"There is Room For All"

Does anyone know the difference between a parable and a fable?  They are both forms of storytelling to illustrate a moral truth. Jesus taught mostly in parables, other religions or spiritual teachers use great fables in their illistrations.  Parables use people in their stories and fables use plants, animals or things to as their form of illustration. 

July 29 2018 Readings:    John 10: 7-16   Romans 14:9-12 

This morning I want to offer you a short fable that I was told while visiting friends in Kingston Jamaica in the late 1980’s.   A minister friend I got to know from the United
Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands needed to go visit her herbalist for some medication and I was invited to come along.  Rev. Yvette told me he was also a very wise local Yogi who lived in the foot hills surrounding the city of Kingston.  He was a medical practitioner who uses the natural elements of plants and herbs, as alternative medicine to help fight disease or to relieve a medical condition.  I was also told at the time that this particular Yogi was also a spiritual master and I would find him very interesting.   After meeting him, I was prompted to ask him a spiritual question.  So, I asked, “how do you understand all the different religions in our world?   The gentleman went quiet for a moment and then he said this to me. 

There was a time before the written word, when God spoke through creation itself.  Even if you had never learned to read, Nature if we look closely can reveal to us everything we need to know.  For Nature was and still is for me he said, the first holy book.   Let me offer you this fable.   Every country and contentment on this planet has a main river source that we might call the countries main artery.    In Canada you have the St. Lawrence River system, in England you have the Thames, in Germany the Rhine, in India the Ganges, in China you have the Yangtze, in Africa the Zambezi, and so on and so on.   All rivers, each with their own unique and distinct water flows and offers a rich resource to its country.  All the rivers and streams of this world have something in common and it is where they eventually will all join together and that of course is in the ocean.  If you were to go out into the center of the ocean and scoop me a pail of water, could you tell me which part came from the St. Lawrence, the Thames, the Rhyne, or the Yangtze?  I see the same for all the great religions of our world, said the Yogi, eventually we were all meant to come together in the shelter of God’s compassionate love for one another.

I truly believe that this was one of the most important moments in the cultivation of my theological perspective and my openness to the wisdom teachings of the other religions in our world.   I have often over the years reflected on this wisdom story and others looking for the depth of their true meaning as I attempt to follow in the ways of Jesus.   It was also the spark that lead me to discover that others spiritual writings, Aboriginal, Buddhist, Islam, Zen, etc. contained within their words traces of the teachings of Jesus.  The passage we heard from John 10: 16 speaks to this wisdom.  {KJV} 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.  They may at times use different language and parables or fables to describe the way of Holiness but they in themselves no longer threaten my faith as a Christian.  In fact it actually has reinforced and deepened my root in the resurrected Christ.   Let us keep in mind that all religions are man created and that includes Christianity.  Unfortunately all man made religions have been used at times to promote hatred, violence, and to justify the killing of the innocent.  Even today there are groups of Christians who feel there is justification for killing others and is reinforced by their interpretation of our scripture.      

I believe as did the Apostol Paul and was stated in the passage from John by Jesus himself that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that the Christ, which was with God in the beginning Genesis 1: 26 and is Lord of all.  In fact one of the most important themes throughout the New Testament is that the day is coming when we shall all be one affirming and inclusive people with one as our God head.  

I leave this fable with you for contemplation during my holiday time away. Looking forward to sharing with you once again upon my return at the end of Sept.   

"A prophet In Our Time"

Father Richard Rohr shares his prophetic voice!! 

Hope and Humility
Wednesday, July 18, 2018

At a time when our politics may seem bleak and hopeless, poet, peacemaker, minister, and scholar John Philip Newell offers us both encouragement and challenge:

We live in a moment of grace. Through the hedges of our divisions we are beginning to glimpse again the beauty of life’s oneness. We are beginning to hear, in a way that humanity has never heard before, the essential harmony that lies at the heart of the universe. And we are beginning to understand, amidst the horror and suffering of our divisions, that we will be well to the extent that we move back into relationship with one another, whether as individuals and families or as nations and species. . . .

[Newell reminds us of the Holocaust and how Germany, under Hitler’s command, murdered millions of Jews in Poland.] The German nation was not alone in this. Some of our worst inhumanities as nations, including Britain and America, have been perpetrated on foreign soil and kept at a distance, as if to hide from our own soul the sacrilege of what we are doing. . . . Something in our collective psyche has pretended that the families of another land are not as sacred as the sons and daughters of our own. . . .

Think of the hubris of our lives. Think of our individual arrogance, the way we pursue our own well-being at the neglect and even expense of [others]. . . . Think of the hubris of our nationhood, pretending that we could look after the safety of our homeland by ignoring and even violating the sovereignty of other lands. Think of the hubris of our religion, raising ourselves up over other wisdom traditions and even trying to force our ways on them. Think of the hubris of the human species, pretending that we could look after our own health while exploiting and endangering the life of other species. . . .

[This] is opposite to the way of Jesus, who taught the strength of humility, of being close to the humus, close to the Ground from which we and all things come. The humblest, says Jesus, are “the greatest” (Matthew 18:4). Not that following Jesus’ path of humility is straightforward. Constantly there is tension—the tension of discerning how to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, how to honor the heart of another nation as we honor our own homeland, how to revere the truths of another wisdom tradition as we cherish our own inheritance, how to protect the life of other species as we guard the sanctity of our own life-form. Jesus knew such tension. He was tempted to use his wisdom and his power of presence to serve himself, to lift himself up over others. But to the tempter, he says, “Away with you, Satan!” (Matthew 4:10). Away with the falseness of believing that I can love myself and demean others.

"All are Worthy of LOVE "

                    When did you first learn about or experience acceptance and love?  

July 15, 2018    1 John 4: 7-14         John 14: 21-24                     

The love of Christ is the central element of Christian belief and its theology, but may I suggest that “This Love” cannot be considered exclusive to Christianity.   The love of Christ refers both to the love Jesus has for all people regardless of their sexual orientation, race, color or religion, and the love Christians hold in their hearts for Jesus who embodied the resurrected Christ.  Read about it in 1 John 4: 19.  This love only exists because from the very beginning God in Christ first loved us.   When we hear about this radical extraordinary non discriminating love, we may begin to feel poorly that our love for Christ is somehow inadequate.  Could it be that a lack of accepting his love for us often makes us feel inferior, jealous or unworthy?  The only love our human nature knows is conditional love.  We feel it, measure it, and we share it but we a sense its elusiveness, flipped one minute you have it the next minute its gone, why doesn’t it last?  What is missing here?   Let us try and look at Gods love as an all-encompassing circle dance, what goes around comes around.  To make it complete we must be able to truly feel, see and measure the love that first came to us because it was God who first loved us.  God send out a love that was cosmic in proportion.  This love is so radical most cannot comprehend it because it is totally free of the law and is without conditions.  It does not discriminate and it cannot be earned.  Human logic cannot comprehend it.  The difficulty that occurs is that if I have not accepted and taken in this radical love into my own life,  how then can I mirror for others to see.  I cannot show you something I personally do not know or have for myself.  In fact the only love many of us can share or mirror is our human love that is a one way love. You know the kind of love I mean, it is love with conditions and often the conditions are unspoken.    Often there is a blockage, and it usually is this:  I do not believe that all Gods children are worthy of this radical love.  The moment I exclude someone I make that belief part of my reality.  This thinking is contrary to Jesus’ love for us.  Many of us side with the eldest son in the prodigal story.  This wayward son was not worthy nor did nothing to deserve the Fathers love.   but what he believed brought jealousy, and anger to his reality.    

  

The theme of God’s love is the key element within the Gospel of John.  In his Gospel, John uses the metaphor of the Good Shepherd to symbolize the sacrifice of Jesus based on His love and obedience to his Fathers will.  John tells us that we are to show our love for Christ by following in his teachings.  John 14:23: Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.   And in 1 John 4: 19 we hear:  "We love, because He first loved us", here John expresses a mirroring of Christ's own love.  Towards the end of the Last Supper, Jesus gives his disciples this commandment: "Love one another, as I have loved you ... John 15: 12.

How can we do that if we do not believe He Loves us without conditions?  Jesus goes on to say in John 13: 35.   "By this shall all men { and my I add women} know that you are my disciples”.  The most often missed point here is that these Disciples of Christ are not bound by any known religious affiliation at that time.   They were referred to as “People of the Way” The words Christian or Christianity did not yet exist.     Does that surprise you? If that were the case then, why should it not be the same today?  We do not profess Christianity as Lord, we profess Christ as Lord of "ALL", or at least some of us do.  

The love of Christ is also expressed in the Letters of Paul.  The basic theme of Ephesians is that of God the Father initiating the work of salvation through Christ.  Jesus willingly sacrifices himself based on this radical love and obedience to His Father will.  And some think it was our sin that nailed him to the cross.   Have you ever considered that it was Love that kept him on the cross, not the nails in his hands and feet? 

Ephesians 3:17-19 tells that one of the necessities of knowing the love of Christ, is to follow his teachings, which again are not bound by religious affiliation, because His love teachings are universal and can be found hidden within the writings of many religions around the world.  In order to know His Love for us we must seek Him personally, to understand and to contemplate on his wisdom and knowledge.  Religious doctrine and dogma is not his way folks, that way has only divides us and create exclusive religious groups and denomination.   

Many prominent Christian figures have expounded on the love of Christ. Saint Augustine wrote that "the common love of truth unites people, the common love of Christ unites all who follow His way".   Saint Benedict instructed his monks to "prefer nothing to the love of Christ".   Saint Thomas Aquinas stated that although both Christ and God had the power to restrain those who killed Christ on Calvary, neither did, and it was due to a form of perfect love, the love of Christ.   We today might call this perfect love, love without conditions.  Saint Teresa of Avila considered perfect love to be love that imitated the love of Christ.    

May we as Christians begin to be more diligent in reflecting THE LOVE OF CHRIST within our lives never forgetting that Christs’ love is for everyone, Christian and Non-Christian alike.  

"What Is Your Image Of God"

July 8, 2018  Galatians 3: 23-28, John 4:23-26

John Calvin, writes in his book “Institutes of the Christian Religion Book I, and I quote “For though the divine glory is displayed in man’s outward appearance, it cannot be doubted that the proper image of God can only be found in Spirit.”   In Calvin’s eyes we were created man and women, yet God is Spirit and we are all one in Spirit with God.  In Galatians 3:28  We hear the Apostle Paul stating:  “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  We are of one mind, body and one spirit.” When discussing man being made in the image and likeness of God we need to understand: Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. 

May I suggest we need to comprehend just how important a good understanding of this truth is.   We were made equally both male and female, and we were made to be like God.   Equality here does not mean that our bodies would be equal in proportion, nor does it mean that our physical strength would be equal for we were all made to be unique, each with special gifts and qualities.   May I suggest that it means that all aspects of our spirit are the same and they are equal in every way.  This may disturb some but our human orientation {sexuality, race, or color} has no place in this equality.  There is no male or female when we are one in spirit with God in Christ.   Do you know the lyrics to “We Are One In The Spirit”  check them out. 

In order to be like God and in the image of God, we would need to have within our human physical bodies something of God.  That something is our spirit, something that is equal in all aspects of equality and it is only that which is eternal.  I believe that this is what the writer meant when he says we are made in the image and likeness of God.  Unfortunately the continual use of a male reference within the scriptures made it far to easy for men to discount the female as somehow inferior.  The use of the Parental name Father was never meant for that purpose either.  The male reference of God in the scriptures has been a problem over the centuries and continues to be in many modern day religions perspectives.  Sorry gentlemen but God is not a man.  Sorry ladies but God is not a woman either.   Therefore God being neither male nor female but SPIRIT, God then can represent for us an all-encompassing parent, from whom we have inherited the creators parenting attributes, which include love, forgiveness, humility, compassion, peace, joy, justice and hope.  All these inherit attributes are in need of cultivation.  That is why we were given “the word” both in print and in the flesh.   Study of the word and putting its teachings into action develops a reverence for God that inflames our gratitude.

Gratitude becomes the soil which cultivates faith.  We were made human, but with a Spirit in likeness and in the image of God’s all-encompassing love.   God’s unconditional love is why I believe God will never for sake or leave you.  God loves us so much that God gave us the nature of the spirit, which is the God given factor within you.  It is our spiritual nature that finds it kinship in the Son.  Jesus said you in me, and I in the Father make us united as one. 1 Corinthians 6:17    A good question that could be asked here is: If we are all one in spirit then who is your spirits neighbor?  Why it is your humanness, your human nature and your physical body.  Your spirit wants you to love and respect it just as the Spirit loves itself "which is the God in you."   Without the Spirits attribute of humility, you would not have the power or the strength to love your human nature and your physical self without falling prey to the worldly ways of the EGO.  

Jesus said in John 4:24  “God is Spirit”.   Throughout the Old Testament, the Spirit of God repeatedly appears, beginning in Genesis 1:2  and let us be clear it does not say he or she hovered over the waters, it states The "Spirit" of God hovered over the waters.  

The Spirit is that which gave us life and when ignited in ordinary people, it anoints them to act as God’s voice, to speak out for injustice among the poor and marginalized.  To act as God’s hands as we serve one another with love and compassion and to act as God’s feet as we spread his attributes all over our world.   We can hear this in 2 Samuel 23:2 and I quote “ The spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue”.  Through God’s Spirit, the way is shown to us, the plans, purposes and desires of God are revealed to us, then through us, to others.

When God created humankind by breathing Spirt into us, Genesis 2:7.   God set us apart 

as unique among all creation. At conception we were given life, but our roadmap was not 

yet made clear to us.  

Ecclesiastes 11:5 states:  “Even now we do not know the path of the wind 

or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, often we cannot understand 

the works of God, the maker of all things.”   We are given a physical body, it comes with 

the gift of life and yet it cannot be the image of God, for it returns to the dust from which it 

was formed.  Yet we were created in Spirit and it is that which lives forever and returns 

home to its source.  Conformation of this truth is found in Ecclesiastes: 7  “and the dust 

returns to the ground it come from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it”   We 

are spiritual beings temporally housed in an earthly body and we were given an eternal 

spirit that will never die, only to return to its creator.   Thanks be to God

"Is Fear the Enemy?"

Is the word Fear the Enemy?  Is there a difference between fear in general, as to fear God? 
Ever wonder how many times the word fear shows up in the bible?  I am told that in the King James, over 500 times.  Yet the words "fear not" show up 366 times. One for ever day of the year including a leap year.  

Psalm 46:

Dr. David Banks a well know professor and lecture on philology was preparing to speak to an auditorium filled with 5000 women.  He was standing running over his notes for the lecture when a lady approached him and said “Dr. Banks you must be nervous about speaking”,   “Oh no” said the professor “I do this all the time.”  She then said “why then are you standing here in ladies washroom”. 

Fear has always been one of the controlling factors in the lives of people since the beginning of time.  In personal conversations, discussions around the coffee table, I hear more and more people talking about the fear of disease, fear of the weather, fear for our community, and people’s lively hood.  There is great fear for the children of today and of the next generation.  We have become a society that is exposed to everything, even if we don’t want to know, hear or see it, often we live in a society of information over load.   A song comes to mind: 

“Devil’s On The Rise” got you in his eyes, gonna keep you moving to the tune of his delusions with his selfish ways, thankless praise, searching for your soul in the night.  

“Devil’s On The Rise”hidden in disguised he could be a man or she could be a women with their smooth tongue talk watch the way they walk, searching for your soul in the night.  

Tell a little lie, tell a little lie , won't you tell a little, tell a little lie for me. 

Many of us struggle for control over our personal safety, over health conditions, personal finances and self-determination in the latter years of life.   Many of our elderly folk wonder who will make decisions for them as they get closer and closer to their last days on earth? 

Does any of this sound familiar to you?  There are even peoples and societies among us, who would like to take control of creation itself.   For me it echoes the curiosity and wants of our ancestors, Adam and Eve.  Wasn’t that what got us in trouble in the first place, their thrust to feed on the fruit from the tree of knowledge against God’s request?  And So!! What was the result, what did we get?   They, as well as we, have found out what happens when we don’t trust and put God first in our lives.  Reverencing God is healthy fear.   A lesson we apparently still need to learn that without God at the helm, we turn to worldly forms of security that feed on our fears.   Out in the real world Adam and Eve discovered the fear that breeds discontentment and the feeling of never having enough.   We often look for our security in other people, in a job or career, in accumulating things, savings, investments, property and so on.   The root of this fear can be found in the commandment not to covet, which means the desire of forbidden things. Exodus 20: 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's."  How is Coveting fueled in today’s society,  we need not look any further than advertising, the newspaper, the TV programs, movies and talk shows. Watch enough of them and you will fall into line with their messages and begin to believe in their teachings. 

So then where do we turn?  Where can we find contentment and peace of mind?   As I mention before in previous sermons, God never abandons us, what happens is, just like our ancestors Adam and Eve we begin to be disobedient to God's will for us.   

 When their choice expelled them from the Garden of Eden, God didn’t remain in Eden either, God comes out to be with His Children, to dwell among us, not to condemn us, but to rescue us, to pick us up when we fall.  God intends to save that which was meant for holiness and to focus our attention away from the evil of this world.   God in Christ is with us and is our true source of love and security.   What did we hear the Psalmist say ” God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble.   Therefore we will not fear though the earth should quake and the mountains fall into the depths of the sea.”    A song comes to mind! 

When the night has come and the land is dark, and the only light we shall see,  No I won't be afraid, no I won't be afraid, just as long as you stand, stand by me.  

Even if the world as we know it were to come to its end, and the mountains were to fall into the sea, and it will folks it will, we must trust in the promise of salvation.  In the promises of God, which we Christians have found in CHRIST Jesus.  God with ingenious creativeness has made a way for us, It is the way of the Christ as taught by Jesus.  We are to learn from Him, all the while trusting and following in His ways.  God is our refuge even in the face of total destruction writes the Psalmist.  God is not merely a temporary retreat center.  In other words we can’t just only go to God in times of difficulties, God must be a constant presence in all that we say and do, in others words God must be in our hearts and on our minds.   Another song comes to mind:  "Oh let the Son of God enfold you, with his spirit and his love, let him fill your life and satisfy your soul.   Oh let him have the things that hold you and spirit like a dove will descend upon your life and make you whole.   Oh Jesus, Jesus, come and fill your lambs. Oh Jesus, Jesus come and fill your lambs. 

God does not renege on his gift of unconditional love.  But it is up to us to choose to love without conditions.  Even if we resist and make some bad choices in life, God doesn’t abandon us but continues to offer us opportunities to surrender, grow and  change.   It is up to us, we must choose to surrender our ways for ways of Christ.   Another song that comes to mind is: “ I surrender All”   

All to Jesus I surrender, all to him I freely give.  I well ever love and trust him, in his presence daily live.  I surrender all, I surrender all:  All to Jesus I surrender, I surrender all. 

When insurmountable circumstances invades your life, when you feel fear and anxiety taking over and there seems to be no way out, call upon the Lord Jesus, and give it all to Him, for He truly is the one who can rescue you.    And the congregations sang “Amen”