" The Healing Power of Touch"

                                                                  I Love you Daddy

As a Child how many of us remember the feeling of being cuddled or hugged by someone special, a mom, a dad or grandparent?  What was so special about those moments?  Was that a different kind of hug than the hugs you get from adults today?  How so.?

June 21, 201:   2 Corinthians 8: 7-15, Psalm 130, Mark 5: 21-43

A business executive had become very depressed.  Things were not going well at work, he couldn’t seem to shake the depression off and was bringing his problems home with him every night.   Every evening he would eat his dinner in silence, shutting out his wife and five-year-old daughter.   Then he would go into the den and read the paper using the newspaper to wall his family out of his life.

After several nights of this, one evening his daughter took her little hand and pushed the newspaper down.   She then jumped into her father's lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him strongly. The father said abruptly, "Honey, you are hugging me to death!" "No, Daddy," the little girl said, "I'm hugging you to life!"  

 How about it!   Anyone here in need of being hugged back to life?  Sounds good to me.

Psychologists long speculated about how children, utterly cut off from a human love touch and  personal relationships might develop.  Their speculations were tragically confirmed in the 1980’s when the numerous orphanages of Communist Romania were opened to the world’s eyes after the fall of its dictatorship.  Maybe you remember seeing some of those startling images on the evening news reports or in a documentary by the BBC. Or the  CBC?  If not here is a link to refresh your memory, take a look after you finish the message. 
https://www.google.ca/search?q=Romanian+orphanages&sa=X&es_sm=93&biw=1242&bih=577&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=hrqNVbKHFYSy-AGVnIC4Bg&ved=0CCIQsAQ

The leadership had mandated bizarre social policies that had resulted in thousands of unwanted children, being left to themselves in these institutions, basically isolated from human love touch, and affection.  The results were more than tragic.   Many of them could not speak, nor could they relate to one another.  They were completely void of how to give or receive affection of any kind. 

Many people today who appear healthy on the outside are dying on the inside because of the same reasons.  There is a great void in their lives, a generally it comes from a lack of feeling loved and accepted by those around them.  Maybe your one of them.   Maybe you too were not shown a love that hugged you into life.  Maybe the love you understood was for others but not for you, or the love you got to know had standards to be met, or conditions that had to be fulfilled.   A love that said, “you’re only loveable if.”    Well for the many who were not hugged into life early on during their childhood, they too have a harder time relating to others, they too have a more difficult time giving and receiving affection, they too do not understand the love of self.     

This was the greatness of Jesus.  He took people from where they were, no standards or to do list, and by not rejecting or discriminating between them, He literally hugged them back to life with His unconditional love.   Jesus wants to do the same for you.  He stands at the door and knocks, will you let him in.  That is precisely what we see Jesus doing here in this dramatic passage in Mark 5: 21-43.   Jesus is loving needy and hurting people, loving them back to life.  This passage is a fascinating one because here we have two healing stories rolled into one and the people involved could not be more different.   On one hand, the family of Jairus represented the "upper crust" of society.   He was the ruler of the synagogue.  He was a man of substance, rich and powerful and religiously prominent.    In the synagogue, he called the shots.  He decided who would preach, what scripture would be read, and what hymns would be sung.   He represented the Elite of Society, especially the religious world, but this day Jairus was troubled.  His 12-year-old daughter was dying.   On the other hand, the haemorrhaging woman in the crowd was a social outcast who was suffering because God’s judgement was upon her they thought.  Because of her condition.   she was considered by the “upper crust”, the religious and elite as unclean and therefore not allowed to set foot in the synagogue.   In this magnificent passage, these two vastly different people, this out cast haemorrhaging woman and the upper-crust daughter of Jairus are loved back into life by Jesus.   He sees them both as daughters of the one Father, equal in all respects and in need of Jesus’ unconditional love.  Jesus demonstrates a non-judgemental love that loves you no matter what your condition, no matter who you are, because Jesus knows who's child they really are, and he knows who's child you are.   

Folks,   let's look closely together at the power of Jesus’ love and the amazing, incredible things his kind of love can accomplish when it is given or when it is received.    His Love has no strings attached, no hidden if, it is full of forgiveness and it is the only love that has the power to heal guilt and brokenness.    Love and forgiveness that has 
standards, or conditions attached to it, no matter how cleverly disguised or packaged it may appear,  can only make you feel good for a short period of time and is not forever.  In fact 
we all learn early in our childhood how to test for conditional love, whether given or received.   It’s an elusive love that keeps changing and does not contain the power to overcome circumstances, heal disease or bind relationships in the way God intended.   That is precisely why we need to receive Jesus' love.

So where does Unconditional love and forgiveness begin?  It must begin at home, within yourself.   You have heard it before you can’t give away something that you do possess for yourself.  Like all good teachings, we must learn to do it for ourselves first, then we can offer it to others.  It only makes good sense and it is the only way to maintain the freedom you require to love others in the same way.    Love offered to others without any strings attached has the power to reconcile our differences, disqualify that which sends us into battle, and can save us from negative self-abuse.    Unconditional love keeps no record of wrongs offering full forgiveness.   This is the love of Jesus, and it is offered to all of us. This is the love that has the power to redeem us from a life of sadness, sickness, and negative darkness, into a new life, a life of joy peace contentment happiness and positive though.   This love offered by Jesus doesn’t bend to worldly standards of good versus evil either, nor does his love decimate because of your race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or the circumstances within your life.   Jesus wants to love all people back to life, yes even the worse scoundrel on the planet by our standards, no one is excluded from His love because Jesus knows we are all God's children.   Jesus is knocking on your door, are you ready, and are you willing?  Let us pray.   

No Way Jesus "The Church Belongs to Us"

For those of us who grew up in a family Church as a child who’s church did you think you were attending?  If as an adult that view changed, when did it happen? 

June 21 2015  Psalm 133 and 2 Corinthians 6: 1-13

In the reading from Corinthians this morning, Paul seems to have run into a brick wall with the Corinthian Church here.  While the early Christian church didn’t struggle with issues like a leaky roof, or a bell tower in need of repairs, the color of new rug, paint, stain glass windows or the uncomfortable wooden pews of yesteryear; if we look back we would see that they appeared to have been bickered over everything else.   I find this letter this morning challenging because it sound as those Paul wrote it to the modern day church.  The church today seems lost, bickering over who is acceptable in our pew, or in the pulpit.  We struggle over issues around financing, buildings, and physical assets, often our volunteer hard work ends up just keeping the doors open.   Many people would rather be in a church building where they grew up than a neighbouring one.   Unity and concern for one another no matter where we worship, with the Gospel of Christ as the central focus, seems almost out of reach for many church communities.  If we do not deal with the challenges we now face within our denomination today, many more church communities will simply cease to exist.    

On this special day of the year when we celebrate the meaning of fatherhood, let us remember that we are not just celebrating our human parent, but we are also celebrating our heavenly parent, the entity we call God.  For the believers, it was God who created us and it is God who is our true parent both father and mother creator of us all.  Therefore we recognize and come together as one united by Christ with our heavenly parent God as the head of the family.   Unless we begin to break down the denominational barriers and come together as one, which is the will of God, we will remain splintered, separated by buildings, ethnic groups, race, sexual orientation, and often religion itself. 

A Jesuit Priest by the name of Gerald Hughes tells a modern day parable that goes something like this:    A local middle class family in a suburban community decided to ask a man named Jesus to come into their home for a party.  Upon arrival Jesus looks over the food, the guests and the facilities of the home and decides after the party to accept their invitation to stay for a while.  In fact Jesus moved right in!  The next day Jesus goes out into the community and in finding a homeless person, invites him to come back to the house for a meal. Before long Jesus has an entourage of prostitutes, orphans, street people and the poor following him back to the house.  The family and the neighbourhood are beginning to get annoyed and worried about their security, their food supply, and besides the property values on the street are going down.  What should they do?  The family decides one evening when Jesus is asleep to brick up the door to his bedroom.  Then they placed a small table in front of the bricked door with velvet red cloth, place a bible and a bronze based cross in the middle.  The family made a commitment that every morning as they passed by, they would stop for a moment of prayer and reflection.

I believe that most of the Christian churches in the western world who have fallen into the trap of setting aside Jesus for a time or have taken their emphasis off fulfilling the mandate of the gospel, are looking at the possibility of extinction.  If bricks and mortar, emptying pews, old unusable buildings, icons, and struggling finances are taking up all our time and all of our energies, who then has the time to do the work of Christ in the community.  Will we too will find ourselves among the living dead.

The Priest, Gerald Hughes was faced with a church that didn't really want to work together to accomplish what Jesus had placed before them.  Is this not a problem we are facing with many a pastoral charge today.  Not only within the United Church but many of the main line denominations face the same reality.  My self-imposed question here might be this:  Is this the scenario within my own church and denomination today? 

Do you know why vicious fights break out among good church people, I believe it is because the stakes are too low.  Could it be that we are often focused on self-righteous works or maybe we are not risking enough for Christ that really matters?   Many of us are still too busy trying so hard to maintain the status quo than addressing the real issues of the gospel; our fight again injustice, inequality, poverty, corporate carelessness and greed within the church and big business gets set aside.  It is so easy for us to mistakenly EASE GOD OUT so we can get on with the work we feel is important and want to accomplish.  This in itself has the makings for disaster.  

Our scriptures tell us that nothing is impossible with God at the helm but may I suggest to you that nothing of real value can be accomplished when we go it alone.  The one things that can save us is the very thing we keep avoiding to recognize that the Church doesn't belong to us.  It was built and made from the things God gave to us so then it belongs to God and it was meant to serve God not us, nor were we to take it over as our own.  We were only meant to be Stewards of the physical parts, the assets and they are to be used for the glory of God. 

So then my fellow Christian brothers and sisters we are at a crossroads are we not?   God is willing so we too must be willing to discern where we are and where we are going.  This is our opportunity to begin again so we can do the work Christ is calling us to do.   Let us pray.  

What exactly is Church!!   take a listen 

"Can The Soul Die?"

Can you tell me an instance in your life when you were really afraid? 

Can you articulate and share where the root of your fear lay?

June 14 2015:   2 Corinthians 6: 1-13       Psalm 9     Mark 4: 35-41

One of the greatest fears we humans face is, the sting of death and what this mysterious phenomena might bring to us.   

Three gentlemen were asked:  what words would you like to hear as family and friends stand overlooking you in your casket.  The first man said it would be nice to hear that he was a good father, provider and gave my family encouragement to life to the fullest. The next man said he would like to be remembered as a good person, faithful to family and a church, with a passion for mission.  The third gentlemen said “what I would like to hear they say is: He moved!!”

In the course of our lives, there are many things that arise that cause us fear.   We might coin them to be the storms of life and they can threaten to overwhelm us at times.   

For each of us the storms of life are different, the things we fear - vary from person to person, as does the intensity of our fear.  I know people who are afraid to drive in city traffic, afraid of the dark, or get on a plane.  There are those who dread speaking in public, and still others who are terrified by the thought that they might get a terminal or debilitating disease.   Some people fear being left alone - others worry and fret about becoming unemployed, or having to face an abusive spouse, still others must fight against the giants of addiction or face the governmental indifference or corporate cruelty.  Listen to in song to these words found in Isaiah 43:1-2  

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name, you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you."    Blessed be our God, day by day.   Amen.

There are many dangers out in the world - and we do right to fear them.  Fear was meant to be a positive natural reaction - a God given gift to make us alert to those things that threaten our lives, so we can make better, more positive choices.   It was not given to imprison us but was meant to put us on alert, but fear on its own can turn negative and inward.  It can become an obsession if you indulged in it regularly and can literally lead you to paralysis.    Fear can actually become the enemy and prevent us from dealing with what threatens us; and it can – in the end - permit the very thing we fear to destroy us.   Not just our bodies, and our minds which will pass away in any case - but can imprison and destroy the soul. 
My theological perspective tells me that those who dwell in negative fear as a means of 

maintaining part of their identity, do a number on themselves and their soul.    
Can the soul really die?  What does scripture say about that.  Matthew 10: 28 tells us not to be afraid of those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather, we need to be alert to the fact that there is one who can destroy both soul and body, this is healthy fear. 

I think what most of us really fear is meeting forces that are greater than we are.   I also believe that this is a distorted view of faith.  If we truly believe this, we literally edge God out of the picture, leaving us alone and dumbfounded, unable to do anything about these negative forces.

That was the situation that overwhelmed the disciples in the reading from Mark this 
 morning.   The disciples, when they faced the wind and the waves felt powerless - they felt unable to help themselves - unable to overcome the danger around them.

We fear what we do not know.  We fear what we cannot control.  Strange as it may sound to some of us, a major truth in life is this - we really do not have any control over what will happen from one minute to the next.   Therefore we must surrender in faith the storms of our lives over to the One who can.  There is an old saying and I think it comes to us via the 12 step programs.   “Let go and Let God”  In other words we need to heed the words of Jesus here and surrender our fear not fight it.   Jesus teaches us, come all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.  We need to surrender anything that is confusing us, controlling us, or holds us hostage, because fear keeps us imprisoned. 

Now I ask you folks, think about this for a moment, you only have two choices here, surrender it in FAITH, Let it Go and LET God, or continue to ride the storm out with FEAR at the helm.   
I find that to be a liberating truth - a truth that is worth of embracing - because that truth leads me back to the source of my life, God: and because of his love - the source of my hope - the source of my strength.  Here and only here will I find the courage I need to carry on. 

We must always remember, noting is impossible with God at the helm.  There is no power that can overcome you while God is on your side, not even death itself Jesus shows us.   Yay through I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.    Listen to these words:  “Forever”

   

Holy Communion "Myth Or A Reality"

How many of us reading grew up in families where eating regular meals together was a household practice?   What do you remember from those times?  

June 7 2015   Psalm 138  Luke 22: 14-20

That ideal of eating runs deep in our culture but when the experts talk about the value of family dinners, they sometimes fail to express the reality of the modern family.   Many families may eat together but it does not mean we eat right:   Today we have the Big Mack attack, the so called hormone free healthy hamburger at A&W, Tim’s processed meats sandwiches and of course the Tim bits.  Did you know that  Domino's alone delivers about a million pizzas on an average day.  Just because we are sitting together doesn't mean we have anything to say either, children bicker and fidget and daydream; as do we adults who may be stewing over the remains of the day.   Often the richest conversations, the moments of genuine intimacy, take place somewhere else.  It could be while taking a drive in the car or on the way back from a sporting event with the kids.  Other times it is in the quiet moments of an evening when hand or eye contact allow secrets to be shared.

Yet for all that, there is something about a shared meal.   At home with family or together in a worship setting with Church family.  Much like the fellowship time we had last night after our musical event, wasn't that great, music fellowship and food I mean. 

What I am not talking about is some holiday blow-out or blow up as many of them turn into. You know the kind I am talking about, they happen once or twice a year.  No, what I am speaking about is the regular meals that anchors us as a  family, even on nights when the food is fast and the talk seems cheap and everyone has some other place they want to be.  There’s something special about gathering over food and refreshments. 

Christians for centuries have recognize the power that eating together holds.  The gospel of Luke records over 100 occasions alone.  For Christians, sharing food is crucial because in the sharing of food, we are actually shaping our communities.  Perhaps the most universal and sacred ritual of our faith is Holy Communion.  The name itself implies uniting, coming together, in a kind of oneness.   The unity of the shared meal, was so important to the early church that in their worship, they included a version of Jesus last Passover meal with his disciples. The early church didn't call it the sacrament of Holy Communion but practiced a ritual called the Love Feast or the Agape meal; and there are some denominations that continue this ritual today.  In Congregational fellowship meals, small group dinners or a weekly event with neighbours, the practice of eating together is of major importance to the life of any family or community.  These informal times are certainly important to our shared faith.  Relationships flourish and communities are strengthened just as much during spontaneous pot luck meals as they are during the liturgical ones, such as when we feast on the word during worship.    

Of the four gospels, John’s Gospel is the only one who omits the upper room account of the Lord's Supper.   But only John includes this teaching:  Jesus as the Bread of Life  found in (John 6:25-71).   When John wrote it, I believe he knew that his readers would understand it in light of the Lord's Supper – especially these words from verses 53 to 57.  Take a moment to really digest what John is saying here.  

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me."

This is an important passage to meditate on and understand, since it sheds the truth and real meaning of the Lord's Supper.   Whether you believe this passage literally, that the bread and wine become that actual body and blood of Jesus, as do some of our Christian sisters and brothers ,or understand it as a metaphor; either way, with its acceptance, we do become one with Jesus.  

In modern terms we might think about it as if by taking in the blessed food and drink we take into our bodies the DNA of the Christ, therefore, because Jesus is one with the Father, we also become one with Father and Son.   
Jesus prays this prayer not just for the disciples whom he will be sending out on His behalf but for all those who hear and accept the message.       Jesus Prays for All Believers John 17: 20-21 {NIV} My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.   May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  

Take a quiet moment to meditate on this message and then offer in silence, your prayer of thanksgiving as you listen to Joan Baez sing:  "Let us Break Bread Together" 

"Is The Christ Jesus' Spirit"

Where have you recently seen the Spirit of Christ at work in your community?

Have you ever felt the Spirit of Christ that is in you longing to come to the forefront of your life, when?

Sunday May 28^th 2006

Readings:  Acts1: 15-17, 21-26 Psalm 1 VU pg 724,   1 John 5: 9-13,  John 17: 6-19

According to the Christian Gospels, God clearly declares that Jesus is the chosen one, the anointed, God’s beloved Son.  Jesus comes out of the waters of baptism, only to be set afire as the spirit comes upon him and God declares “This is my Son whom I love, with him I am well pleased” Matthew 3: 16-17.  Then again at his transfiguration Matthew 17:5 in a voice from the heavens God declares once again listen to his Son, take His words to heart and follow Him.   You see as the scripture passage from 1 John tell us it is God who declares Jesus and gives him authority over all things.  It is God who gives Jesus the power to save humanity from itself through the act of salvation.  Jesus entire existence and ministry is only confirming what God has done for us though him, as God declares Him to be the Son of mankind.  According to the scripture passage this morning anyone who believes in God has his testimony in his or her heart.  Let us consider this statement then:  As Christians not to believe in God’s Son makes the God of our scriptures out to be a liar.   God also is the one who promises us life eternal, and this life according to the promise can only be found in the Jesus, The Christ.  Some preachers and teachers of the scriptures might point to eternal life as a life to come at another time and in another place.  Well I believe them to be mistaken.  I believe that God is talking about a life that begins right here and right now with Jesus.  You don’t have to wait until your dead to enjoy the first fruits of the eternal spirit which lay within.  The first step is the acceptance of the one given the authority to save souls and take you into the future and it begins right here right now.  Jesus is not just a mystical figure, a figment of some writer’s imagination, Jesus is a real person human yet eternal and Jesus is just as alive today as he was before his crucifixion and resurrection.  He is alive in Spirit, and comes to us in the spirit of the Christ.  When you take Christ into your heart the Spirit comforts you, consoles you and heals you.  The Sprit listens to you and is speaking to God on your behalf right at this very moment.  Do you have trials and tribulations in your life, are you sick, depressed, unemployed, are you in need of someone to love you unconditionally, Jesus does.   Believe, pray and ask for whatever you need, ask it in his name, and Jesus will act on your behalf.  Now, that just might mean that you don’t get what you want.  Remember that wants and needs are not the same folks.  Sometimes we want that bigger piece of pie or we want our cake so we can eat it too.  Now the person that is praying for the pie or cake isn’t going to be too happy especially if God fulfills your prayer with a diet plan.

Where can you find the risen Christ actively at work today?  Well you can find the spirit of Jesus, The Christ, with the rich, the proud, the religious and the powerful people of our world but it is often very difficult to see the Christ in them because humility and there need for God is minimal.  More obvious is the spirit of Jesus can be seen nearby revealing their folly as they try to detach or distance themselves from the poor, the marginalized or the oppressed peoples of their world?  If however we were to take the risen Christ into hearts, making us aware that we are spiritually poor and in need of our Creator who has provided and is providing for us, the spirit of Christ will become visible in our acts of generosity, compassion and social justice issues in our world.  It is the Christ within that becomes the crusader for inequality, the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed.  The Christ within becomes a healer for the sick, at path for the lost, and a comfort to the dying.  We become aware that it is not me but the spirit of Christ in me that is the advocate.

Where poverty, injustice and oppression prevail Christianity has the opportunity for revival because this is where you will find the Christ centered spiritually poor at work.  There, among the inequality, the physically poor and oppressed, this is where you will find the spirit of Christ working at its best.  Christ is much harder to find among the rich and powerful and affluent neighbor hoods of any country.  Could this be the main reason why the pews of the Christian Church in Canada, the United States and Europe are emptier than you once were?  Could it possibility be that much of the social justice and poverty work being done by some Christian groups does not include the power of the risen Christ?  It is possible that we think this work can be accomplished without the activation of the spirit that lay within.  That we can do this work on our own?

Where are you in your search for Jesus?  Have you found and claimed him for yourself.  From the Gospel of John this morning we find Jesus affirming in prayer to God the work of those who have found and accepted him, those who have accepted the message and have carried it, in his name, to others.  Let us take a moment today as we give thanks for the many people who have given of themselves, ignited the spirit or carried the message to us in any way. Those who have taught in our Sunday school, bible study, or have acted as lay leaders, those who have carried the message in acts of kindness to neighbors.   All those who have served with compassion for others in any way.  Those who have helped in the feeding of the poor and the oppressed, those who have fought for justice.  All have been carries of the way of Christ, let us give thanks this day for them.    Let us pray.