jimkenney12
Well-Known Member
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Here is my message for St. Andrew;s in Rockland this coming Sunday.
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Persistent Hope Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 24:36-44
Our reading from Isaiah finished with “Come, O House of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Our reading from Matthew, as it talks about staying alert, invites us to walk in the light of Lord always, persistently, alertly.
A beacon is a light, usually on a high place, that serves to guide others. Once, when I was teaching at an Indigenous School, the board flew three of us from St. Paul, Alberta, to Lethbridge to attend a conference on Indigenous education. We flew back in the dark, and the beacon on the top of Knee Hill east of Drumheller was visible from Lethbridge about 200km away.
Several readings from Isaiah point to a world and a social order in which everyone will be safe and supported, everyone will have a respected place in society and opportunities to serve as able. In his parables about the kingdom of heaven, Jesus points to a similar kind of social order. This is our Christian hope, a world with a good place for everyone. This hope is our beacon as followers of Jesus.
I believe the call by Jesus to stay alert means to live each and every day as though he could be coming that day.
Many Christians believe Jesus will come with angel armies and loud trumpets in a glorious return. I believe he, in a sense, has never left, and his coming is a gradual one, not noticeable to anyone not looking for it. While disease, famine, and violence get ongoing press coverage, the number of people, proportionately, today, are far less than they have ever been. Instead of dying of infectious diseases, hunger, and violence, people today are dying of illnesses related to aging including heart disease and cancers, along with suicide. In the last 40 or more years, more soldiers committed suicide than died in battle or training. More people in general die from suicide than from acts of violence. More people die from eating too much than from eating too little.
The new order promised in Isaiah and pointed to by Jesus has not arrived yet, completely, but it is emerging persistently.
Last Sunday was Reign of Christ or Christ the King Sunday, a day to remind us of our goal, this new world order.
Today is the first Sunday in Advent, a time of preparation for Christmas and, again, a time to remember the point of Christmas, the birth of Jesus to instigate advancing towards that promised world. While most celebrate the birth of a baby, we really celebrate a critical step in the unfolding of that promised world. A baby being born means nothing without the life and teachings offered by Jesus as an adult.
Our persistence in living that hope needs us to live as though that hope has been fulfilled in our lives now.
Everything that gets in the way of that world unfolding is a bump in the road, not a barricade, even if it might be a very big bump.
A key part of that hope is a welcome place for everyone. EOORC continues the work of becoming an Affirming Region. Some members of this congregation would like St. Andrew’s to become an Affirming congregation. I hope this will eventually come to pass, but much needs to happen first.
Affirming congregations are open to learning how people who might want to be part of those congregations feel unwelcome. The first place often is access. People with mobility concerns sometimes have difficulty with access.
Language can be a barrier. I am glad the French Evangelical congregation is worshipping here, and I am glad you were able to give them a bit better worship time. Some churches use a lot of weird church language, Sometimes the words feel like put downs or insensitive.
Sometime deafness is a barrier and I am glad St. Andrew’s is looking at getting a system for people who need hearing assistance.
Attitudes can be a barrier. Too many congregations make strangers or social outsiders feel unwelcome. Sometimes members of a congregation feel so desperate for new members that their yearning drives people away.
And the list can go on. For St. Andrew’s to become an Affirming congregation, identifying those barriers must be done and dealt with.
Before that, this congregation needs to find agreement on its purpose, the difference it wants to make in this community, and how to work for fulfillment of that purpose.
For now, our challenge is to make unconditional welcoming to worship a natural part of our services. This space and this time needs to be a place and time when all of our conflicts and biases and preoccupations are set aside so we can be with each other in a spirit of love and acceptance of each other as siblings in Christ’s family. In this way we make our hope for the promised world real and a source of strength for living persistently in all parts of our lives with that hope.
November is stewardship month for many churches, and usually stewardship equals giving money and time to the church. Stewardship is much more than that. For me, the foundation of personal stewardship is our relationship with ourselves and with what we have. For too many, that relationship is tainted by fear of not having enough and a lack of confidence in our continuing ability to provide for ourselves or by a hunger to find self-importance in wealth and possessions. The fear, lack of confidence, and hunger steal away our freedom, trapping us in our relationship with what we own or control. The decision to give away some of what we have is a choice to exercise our freedom.
Another part of our relationship with ourselves is our sense of connection to the world, to the Holy Mystery, and to others. Worship can and should help us with that sense of connection, whether we worship in person or online. But we need to make time for other ways of building connection as well. Possibilities include study groups, reading, volunteering, prayer, meditation, along with other ways of connecting to the world, to others, and to the Holy Mystery.
From working on our relationships, stewardship includes being aware of how we are and live affects others and the world and how our choices impact our lives and possibilities. Learning, exercising, healthy eating, mental exercise, sleeping, and laughter have parts in exercising stewardship that helps us live better.
Stewardship as a congregation requires communication that helps everyone feel connected and well informed as well as able to make a difference in the choices and actions of the congregation. It includes knowing about the situation of the congregation and clarifying the values, hopes, and goals of the congregation. It replaces wishful thinking with hope founded on action, on living as though the kingdom of heaven is here now. Stewardship needs a sense of direction for the congregation and a beacon to stay on course.
Persistent hope needs daily exercise and nourishment so it can cope with the potholes and bumps in the road that can threaten to defeat our journey.
I invite you to believe that the presence of the Holy Mystery is with us always in that journey. Often that presence is with us through the people in our lives. Sometimes we feel it in good surprises and quiet moments.
We are not alone, We live in God’s world, Thanks be to God.
\
Persistent Hope Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 24:36-44
Our reading from Isaiah finished with “Come, O House of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Our reading from Matthew, as it talks about staying alert, invites us to walk in the light of Lord always, persistently, alertly.
A beacon is a light, usually on a high place, that serves to guide others. Once, when I was teaching at an Indigenous School, the board flew three of us from St. Paul, Alberta, to Lethbridge to attend a conference on Indigenous education. We flew back in the dark, and the beacon on the top of Knee Hill east of Drumheller was visible from Lethbridge about 200km away.
Several readings from Isaiah point to a world and a social order in which everyone will be safe and supported, everyone will have a respected place in society and opportunities to serve as able. In his parables about the kingdom of heaven, Jesus points to a similar kind of social order. This is our Christian hope, a world with a good place for everyone. This hope is our beacon as followers of Jesus.
I believe the call by Jesus to stay alert means to live each and every day as though he could be coming that day.
Many Christians believe Jesus will come with angel armies and loud trumpets in a glorious return. I believe he, in a sense, has never left, and his coming is a gradual one, not noticeable to anyone not looking for it. While disease, famine, and violence get ongoing press coverage, the number of people, proportionately, today, are far less than they have ever been. Instead of dying of infectious diseases, hunger, and violence, people today are dying of illnesses related to aging including heart disease and cancers, along with suicide. In the last 40 or more years, more soldiers committed suicide than died in battle or training. More people in general die from suicide than from acts of violence. More people die from eating too much than from eating too little.
The new order promised in Isaiah and pointed to by Jesus has not arrived yet, completely, but it is emerging persistently.
Last Sunday was Reign of Christ or Christ the King Sunday, a day to remind us of our goal, this new world order.
Today is the first Sunday in Advent, a time of preparation for Christmas and, again, a time to remember the point of Christmas, the birth of Jesus to instigate advancing towards that promised world. While most celebrate the birth of a baby, we really celebrate a critical step in the unfolding of that promised world. A baby being born means nothing without the life and teachings offered by Jesus as an adult.
Our persistence in living that hope needs us to live as though that hope has been fulfilled in our lives now.
Everything that gets in the way of that world unfolding is a bump in the road, not a barricade, even if it might be a very big bump.
A key part of that hope is a welcome place for everyone. EOORC continues the work of becoming an Affirming Region. Some members of this congregation would like St. Andrew’s to become an Affirming congregation. I hope this will eventually come to pass, but much needs to happen first.
Affirming congregations are open to learning how people who might want to be part of those congregations feel unwelcome. The first place often is access. People with mobility concerns sometimes have difficulty with access.
Language can be a barrier. I am glad the French Evangelical congregation is worshipping here, and I am glad you were able to give them a bit better worship time. Some churches use a lot of weird church language, Sometimes the words feel like put downs or insensitive.
Sometime deafness is a barrier and I am glad St. Andrew’s is looking at getting a system for people who need hearing assistance.
Attitudes can be a barrier. Too many congregations make strangers or social outsiders feel unwelcome. Sometimes members of a congregation feel so desperate for new members that their yearning drives people away.
And the list can go on. For St. Andrew’s to become an Affirming congregation, identifying those barriers must be done and dealt with.
Before that, this congregation needs to find agreement on its purpose, the difference it wants to make in this community, and how to work for fulfillment of that purpose.
For now, our challenge is to make unconditional welcoming to worship a natural part of our services. This space and this time needs to be a place and time when all of our conflicts and biases and preoccupations are set aside so we can be with each other in a spirit of love and acceptance of each other as siblings in Christ’s family. In this way we make our hope for the promised world real and a source of strength for living persistently in all parts of our lives with that hope.
November is stewardship month for many churches, and usually stewardship equals giving money and time to the church. Stewardship is much more than that. For me, the foundation of personal stewardship is our relationship with ourselves and with what we have. For too many, that relationship is tainted by fear of not having enough and a lack of confidence in our continuing ability to provide for ourselves or by a hunger to find self-importance in wealth and possessions. The fear, lack of confidence, and hunger steal away our freedom, trapping us in our relationship with what we own or control. The decision to give away some of what we have is a choice to exercise our freedom.
Another part of our relationship with ourselves is our sense of connection to the world, to the Holy Mystery, and to others. Worship can and should help us with that sense of connection, whether we worship in person or online. But we need to make time for other ways of building connection as well. Possibilities include study groups, reading, volunteering, prayer, meditation, along with other ways of connecting to the world, to others, and to the Holy Mystery.
From working on our relationships, stewardship includes being aware of how we are and live affects others and the world and how our choices impact our lives and possibilities. Learning, exercising, healthy eating, mental exercise, sleeping, and laughter have parts in exercising stewardship that helps us live better.
Stewardship as a congregation requires communication that helps everyone feel connected and well informed as well as able to make a difference in the choices and actions of the congregation. It includes knowing about the situation of the congregation and clarifying the values, hopes, and goals of the congregation. It replaces wishful thinking with hope founded on action, on living as though the kingdom of heaven is here now. Stewardship needs a sense of direction for the congregation and a beacon to stay on course.
Persistent hope needs daily exercise and nourishment so it can cope with the potholes and bumps in the road that can threaten to defeat our journey.
I invite you to believe that the presence of the Holy Mystery is with us always in that journey. Often that presence is with us through the people in our lives. Sometimes we feel it in good surprises and quiet moments.
We are not alone, We live in God’s world, Thanks be to God.
Oh well, if I ever switch from Honda to Toyota, I won't have to go far to do test drives.
