experience in our field, or enough education?

Have we put in enough time at our current job to be qualified for a promotion (if that is what we are seeking)?

Have we shaken hands with the right people?

Have we demonstrated success in our current job?

Have we been present, on time, etc? In other words, have we cultivated relationships that might provide us with a good reference?
 
The list could go on, but you get the idea.

Have we cultivated the soil in which we are trying to plant our seeds?

And of course, there are times in life when we have done everything we feel we can do, and still, our seeds don’t grow.

The same can be true when we plant a real garden, too.

And sometimes, we plant specific seeds to try to grow something in particular, and that thing doesn’t grow, but plenty of other things do.
 
In a real garden, nature has a way of spreading seeds and plants we never actually planted.

So, we might do everything we can to create the best soil for planting, but nature has other plans.

God, in fact, may have other plans.

This parable reminds us that yes, we can do everything we can to cultivate good soil – in ourselves and in the world around us such that we can grow what we plant.

And sometimes, God may have other plans for us despite our best efforts.
 
So, as we go about our daily lives and ruminate on this parable, it is worth wondering about the things we are trying to grow and the seeds we have been planting.

The lesson here is two-fold (or perhaps even more, but today we’ll stick with two-fold).

Part 1: Have you done everything you can to cultivate yourself and create “good soil” in yourself? In other words, have you done the work to open yourself to Jesus’s message and to the work that God does in your life every day?
 
Can you see the work of God in your life and appreciate it, and can you create that space in yourself to be receptive and fully open to it?

And,

Part 2: When you have something in your life that you are trying to plant/grow, have you done all you can to create good soil for that thing to grow into?

And, most importantly for either of these two lessons, we must always remember that no matter how well we cultivate our inner soil or the soil we can control in the world around us, God is cultivating and growing “God-seed” too.
 
And we must allow ourselves to be open to the movement of God and the Holy Spirit in all of this.

So, as you leave here today, may you take this parable with you to consider.

May you wonder about your inner soil, the outer soil of the world around you, and the “God-seed” that may indeed spread whether you intend it to or not.
​
Amen.
 
Let us pray:
Gracious God, open our hearts to you and help us to prepare ourselves to be open to your “God-seed.” Help us to better our own soil and the soil of the world around us such that the seeds we plant can grow, and such that the seeds you plant within us can grow. Allow us to be open to the leanings of your Holy Spirit. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

Young at Heart Message

Yesterday, I did my first ever open water swim in preparation for the triathlon that I’m registered to do at the end of the month.

If you have ever tried swimming in open water (as opposed to a swimming pool) you know that it is a very different experience.

First of all, if you have to wear a wetsuit, that experience is something in itself, let me tell you.

But simply swimming in a body of water is also a very different experience.
 
In a swimming pool, there are lines painted on the bottom of the pool which make staying in your lane easy. But even if that doesn’t work for some reason, there are floating strings that keep you from moving too far one way or the other.

In open water, you don’t have any lines to follow. In fact, at least in the lake I was swimming in, the water was so murky that I couldn’t even see my own arms.

So your only means of staying on a straight path is to either try to follow the shore, or lift your head every so often to orient yourself.
 
The water is also generally colder in open water (although not always).

So, yesterday, I started my swim experience by putting on my wetsuit.

If you’ve never put a wetsuit on, that is a workout all by itself. By the time I was ready to actually swim, I felt like I’d already done a full workout!

But, I got the wetsuit on and I got into the water. And man, was that water COLD! I was swimming in Ghost Lake (reservoir), which is glacier fed, so the water is a bit of a shock.
 
The good news is that the wetsuit did its job and kept my body warm.

My hands and face took a little time to adjust to the water temperature, but after a couple minutes, that was no longer a problem.

It takes a little time to get used to swimming with new and different (and a bit restrictive) gear.

It also takes time when you’re nervous and uncertain to allow your heart rate and breathing to calm down.
 
So, I had a very slow start with lots of trips back to the shore to rest, catch my breath, and check in with my lifeguard (Erick was the lucky guy).

After several times of swimming back to shore to rest, I started rolling over onto my back to float and/or do a few strokes to keep moving.

It slows you down to do this, but it allowed me to catch my breath and reset my tired shoulders without going back to shore repeatedly.

And actually, I discovered something else in that process, too.
 
Rolling onto my back was lovely. It wasn’t just a physical rest.

I was looking up at a beautiful blue sky with fluffy white clouds in it. I couldn’t see anything but sky.

No buildings. No smoke or smog. No cranes. No airplanes. No people. No boats.

Nothing but blue sky and white clouds and a feeling of being supported by the lake.

In actuality, I was being supported mostly by a wetsuit that made me more buoyant, but it felt like the lake was supporting me.
 
And, I was able to rest.

It wasn’t just rest from the weariness of this new skill I was trying to learn and develop.

It wasn’t just rest for my tired shoulders and my calves that wanted to cramp.

It wasn’t just rest from feeling a little disappointed that I was swimming SO slow compared to normal.

It was rest from everything.

From the busy-ness of my life. From the stress of training. From whatever else was on my mind.
 
It was pure, unencumbered rest.

I think I would go so far as to say that blue sky and those white clouds and the peaceful feeling of floating alone with nothing clouding my vision or my heart was rest in God.

Momentary, blissful, deep, abiding rest in God.

It reminded me of a dream, or my childhood, maybe – the wonder and excitement of floating and just being. Just being me, bringing all of myself to God in that moment.

And then, I turned over and kept swimming.
 
The Message

Our Gospel reading today from Matthew 11 says, “If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest.”

Often we are encouraged to rest from the busy-ness of life. And, don’t get me wrong – we should rest from that busy-ness.

But I wonder what that rest looks like?

For working people, how often do we truly rest on our days off?
 
Sure, we might not be working. But are we truly resting?

Or are we cleaning, running errands, making phone calls, checking in on all the balls we have in the air, or just generally catching up on life?

And, for those who aren’t working anymore, do you truly get rest, or are you busier than ever?

Even if we do manage to get real rest that is unencumbered by anxiety over all the things we should be doing instead, what does that rest look like?
 
Is it restorative, renewing, and re-energizing? Or, is it zoning out to try to forget the busy life we usually lead?

Is it weighed down with guilt about everything you’re not doing while you’re resting?

Maybe it’s just me who struggles with truly resting (those who know me likely aren’t surprised by this!), but I don’t think I am the only one.

Whenever I go to King’s Fold Retreat Centre to try to get true rest, one of the things they tell people is to try not to bring too much “to do.”
 
In other words, if you go thinking “I’m going to get so much reading done! I’m going to take five books with me,” you may feel disappointed that you don’t get much reading done.

They have learned over many years of welcoming retreatants that many, many people on retreat need true and abiding rest.

Sometimes that means sleep – lots of sleep. Sometimes that means sitting and listening to the wind or the river or the birds.

Sometimes that means turning off the phone.
 
But often, it does not mean frantically trying to accomplish all of the things you thought you would try to accomplish with the spare time.

Instead, King’s Fold has found that for many people, being on retreat means truly resting. Slowing down. Flipping over to swim on your back and look at the blue sky and the fluffy white clouds.

And to rest in God. Settle in. Release your burdens. Allow yourself to go to God – to go to Jesus – so that you can receive rest.

Allow that gift to wash over you.
 
You may not always be able to set aside your burdens permanently. But for a moment, stop swimming, roll over, and float there.

Allow God to support you fully. Relax your body, feel God holding you firmly, and release yourself.

Feel the weightlessness of floating – being fully supported and setting down the weight of the burdens you carry.

Allow God to take that weight off your shoulders, even for a moment.

Rest.
 
Rest in God’s abiding love for you.

Let’s take a moment now to try a spiritual practice together.

Let’s use our imaginations momentarily.

Close your eyes, if that is available to you. And if not, then just soften your gaze and allow your eyes to relax.

Take two deep breaths – in… and out.

In… and out.
 
Now, imagine you are at a body of water. Choose a place that you’ve been before that is a comfort to you, perhaps.

It can be the clearest, cleanest water you’ve ever been in – this is a safe place to be.

Imagine this water is clear and still. There is no danger.

Now imagine it’s a beautiful, clear, sunny day. Or, imagine your favourite weather. Something that feels safe and comfortable to you.
 
You don’t even have to get wet in this water if you don’t want to. Just be in it.

Once you have imagined this safe body of water, imagine you are wading in.

As you wade into that clear, glassy water that is the perfect temperature, you feel yourself getting lighter.

As the water begins to cover your body and reaches your shoulders, imagine whatever you are carrying begins to become weightless. If you want, it can even float away, or float nearby if you need to pick it up again later.
 
Now, I want you to allow yourself to float. Feel the weight of your own body lift.

Look up at the sky – maybe it’s blue with fluffy clouds, or maybe it’s a pink and purple sunset.

This is your safe place to rest, so it can be whatever makes you feel comfortable and happy.

Feel yourself being supported fully by that water.

Now imagine that the water is God. Maybe God’s arms are what’s supporting you in the water. Maybe you are in a nest or cocoon with God.
 
But imagine God is there.

If there is something you’d like to say to God, or if there is a burden or weight you’ve been carrying that you want to ask God to take or at least help you carry, lift that to God now.

Take 30 seconds of silence to float, feeling yourself fully supported, and offer to God whatever needs to be offered.

And if there is nothing or you’re not sure what you need or want to say, that’s OK. Just feel yourself being supported and loved.

When you are ready, slowly open your eyes. If the burden you set aside needs to be picked back up, pick it up. But, notice if it feels a little lighter now.

Come back to the present and notice how you are feeling now. Maybe you feel lighter, more peaceful, or more settled.

Maybe you don’t feel any different, and that’s OK, too.

Just allow yourself to be however and whoever you are in this moment.

Welcome yourself without judgement.
 
As we come back to the present and begin to settle back into life, I invite you to rest.

“If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest” says Jesus.

As you leave here today – as you go out into the rest of your day, the rest of your week, may you remember this exercise any time you need to use it.

It is available to you whenever you need it.
​
May you allow God to help you carry your burdens. May you welcome the rest that God offers and may you welcome God’s love for you, always. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
God, we come to you, weary.
We lay down our heavy burdens.
You who are gentle and humble in heart,
give us rest for our souls.
Yoke our hearts to Jesus,
that we may learn the ways of love,
that we may live with courage and peace. Amen.

Young at Heart Message

Today’s Gospel message comes on the heels of the scripture passage I preached about two weeks ago in which Jesus basically says “congratulations, you’re Apostles! Now I’m throwing you to the wolves.”

Today’s passage talks about hospitality – those who welcome the Apostles also welcome Jesus, and ultimately God – the One who sent Jesus.

But in order to better understand what this passage means, we need to understand something about the world in which the Apostles lived.
 
Jesus isn’t asking these men to follow him and take his message to people without significant personal sacrifice.

This isn’t a part-time side gig. This isn’t a situation where the Apostles can keep working – making a living – and just spread the Word in their free time.

Jesus is asking them to leave their livelihoods – the sole way that they earn income for themselves and their families – to do this work.

Work that doesn’t pay. At least not in the traditional way.
 
So, what that means is they must rely completely on the kindness of strangers for food, clothing, and other necessities.

They are being asked to become itinerant. Their survival depends on people’s willingness to provide for them, rather than providing for themselves.

So, let’s put ourselves into that situation for a moment.

If we imagine what the world was like for the Apostles, we at least imagine that people are somewhat accustomed to welcoming strangers into their homes.
 
There was no internet. There were no phones. There weren’t even fax machines. There was no efficient means of communicating with people, so if you showed up in a new place and needed a place to stay, you had to knock on a door and ask.

Society was more communal at that time. They fed the homeless – women and children especially who were in need.

What was good for one was good for all, at least a bit more than we are used to today. Keeping people fed and at least somewhat provided for kept everyone healthier.
 
Caring for people helped to prevent the spread of disease and illnesses that could spread to everyone.

So, there was at least some precedent and mutual understanding that if someone knocked on the door, most homes would at least be willing to provide what they could.

And, as the scripture says, if people aren’t willing to offer hospitality, well… there was no need to get upset. God would handle them later.

In other words, simply move on to the next house or the next town. Eventually, someone will welcome you.
 
This was more or less a given.

But, imagine this scenario today. How well might that go?

Jesus arrives, recruits you to be a disciple, expects you to quit your job or to leave your home and family, and then expects you to rely solely on other people for your survival.

Imagine what that might entail.

You no longer have access to money, your own food, your own bed, your family, your own clothing, etc.
 
So, in order to survive and spread the Word about Jesus, you now need to knock on doors to try to get food, shelter, a place to sleep, laundry, etc.

How does that feel? Is this even possible today?

It would be extremely difficult, I would think. It would be difficult for many reasons:

1. People are not accustomed to strangers knocking on their doors, let alone having to feed, house, and clothe them.

2. People tend to judge those who don’t have shelter, the ability to feed themselves, etc.
 
3. We are accustomed to a certain standard of living. If we suddenly lose access, at this point in time we might actually suffer more – or at least, we might feel like we are suffering more.

4. We too would be more likely to get sick or even die if we could not find provisions based solely on the kindness of others.

5. This is perhaps the hardest truth of all: we cannot be confident that people actually will help us – we cannot be confident that people will even answer their door, let alone invite us in, let alone feed us and shelter us.
 
And, on the flip side – imagine if an itinerant person claiming to be a disciple of Jesus knocked on your door and asked you to come inside.

Imagine that you do invite them inside, but then they ask for water and food. That might not be so bad, but they also need a place to sleep for the night, and maybe even money or food to get them by until they can find someone else to help them.

Many people today wouldn’t even get to step one: answer the door. And if they do, most will not go so far as to invite a stranger inside.
 
Why? Well, there is significant concern, fear, and worry that the person at your door might have harmful intentions.

We are concerned about our own safety and wellbeing. Often, our own safety and wellbeing comes before everyone else’s, whether we want to admit it or not.

It is simply the world we live in.

So, as we are talking about these scripture passages, I think it’s worth understanding the sacrifices that Jesus is asking people to make.
 
And while it’s true that we live in a very different world today than the world Jesus was born into, it is still important to understand just how much Jesus was asking his disciples to sacrifice to do this work.

Yes, Jesus promises they will be rewarded, but he also doesn’t tell them that it will be easy.

In fact, if you remember from the sermon a couple weeks ago, Jesus warns them that there will be trouble, that this will not be easy for them, and in fact, they might be making significant personal sacrifices, including imprisonment or even death.
 
The Message

The Gospel of Matthew assumes that the church is a missional church.

In other words, the assumption here is that the church is a “sent” church.

Jesus sends his disciples out into the world. He doesn’t say “stay home and try to let your neighbours and friends know about me when you can.”

No, he sends them “to the wolves,” so to speak.
 
Jesus sends them door to door, town to town, over and over again, spreading the Word and doing good deeds, sharing the Good News with everyone they possibly can.

In Matthew’s understanding, there is simply no other way to be the church.

There have been missional church movements throughout history.

In fact, the Moravian Church is well known for the missionary work they did (and still do) globally. It’s part of the reason why the Moravian Church exists in Canada today.
 
And of course, there are movements within Christianity today to make the church more missional again.

There is growing awareness that mission is not just a program of the church – it should be the defining purpose of everything the church does.

What does it mean to be a “sent church” in today’s world?

It can’t mean “leave everything behind and go spread the Word” in today’s world. It’s just not realistic or safe.
 
But, I also don’t think it means “sit comfortably in worship and wait for people to walk through your church doors.”

There must be some kind of middle ground, and this is what the missional church movement is trying to figure out.

What might happen if we stopped expecting people to walk through our doors and instead, we stepped out?

Certainly we welcome anyone who does walk through our doors!
 
But is there more we could be doing to become a “sent church.” A missional church. A church that takes mission beyond our own walls and extends that outward?

What might that look like?

I don’t necessarily have the answers. I have lots of thoughts on what that could look like. But this question is one that really must be answered in community and conversation together.

So maybe, in order to answer this question, we start with conversations with one another.
 
What if we shared our stories – our stories of finding this church or the church in general, or our stories of receiving hospitality, or our stories of encounters we’ve had with missional work at other churches.

What if we started to get excited about the possibilities? What if we started small?

Perhaps we’ve already started small. We stepped out of our church walls to the parking lot to offer the garage sale to the community. And, in doing so, we also offered free food.
 
It might seem very small. To some, it might not even seem like we really stepped beyond our church walls at all.

But if we want to be a “sent church” – if we want to be able to say “here we are, God! Send us!,” then we need to be in conversation about what that might look like and what those small steps might be.

And, we need to feel good about the small steps we do take!
 
We could wonder why we would eat the cost of food and not try to make up for it, or we could feel great about feeding our neighbours and welcoming them to our event.

We should feel great about stepping outside of our church walls, welcoming strangers, feeding them, and receiving deep gratitude.

If that isn’t doing what Jesus asked of us in today’s world, I don’t know what is!

Our garage sale might be a fundraiser, too, but it is one small step toward being a “sent church.”
 
So let’s celebrate that, and then let’s start talking together about how we might be able to continue to be a “sent church.”

There’s no wrong answers here. There’s nothing wrong with conversation. There’s nothing wrong with dreaming.

Ideas are just ideas until we decide to move them forward. Our community garden is another example of feeding strangers.

We already do it in small ways. I think today’s passage is simply asking us to look closer at what it means to be a “sent church.”
 
And, are there other possibilities for fulfilling this humble call?

This is the beauty of being part of a church family. We get to wonder together, grow together, and serve together.

So, as we leave this worship space today and enter into the “mission field,” may we begin to wonder together how we might continue to build on the things we already do to offer even more to our community.

May we build on our hospitality.
 
May we build on our kindness and our welcoming environment and find new ways to take that same kindness and welcome outside of our church.

May we become disciples in small ways that may make big impacts on our communities.

May we be a “sent church” – bringing kindness, hospitality, and joy to everyone we meet. Amen.

Let us pray:
​
God who calls us by name, help us to hear your call. Help us to hear your call both personally and as a church. Guide us and help us understand what it might mean for us to be a “sent church” in our context. Help us to have open and honest conversations with each other, exploring new possibilities and sharing ideas together. Help us live into your Word. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

Young at Heart Message

How many of us here make our beds every morning when we wake up?

When I was younger, I never paid much attention to making my bed.

In fact, until I moved here, I never had a top sheet on my bed. I simply slept directly under the blanket.

I noticed many years ago that my top sheet would often just get crumpled at the bottom of the bed at night anyway, so I stopped using it.
 
It wasn’t until recently that I started using a top sheet again, and when I did, I also started making my bed every day.

Many people (including younger me) would argue, “what is the point of making the bed when it’s just going to get messed up again tonight anyway?”

But apparently, research has been done into this very topic.

Numerous sources claim that making the bed sets a positive tone for your day.
 
Apparently, getting into the habit of making the bed each morning allows you to start the day out feeling accomplished.

In other words, you have already checked one thing off your to-do list.

In fact, research considers making the bed a “keystone habit.” Success breeds success, as they say.

So, accomplish that one thing to start your day, and suddenly you experience a ripple effect throughout the rest of your day.
 
Doing this one thing makes you more likely to tackle other things. In your brain, whether you realize it or not, making the bed makes you more likely to continue to be productive – maybe you do the dishes before you leave the house rather than letting them sit until you get home.

Now, I will admit that none of this ever occurred to me when I began making my bed.

What did occur to me is that making the bed in the morning gives the bedroom a cleaner and more organized look.
 
And, when I am ready to get into bed and start winding down, my bed is ready for me, my sheets are straight and I don’t need to worry about trying to straighten them when I sleep.

The other thing is that making sure the fitted sheet is still tight to the mattress is a key factor in getting good sleep (for me, at least).

If my fitted sheet is loose and wrinkly, I find it is very difficult to fall asleep.

And, the research supports my own noticings.
 
Apparently, having an organized sleeping space that looks clean and appealing helps your brain and your body start to relax and shut down as you’re going to sleep.

So, yes, your bed is going to get messed up each night that you sleep in it.

And yes, you should still make your bed every morning if you want to start and finish your day well.

Now, what does any of this have to do with today’s scripture readings?
 
The Message

Great question. In Romans 6:1, the question gets asked, “should we keep on sinning, so that God’s gift of undeserved grace will show up even better?”

In other words, why should we even try to be good people if we are already saved? Wouldn’t God’s grace mean even more if we were really bad people – totally undeserving of that grace – but received it anyway?

If we’re saved either way, why should we care about being good people? What’s our motivation?
 
This is similar to our bed-making question. If we are just going to mess up our bed anyway, why even bother making it?

Likewise, if we’re just going to make mistakes anyway, why even bother trying to be good at all?

Why not lie, cheat, steal, and manipulate? Sometimes those things are easier than being honest and earning a fair living.

Maybe these things are easier sometimes, but what about the impact that they have on others? We were given empathy for a reason.
 
And of course, Romans responds to these questions by saying absolutely we should not keep sinning on purpose.

Many pastors actually get asked the question, “since everyone is saved, why be good?”

In fact, many people who aren’t Christian use this as an argument to demonstrate that morality under Christianity is questionable.

This is what philosophers might call a slippery slope argument. If all your sins are forgiven anyway, what is your motivation not to keep right on sinning.
 
On the other hand, Christians often wonder how Atheists, for example, have any morality at all.

If they don’t have rules to follow or Christ to show them how to be good people, why do they live moral lives at all?

In all honesty, these questions can get us into a deep rabbit hole on the issue of morality and human motivations.

But the response to these questions I want to offer today is this: God’s love changes us.
 
When we know just how deeply we are loved, we don’t want to sin.

God’s grace is so life-giving that we want to live in harmony with it. We want to be loving.

Not because we are trying to avoid punishment, but because we know we are so deeply loved and we want to share that love with others.

And we want to try our best to demonstrate that love outwardly to others because we have been changed. 
 
When we truly absorb God’s love, it changes us.

Similarly, if we place a tea bag in a cup of hot water, it is no longer water. The water has been changed into tea.

We can no longer call the water simply water. It has been transformed into something new.

Likewise, we are transformed when we absorb God’s love.

When God’s love is poured into us, it’s as if our old self-centered selves become new love-centered selves.
 
Our old selves die – they are buried with Christ by baptism into death – and a new, different self is resurrected instead.

Baptism is an invitation to that change. Baptism doesn’t magically change us, but it reminds us of God’s promise to give us new life when we give God our old ones.

Baptism symbolizes the life-cycle of faith: our little self-enclosed self drowns in God’s love, and God gives us a new self made out of pure love.
 
Resurrection isn’t just the after-life, it’s the now-life, the new-life: when we surrender our lives to God in love, God gives them back to us as a gift.

This death-and-resurrection cycle isn’t a one-time thing: we go through it every day, every moment, continually giving our life to God and receiving life anew. Like breathing.

We aren’t literally re-baptized, but we recall our baptismal vows and the grace we received when we entered into this cycle.

God has already called us and claimed us. It is us that needs to continually renew our faithfulness.
 
It is us that need to get up every morning and make our bed, and it is us that need to renew our faithfulness and our commitment to God.

We have allowed God’s love and grace to change us. We have been transformed from water into tea.

God’s grace has given us new life. It is life-giving, and in receiving new life, we want to share that gift – that grace and love – with others.

We don’t just want to – we are compelled to. We are called to share this gift because we ourselves have been changed.
 
We have been transformed.

God’s grace through baptism transforms us.

God’s grace through the sacrament of Holy Communion transforms us.

We may not deserve this grace, but it is given freely nonetheless.

And we may not live perfect lives. We might make mistakes from time-to-time.

And God’s forgiveness does reach us over and over again.
 
And because we are so deeply loved, we receive that grace and we want to do our best to live a life deserving of that grace.

So, as you leave here today, may you be reminded of your own baptism. May you receive the grace of God and know without a doubt that you are loved and you are forgiven.
​
And you will be loved and forgiven over and over again because of the grace of God. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
Loving God, you have baptized us into Christ’s death and resurrection, so that we may live new lives. Death no longer has dominion over us. Remind us again. As we tell the story of your love, let us die to sin so that we may freely and fully live for your sake, not for our own ease. As we worship together today, speak your good news to us, so that we may follow Jesus with faith and courage, in the power of your Spirit. Amen.