Author: Scott McAndless

https://youtu.be/EJnz31egwQU

Hespeler, 5 December 2021 © Scott McAndless – Advent 2
Malachi 3:1-4, Luke 1:68-79, Philippians 1:3-11, Luke 3:1-6 (click to read)

In my line of work, as you can imagine, I will often come into contact with people who are going through rough times – who, to use the phrase that we read together this morning from the Gospel of Luke, “sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.” Sometimes they tell me their stories or show me what they are going through in other ways. That is actually a great privilege, though it can be a hard one to bear. And often what they share with me is quite private and I honour their trust in me by keeping those things private.

So I won’t give you any examples of this with any identifying details, but I am going to tell you that I have observed something. There has been more of that over the last several months. More people have been sitting in darkness that is deeper and more impenetrable. And the shadow of death, it has grown larger, gloomier and more oppressive. I mean, that just something that we seem to be dealing with these days.

What Some are Struggling with

Every story is different, and the challenges are unique to every individual’s life, but let me tell you some of the things that I have seen in non-identifying ways. The social isolation of recent months has been hard for some to bear. They are just lonely, and everyone has found their own ways to deal with that. Some have quietly slipped into depression, and I know that some have essentially been self medicating. That might mean, for example, that they’ve been drinking more or using other prescription or non-prescription products. Others have managed to cope by developing other habits – indulgent eating, gambling or just about any other activity that might be distracting them from the pain that they feel.

And I want to be clear here, I do not believe that anybody should feel ashamed of doing what they need to do to get by during a difficult time. I’m not here to condemn anyone for the strategies that they may have used to do so. But this crisis has gone on longer than most others that we have faced which has meant that people have been coping for longer. And many have reached the point where their coping mechanisms are becoming destructive either to themselves or to the people that they love. And the problem is, once you enter into that kind of cycle, it can be very hard to escape.

Too Much Grief

Another thing that has been happening is that there has been an enormous amount of loss. People have died and more of them have died than we had become used to. Others have lost things that had deep meaning to them, the kinds of things that told them who they were and gave them a sense of meaning. People have lost jobs and businesses. They have seen people they love move away or they have lost them in other ways.

And, yes, grief and loss are, and always have been, an essential part of life. But something about this season has been particularly hard for some people to bear. The grief and loss have been piling up so quickly that some have not been able to process it. We have also often not been able to grieve our losses in the ways that we would have liked. And I suspect that all of this has meant that many people are carrying around something like a huge backpack filled with grief that they’re not quite sure what to do with. And it is like a great burden that some have been carrying so long that they’ve almost forgotten that it is weighing down their every step and every movement.

Other Issues

These are but some of the ways in which people have been sitting in the darkness. I’ve certainly known others who struggle with illness, either in themselves or in someone they love. And of course, there have also been enormous economic struggles as many families have had a hard time feeding their children and keeping them in clothes. What’s more, I suspect that many of us scarcely even grasp the enormity of the housing problems that have emerged as people have been simply priced out of shelter.

Alongside all that, often making it worse, we are dealing with a pandemic of misinformation. I know this is something that you have all encountered. Do you remember when conspiracy theories were just this amusing thing that some people got into. They would turn it into this little hobby where they liked to talk about the Kennedy assassination or whether or not Paul McCartney was really dead. It was harmless and amusing.

But we now find ourselves living in an age where conspiracy theories are dangerous and destructive. And I know that some of us can get very angry with people who become obsessed with anti-vax or anti-mask or with ridiculous political theories that are based on nothing. I understand this, of course, because a lot of this is having some very dangerous effects.

But I’ve got to say that I’m learning to feel a bit of compassion for the people who get caught up in this kind of thinking. I think they are living in a particular kind of darkness where they cannot trust institutions or political leaders or health officials. And often, when you talk to them, there are actually some good reasons for that mistrust. So, I would actually count the people who are caught up in such things among the victims of the darkness. And, honestly, that kind of makes it all even more frightening.

Zechariah Breaks his Silence

And on this day, the Second Sunday of Advent which is the Sunday of peace, I declare to you that we are being given a challenge that is absolutely tailored to this present moment. This morning we read the song of Zechariah the priest. Ever since the angel first came to him to announce that, against all expectations, he and his wife were going to have a son, he has been struck dumb. This is because he had asked for a sign that it would all come true, given that it was so impossible for him and his wife, Elizabeth, to have a child at such an advanced age. The sign given, or perhaps it was a punishment, was that he was rendered unable to speak.

But now, now that the child has been born and been given a name, Zechariah’s tongue has finally been loosed and he bursts forth in this amazing song. And in this alone there is a message for our time. All this time, Zechariah has silently held onto a word of promise. It is a promise for him and for Elizabeth, the fulfillment of a dream that they have long held close. For their own personal darkness has been their inability to have a child.

But clearly, during all that time of silence, Zechariah has had a chance to think.  And he has come to realize that what is good news for him and his wife, must be good news for more than just them. For what good is it if he and Elizabeth are freed from their darkness but others continue to sit in it? And so, Zechariah begins to speak a promise for all.

Breaking our Silence

And that is exactly where all of us need to be during this Advent season. There is a temptation in the Christian church today to think of the good news only in terms of what is good news to ourselves. People want to embrace the idea that God has saved them, has given them the hope of life beyond death and restored their own personal relationship with God. Christianity has largely become an individualistic religion within our individualistic society. How many Christians only think of it in terms of what is in it for them? But Zechariah has learned the folly of such thinking and the joy that he has found in the promises of God must burst forth from him and be shared with other people as well.

And so, during this difficult Advent season when many are sitting in the darkness, our tongues must be loosed as well. If the good news that we have heard about Jesus is for ourselves alone, then I am afraid that it is not truly good news. And I don’t mean to say by that that we need to go out and impose a gospel message onto others. This is not about pressuring anybody to listen to gospel stories or messages. And I certainly don’t think it means that we need to go out and condemn people for their sin or threaten them with hellfire. That is not what Zechariah does.

But, at the same time, silence is no longer an option in this troubled world. If you have found a reason to hope or even just a reason to hold on in difficult times, you have a responsibility to let others know, especially those who are sitting in darkness. And I believe that that is what Zechariah does.

God’s Commitment

He celebrates God’s commitment to be with the whole people of Israel and to save them during the darkest and most difficult times – a God who “has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” That is the God that we must remember and who can give comfort to these sitting in darkness. For it is a God who never forgets the ones who are lost or alone.

A Child of Hope

And then he finally arrives at his reflection on this child of his that has just been born. Any time a new child is born, it is a sign of hope. Because every new child has unlimited potential. Who knows what this child might go on to do? She might grow up to find a way to defeat a particularly pernicious kind of cancer. He might grow up to be the one to broker a lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. She might discover the technology that gives us near limitless green energy.

And so, Zechariah looks at his newly born, newly named child and declares his potential. “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways… By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

And of course, that is a prophecy particularly concerning John. He is the one who is to prepare the way for all that Jesus is going to accomplish. But it is also a statement about what has been put into motion by the coming of John and by the coming of Jesus. “The dawn from on high will break upon us,” is not merely a statement about what John is going to do. It is a statement about what God is doing at this moment in time for a world where many sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Following in John’s Path

And so, we also are the ones who are called to give light. That is why my challenge for you this Advent is simply to walk in the footsteps of John the Baptist and of Jesus. Just as they reached out to many who were sitting in darkness, that is your task this season. And, no, I’m not saying that it’s all on you individually. You are not going to drag all of the people out of the darkness and into the light. But my challenge to you is to find a way to do it for somebody this week.

What you can do

Do you know someone who is struggling with their finances? How could you practice generosity to them this week? I think that would cause the dawn to break for them. Do you know someone who is struggling with illness or disease? You don’t have to go to them with some magic word that is going to suddenly make them well. That’s not your job. But, maybe, you can just go to them. You can sit with them for a while in their struggles. You would be amazed at the difference it can make just to have a person with you when you are sitting in the darkness. And that person can be you this week.

Do you know someone who is caught up in destructive life patterns? Don’t think that you could go to them and tell them to straighten up and that’s going to fix them. It usually doesn’t work like that. But maybe you could go and listen to them and try and understand what it is that is causing them to behave in self-destructive ways. A little bit of understanding can go a long way in terms of bringing people light when they are sitting in the darkness.

And I’ll bet you know someone who’s been caught up in some ridiculous conspiracy theory. I know you’ve figured out by now that it really doesn’t help anything to argue with them about it. It never does. In fact, it will probably only make them more committed to their conspiracy. But do you know what they might need? They might need somebody who can help them see what it is they are really afraid of. They might need someone who is still actually willing to sit with them and just talk about other things.

Go to Those Who Sit in Darkness

I’m not saying that bringing light to those who sit in the darkness is easy. It’s one of the hardest things you ever could do. But, by God’s grace, you can do it. Sure, you don’t have it in you to fix everything that’s wrong in another person. Only God has that kind of power. But I think that John and Jesus discovered that when you are willing to go to people who are sitting in the darkness and love them as they are, you might just have the incredible privilege of being present when God does begin to allow the dawn to break for them.

https://youtu.be/yBWFoW8DB4Q

Hespeler, 28 November, 2021 © Scott McAndless – Advent 1
Jeremiah 33:14-16, Psalm 25:1-10, 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13, Luke 21:25-36

Over the past couple of years, a new word has entered into the common vocabulary. But more than that, it has entered into the common experience. That word is doomscrolling. The word is new enough that it doesn’t yet have an entry in the dictionary, but it is generally defined as “the act of spending an excessive amount of screen time devoted to the absorption of negative news.” (Wikipedia) It has become a common term because we seem to be living in times when it is so easy to pull out your phone and open up a news feed and jump from one extremely depressing piece of news to the next.

An Endless Diet of Bad News

You jump from a story on the latest Covid numbers to a story about police killing an indigenous woman. You jump from the latest dire prediction about global warming to a story of devastating flooding on the West Coast. You jump from a story of the latest protest in Wisconsin to pictures of men giving Nazi salutes and shouting “Jews will not replace us.”

It has become all too easy to get locked into an endless loop of bad news and I think that many of us have found ourselves in exactly that loop too often over the last couple of years. And even as we approach the festive season, it doesn’t seem to be letting up as news feeds are dominated by reports of how supply chain issues are going to spoil everyone’s Christmas, that is if we even have Christmas what with all the Covid fears. In fact, that all seems to be ramping up with all the anxiety over a new variant.

Not All the Media’s Fault

I know that some will blame the media for all of this – saying that they should show us more good news than bad. There is something to that, of course. It is true that the media has been privileging the news that stirs the most negative emotions because they know that will get the greatest engagement which means money for them. It is also true that social media companies have been using algorithms that intentionally present us with the news articles that are going to get us all riled up. But I don’t think we can only blame it on the media. The reality is that there are many signs in the world today that things are not well and that they could all be getting a whole lot worse.

Not Good for us

I don’t think that I need to tell you that all of this doomscrolling isn’t particularly good for us. This endless cycle has been like a great weight on the hearts of many people. It is a cause of depression and anxiety. And we have certainly seen how many have attempted to treat their weighed down hearts in destructive ways by resorting to addictive behaviour and substance abuse. Others seek to distract themselves from what they are feeling by living in indulgent ways that only end up hurting themselves and the people they love. Of course, there are also some people who have sought to defend themselves from all of this by completely cutting themselves off from the news so they don’t have to deal with it. They just scroll from one cute cat video to another. But that doesn’t seem to be a particularly healthy response either.

We might well hope for people to not feel so bad, but I hardly want to blame people for their emotions. The truth of the matter is that we are living in disturbing times. And, if that is true, the question is how should we deal with it? In particular, as people of faith, what is a proper response?

A Gospel for Doomscrollers

In many ways, the passage we read this morning from the Gospel of Luke is a Gospel for doomscrollers. Jesus lays out before his disciples a series of signs, and they are signs of doom. “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

And, yes, I kind of feel as if I have read all of those things on my news feed in the last couple of months – especially the parts about confusion and distress among the nations and people fainting from fear. Jesus is saying that these things are not just bad news, they are signs. They are signs that indicate something important about the fate of the world.

Jesus Warns Us

And what Jesus is saying in this passage is not that we need to just put away our phones and pretend that all of this stuff isn’t happening, as tempting as that might be. He encourages his disciples and us to be aware of what the signs of our time are. But he does say something that is very important for the kind of times that we find ourselves living in today. “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.”

Jesus is literally warning us against the very dangerous effects of doomscrolling. He is recognizing how easy it is to have your heart weighed down by an unrelenting stream of bad news. He even speaks of the ways in which people can respond to the resulting depression and anxiety “with dissipation and drunkenness.” That is to say that people self-medicate with addictive lifestyles and self-destructive behaviour.

But it is one thing to be warned of the dangers of doomscrolling. I think we’re all aware of that on some level. But the question remains, how do we do that? How do we stop our hearts from being weighed down? Well, I would like to share a few pieces of advice for you today that might help you to do that, some directly from this passage in the Gospel of Luke and some from other places.

It is Hard for Us to Avoid

One of the problems we are dealing with is definitely something that was not a feature of the life for people in Jesus’ time. They were living in a world where the average person often did not even have the means to be aware of some of the terrible things that were going on in the world. They didn’t get reports on the latest earthquake in Turkey or atrocity committed by the emperor in Rome. It took some effort for them to get the news, which is why Jesus makes the point of telling them to be aware of the signs that are taking place in the world around them.

But we live in a very different world where obtaining news and information is so easy that it almost happens without us being aware of it. I mean, you just sit down for a few minutes and take out your phone and open some social media app and the news feed on that thing has been specifically designed to present you with a news report that’s going to hook you in and then an algorithm is going to kick in but make sure that you then swipe to the another story and then another until, before you know it, you have wasted maybe hours in a day doomscrolling. It takes almost no effort on our part to be totally aware of all of the bad things that are happening.

Being Careful about Our Consumption

So, for us today, we actually have to put in the effort to make sure that our hearts are not weighed down by all of that. So it helps for us to be very intentional about how and when we consume the news. It helps us to be aware of how Facebook and Twitter and other apps are feeding that news to us.

That doesn’t mean that you have to just turn it off, but maybe you should schedule your own consumption of the news. Maybe don’t do it just before bed, for example, because that may not be conducive to a good night’s sleep. There are also steps that you can take to take control of your newsfeed, by choosing to read stories from what you consider to be reliable sources. And don’t be afraid to engage your critical mind and apply it to whatever you hear or read.

That is part of the answer, but another part is that you also need to work time into your day when you do focus on other things. There is a passage in the letter to the Philippians that I believe every one of us needs to memorize or put it up on our wall where we’re going to see it at the beginning of every day. It is Philippians 4:8: “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

I definitely feel that one of the ways in which we can prevent the news of the dire events of our times from weighing down our hearts is by intentionally building into our days opportunities to do exactly what it says in Philippians. Make the time to think on such things. Journal about what is true and honourable. Meditate on what is pure and pleasing. Contemplate things that are commendable, excellent and worthy of praise.

Having the Right Perspective

So that is part of what we must do to make sure our hearts are not weighed down. But there is another part of the answer to the problem in this passage that we read from the Gospel of Luke. It invites us to adopt a certain perspective on the disturbing events that may be taking place in the world around us. Jesus invites us to consider something that everyone would have been familiar with in that world. “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near.”

You see, in the Mediterranean climate, the fig tree is one of the last trees to bud and put out leaves in the spring. We actually have a tree like that in our backyard. I’ve been told it’s called a Russian Laurel, but whatever it is, it is very slow to put out leaves in the spring. So much so that every year I get worried. I watch all of the other trees in the neighborhood put out all their leaves and I look at our tree and its branches are still bare and I start to think, well, it’s finally happened, the tree has finally died. And then, finally, only when I am past despair, the buds form and the tree creates this beautiful canopy that shelters our backyard all through the summer.

Leaves as Signs

So Jesus is actually inviting us to consider that emotional roller coaster of waiting for the last tree to bud. He’s saying that, as we look around at the world we are often tempted to despair at all the things that are happening and to think that this is finally it and the tree is going to die because the leaves haven’t come out. I will admit that it has been tempting to feel that way looking at events of late.

But Jesus is actually saying that the leaves are coming and that promise is that summer is coming. The leaves are actually all of these terrible signs that he is talking about – the signs of the times. They are the disasters, the wars and rumours of wars, the apocalyptic fires and floods. But Jesus is actually inviting us to look at them as the late budding leaves, the sign that summer is coming. “So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”

Turn your Expectations Upside Down

 And I know that that doesn’t seem to make much sense. It seems like the logical thing to do is to look at these events and see them only as signs that everything is about to get a whole lot worse. But Jesus, as he often did, is inviting us to turn our expectations upside down.

And what is the reason why we can look at all of the things that are happening and still find hope? Only one thing. Only our faith that God has a handle on what is going on in this world and that God has a plan to bring about the fullness of God’s kingdom. That faith and that perspective is the only thing that can make us look at some of the troubling things that are happening in our world and understand that our God is allowing them to happen because they are like those late leaves on a fig tree, they are the sign that we are almost there, and that God will faithfully fulfill the plan.

It is troubling to look around at the events of our times and realize that they are signs about the state of our world. And, of course, when we see these things, they need to stir us to action, prompt us to make changes and renew our commitment to a just and better world. What we must not let them do, however, is weigh our hearts down. We are the followers of the Prince of Peace and the King of Hope and as we cling to that truth, our hearts will be enabled to soar above the trouble of these difficult times.

https://youtu.be/4V2ylFBizvg

Hespeler, 21 November 2021 © Scott McAndless – Reign of Christ
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14, Psalm 93, Revelation 1:4-8, John 18:33-37

This Sunday, the last Sunday in the church year, is traditionally called Christ the King Sunday. Or some people prefer to avoid that explicitly masculine language and say Reign of Christ Sunday. But, whatever you call it, it is pretty clear what the day is all about. It is all about how great our guy is. It is about how Jesus is better, stronger, faster and cooler than any other ruler out there. And that’s our guy.

And you don’t have to look very far in the scriptures to find Jesus presented in those terms. We have, for example, that passage from the Book of Daniel that Christians have long claimed as a description of the Christ: “I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.” The same kind of imagery is taken up in the Book of Revelation which speaks of, “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”

Some Hesitations

And, on the one hand, I am all for that. I am so glad to be on team Jesus and know that we are the winning team because Jesus is the one who gets to rule over all. I certainly agree that no one deserves to rule any more than him. And yet, at the same time, I can’t help but feel a few niggling hesitations in the back of my mind.

After all, isn’t that the kind of thinking that has gotten the Christian church into a fair bit of trouble down through the centuries. It was the kind of thinking that inspired the medieval Crusaders who sought to extend the rule of Jesus and his church over the peoples of the Near East with extreme violence whether they wanted it or not.

The same idea drove the Conquistadors who first invaded this hemisphere and did it in the name of King Jesus. They, driven by this idea that Jesus must rule over all the nations of the earth, committed horrible things, wiping out and enslaving entire nations of people. Those are but a couple of horrible examples and they make me wonder, is that what it means to claim Christ as our king?

A Better Way to Think of it?

It is enough, at least, to make me want to look elsewhere in the Bible to ask if there might not be a more nuanced way to look at what it means to call Jesus our King. The passage we read this morning from the Gospel of John discusses the issue, but it certainly approaches it very differently. It is in the form of a conversation between two fascinating figures: Jesus of Nazareth and Pontius Pilate. And the thing that particularly fascinates me about this conversation is that it consists of Pilate asking Jesus a series of questions about his kingship. And in every case, Pilate doesn’t quite seem to get a straight answer. I’m not saying that Jesus’ answers are evasive because I don’t think they are, but they are also not really clear either.

Eavesdropping on a Private Conversation

The other odd thing about it, of course, is that it appears to be a private conversation between two individuals. Jesus certainly did not have the opportunity to pass on the content of such a conversation, at least not before his death. And there is no reason to think that Pilate should have told anyone about what was said either. So, we must ask, how did the gospel writer even know what was said? The answer, obviously, is that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Somehow, God told him what it was that needed to be said at that moment.

But, I have noticed something. This is actually something that happens a lot in the Bible where we get a report on something that was said or done and there were no actual witnesses. And it seems that when the Holy Spirit does reveal what was going on in those kinds of situations, what we are told is always of deep theological importance. It is almost as if the Holy Spirit is more interested in getting theological points across than in just making sure that we know exactly what happened and what was said.

Pilate’s First Question

So, I would invite you to look very closely at this conversation between Jesus and Pilate. In particular, pay attention to those questions that Pilate asks because, I think, if you can answer them for yourself, you may get a whole lot closer to understanding what it really means to call Jesus your king.

The first question Pilate asks is, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And I would note, first of all, that that is a very safe angle to approach the whole question of the kingship of Jesus from. Because, of course, whatever else he is, Pilate is not a Jew. Pilate is Roman who knows very well who holds authority over him. In fact, as procurator of Judea, he has a very well-defined chain of command and answers directly to the emperor. So, very clearly, Pilate begins to examine the question of the kingship of Jesus with a secure knowledge that any kingship Jesus has doesn’t apply to him.

Christ’s Kingship as it Applies to Others

And I honestly feel as if that is as far as many Christians get in their understanding of the kingship of Jesus. They want to acknowledge Jesus as king, but when they think of where the kingly authority of Jesus applies, they’d rather just think of how it applies to other people. After all, was not that the kingship of Jesus that the Crusaders and the Conquistadors were trying to establish? They fought for and even gave their lives for the goal of trying to make Jesus the king of other people – of Middle Easterners and of the indigenous people of the Western hemisphere. And, of course, what that generally amounted to was them imposing the power of European monarchs and rulers upon those people.

But I don’t think that it’s just Christians in those extreme situations who have done that. I think all of us, at least at times, are tempted to think of the kingship of Jesus only in terms of what that means for other people. We want to use it to impose certain kinds of morality upon society or to do things like impose rigid gender roles or laws and measures that only benefit people like us. It is certainly a very safe way to think of the kingship because we don’t need to change anything in ourselves, and we can actually use it to force changes onto others that suit us.

But, you see, such a safe concept of kingship will never survive an actual encounter with the living Christ. And so Jesus immediately pushes back at Pilate’s question. “Does this question come from you or have others told you about me?” he wants to know. You see, Jesus is not going to allow us to simply hold that question of his rule over our lives at a distance. He doesn’t care what other people may have told us about what his kingship means. There is something about Jesus that forces us, the more we come into contact with him, into asking what it means to us and on our own terms.

Pilate’s Second Question

And so, that brings us to Pilate’s second question. “Do you think I am a Jew? And I love the way that question is translated in the Good News Bible. Pilate seems so defensive. He started out so certain that, whatever it was, Jesus’ kingship had absolutely nothing to do with him. And yet, with only a few words, Jesus has already got him questioning that. He is still trying to laugh it off, but he is already wondering whether at least Jesus might think he does have some kingly claim over him.

What does Jesus’ Answer Mean?

This leads to what is perhaps the most important thing that Jesus says about his rule. “My kingdom does not belong to this world; if my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. No, my kingdom does not belong here!” I know that this has often been taken to mean that the kingdom that Jesus is talking about has nothing to do with this world – that it is only concerned with getting people out of this world and into heaven, but I don’t think that that is what I hear Jesus saying. Jesus is here talking about how his kingdom works and saying that it does not operate according to the methods of this world which are the methods of violence and “might makes right.”

So no, Jesus’ followers in this world are not called on to fight to establish his rule – the Crusaders and Conquistadores definitely got that one wrong – but that does not mean that Christ’s rule has nothing to do with this world. If Christ is King, that really does demand something of Pilate in this world even as it demands something of you and of me.

Pilate’s Third Question

And that brings us to Pilate’s final question, “Are you a king, then?” With this question, Pilate finally gets around to the foundational question. There are now no guardrails, no built-in safety barriers. He is now considering the possibility, not that Jesus is somebody else’s king, not that it matters only to Jews, but that it might just matter to him.

And that is where Jesus will finally bring us all, to the realization that who he is is actually supposed to make a difference in our daily lives. And Jesus makes that clear with his answer. “You say that I am a king.” It doesn’t matter what other people say. Whatever you force them to say or do in the name of Jesus, will ultimately come to nothing because that kingdom cannot be forced upon anybody because it’s not a kingdom of this world in that way. All that matters is what you say and what it changes about your life.

My Troubles with the Day

This Sunday, the last Sunday in the church’s year, has been called Christ the King Sunday for a very long time. And for most of that time, the church celebrated it as something that was largely imposed on other people. It was about the Crusaders and the Conquistadors. It was about missionaries travelling to far distant lands to bring the people that lived in those strange places under the rule of Christ.

And with that missionary endeavour, went the forces of colonialism which was all about bringing them under European control and about “civilizing” them in a way that did not honour the civilizations that they had built over the millennia. It was rather about them adopting our cultural values and morals. It didn’t really have very much to do with the King Jesus who was talking that day with Pontius Pilate just a little bit before he was condemned to death.

For that reason, I’ve always had a little bit of trouble with Christ the King Sunday. And I have the same problem with it even if you call it Reign of Christ Sunday. But I present before you today the three questions that the Gospel of John tells us Pilate asked of Jesus in that private conversation. They are not there for the sake of the Roman procurator. What he finally decided about the rule of Christ and how it applied to him doesn’t matter to anybody but him.

The Questions are for You

Those questions are there for you. And they are especially there for you if you have always thought of the reign of Christ in terms of what that means for other people. If all it means to you is that everybody in our society needs to defer to Jesus – for example, if you think the rule of Christ means that the rest of our society needs to shut down and close everything on Sundays so that people don’t have anything else to do but go to church, you may have the wrong concept of Christ the King. If you think it’s okay to mock or discriminate against people because they are not Christian, you probably have the wrong concept of Christ the King. If you think that Christians have the right to tell everyone else how to live their lives just because they are followers of Christ, you probably have the wrong concept of Christ the King.

John wants you to ask of him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Do you think I am a Jew?”  And “Are you a king, then?” He doesn’t care what you think other people need to do, he needs to know what difference it makes in your life today that Christ is the king. He needs to see it being lived out in the way that you care about others, how you welcome the strangers and how you honour people for who they are. His kingdom is not of this world, not in the sense that we use the power of this world to impose it on anybody. It is a kingdom of love and care and only that can actually transform this world.

https://youtu.be/otoDOFzjklY

Hespeler, 14 November 2021 © Scott McAndless
Daniel 12:1-3, Psalm 16, Hebrews 10:11-25, Mark 13:1-8

I was in a discussion recently about the passage we read this morning – the passage where Jesus starts talking about all of these things that are going to happen. Much of what Jesus says in this part of the Gospel of Mark, after all, took place within about forty years of him saying it. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and one stone was hardly left on top of another. The rest of the city of Jerusalem did not come off much better.

How did Jesus Know?

So, I was talking about Jesus saying all of this with someone and the question that came up was how did Jesus know that all of this was going to happen. Yes, I know that it is a given in the Christian church and according to our doctrine that Jesus was not just an ordinary person – that had a unique nature and the ability to see things that others cannot. And surely Jesus could have made use of such supernatural power to see events that would happen 40 years after his crucifixion.

But the question was whether Jesus really needed such powers to predict the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of its temple. My idea was that no, he didn’t. All he needed was an analytic mind. All he needed to do was look at the situation on the ground right at that moment – to see the tension between the Jews and the Roman occupying forces and the insurrectionists who were starting to organize – in order to see that this was all going to boil over sooner or later. And, when it did boil over, there was absolutely no question who was going to win and who was going to lose. There was no way that Jerusalem could possibly hold out against the Romans!

His Prediction about War

So yeah, there really was a lot about what Jesus was saying that any smart person could have seen coming. And that certainly seems to be as true for what Jesus says about war too. “When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” Because, if you want to make a prediction that know will come true, that has got to be one of the safest. In any era, any century, any decade in the history of humanity, if you say, “there will be wars and rumours of wars, and nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,” people will be amazed at your perfect prescience about the future.

So, when Jesus predicts wars, he is definitely on safe ground. But I am particularly intrigued by what he says about war. Because Jesus actually seems to be giving a warning about our attitude towards war. He warns us not to make too much of it.

He says, “Do not be alarmed,” when you see such things. And then later he adds, “This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” This is rather surprising when you think of it. When there is a war, and especially when you are caught up in the middle of one, the experience seems to absorb almost everything. The war and what happens and who wins and who loses seem to mean absolutely everything.

Branding World War I

This is especially true when you think about how wars are branded and how they are sold to the people who will fight in them. There you see very clearly that we don’t see war as “but the beginning of the birth pangs,” but rather as the one huge event that is supposed to fix everything.

Think, for example, of the war that we call World War I. Is that what it was called at the time, the first in a series of global conflagrations? Of course not! Nor was it called the war that was kind of inevitable once the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria had been assassinated setting a chain of events in motion that led to Germany invading Belgium which triggered a bunch of alliances that obliged everybody to declare war against everybody else. Did they call it that? No. What did they call it? They called it “The War to End all Wars.”

It was, in other words, a war that was supposed to solve everything. Brave young lads from so many countries around the world were persuaded to put their lives on the line and fight for the most noble goal of making sure that there would never be any more wars ever.

And here is a spoiler alert for you (just in case you don’t know how that particular war turned out): it didn’t work. World War I was not the last war ever. In fact, in many ways, the way it ended and the treaty that the nations signed carried within it the seeds of the next great global conflagration. That war was sold as being the great solution to everything. It was a promise that was big and bold and beautiful that the world would be changed for the good. It was very much like the biblical promise of an end times that the disciples were asking Jesus about that day. That’s how we like to talk about war, but Jesus is telling us that it is a mistake to expect such things from war.

Branding Other Wars

That is not just true of the First World War either. Think of the other great conflagrations of our lifetimes and how successful they were at accomplishing the grand goals that they promised. It is true that the Second World War did succeed in its goal of putting an end to the truly evil and frightening fascism that had come to power in Germany, Italy and Japan, but that war seems to be, in some ways, a bit of an exception. I would also note, looking around me today, that it doesn’t seem as if the threat of fascism has disappeared from the face of the Earth entirely.

But think of the other conflicts that have taken place. A war fought in Korea and another in Vietnam had the very clear goal of stopping the dominoes of Communism from falling across Asia. They certainly didn’t stop the dominoes from falling in those countries anyways. And remember when the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and there were people proclaiming that, because we had won that conflict, it was the end of history – nothing else of any significance would ever happen. How did that turn out?

And I hardly dare mention the noble goals that took us into Afghanistan. Not only were we going to destroy the Taliban and all that they stood for, but we were going to be part of planting a vibrant and free democracy in the middle of the Near Eastern world. And that was supposed to be a real game-changer. I think we are all aware of how horribly that turned out, especially for the people of Afghanistan.

War may be Inevitable

I don’t think that Jesus was saying that there is no place for war. On the contrary, Jesus was saying that it is often inevitable. Try as you might, and we need to try as hard as we possibly can, we will find that it is simply unavoidable sometimes. And when it is inevitable, we are greatly blessed by and eternally indebted to those who step forward and put their lives on the line to fight and to protect. And they may even be persuaded to do that because they believe everything that they are being promised that is going to accomplish – they go to end all wars or to set up a beacon of democracy in the Middle East.

But it won’t Solve Everything

But here is where Jesus’ caution may be helpful to us. For example, one of the things that has made the end of the war in Afghanistan so distressing was just the thought of all of the blood and the lives and the broken bodies that were spent for the goal of creating a free and democratic society in that country. You can certainly understand the bitterness of those who gave so much to accomplish such things there to see an end result that basically just returned that is no better than what the country was before and so much worse in many ways. But I think that Jesus may be telling us that we should not have been expecting so much from wars in the first place. They are “but the beginning of the birth pangs” after all.

What Will?

But I guess the really important question we need to ask is, if war isn’t going to do it, what will bring about the birth of a better world? There are no easy answers to that question, of course, though I think if we can get past the idea of solving all of our problems by having nation rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, we will likely be further down the road to a better world.

What this whole chapter in the Gospel of Mark is saying, of course, is that God is committed to the creation of a renewed and better world, particularly symbolized by the “the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.” (v. 26) In some ways, therefore, our task seems to be to wait for God to bring it about. But I think we should be careful not to confuse this call to wait with any sense that there is nothing for us to do or that we have no role to play in the vision that God has for that better world.

Very Active Waiting

No, when Jesus says wait, he has something very active in mind. “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.” (vv. 32,33) So we are to be alert which doesn’t just mean that we are watching but that we are ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. But that raises the question, what sort of action are we supposed to be ready to spring into? Because I don’t think, based on what Jesus says about war and how it doesn’t actually resolve everything, that we are supposed to be constantly ready to fight and use violence to achieve even the most noble of goals.

The idea seems to be this. God is committed to this world – committed to saving it, committed to renewing it. But that doesn’t mean that God wants to do it all alone. In infinite graciousness, God has decided to give us the opportunity to be coworkers in this great task. That means that God will offer to each one of us, things to do, ways to help. God will give to one over here the opportunity to act as a peacemaker. God will give to another over there the chance to stand up and peacefully oppose some great injustice. Another, perhaps with just some small act of kindness or mercy, will advance the program. We may never know in advance where our part to play may be, that is why being constantly prepared is so important.

Halverson’s Blessing

There was once a preacher named Richard Halverson who understood this perhaps better than anybody else. He used to end each worship service by making the following promise to the people of his congregation. “You go nowhere by accident,” he would say. “Wherever you go, God is sending you. Wherever you are, God has put you there. God has a purpose in your being right where you are. Christ, who indwells you by the power of his Spirit, wants to do something in and through you. Believe this and go in his grace, his love, his power. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.”

That, more than anything, captures the sense of waiting and being prepared that Jesus was really talking about. It is indeed a sense of living in constant expectation that God is about to inaugurate God’s kingdom. But it is not brought about by nation rising up against nation or kingdom against kingdom. It is not always going to come in a great light shining from one end of the sky to the other. Most of us will realize it by being quietly prepared to spring into action whenever God lays before us an opportunity to live out the kingdom of God before our friends and neighbours and the whole world.

The Minister and Session

As we have reported to the congregation previously, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada made some big decisions in its meeting this past summer. In particular, it formally declared something that has been true about the Presbyterian Church in Canada for a long time: that we don’t all agree on the definition of marriage and that we don’t all see the role of LGBTQ persons in the church in the same way. The church declared that all Presbyterians have freedom of belief and conscience and are able to marry people and to elect their leaders accordingly. This has come at the end of a very long process of study and reflection on the scriptures and on our faith. The discussion is also still not over on the national level as we continue to work out how we can maintain our Christian unity despite some significant differences in belief.

And so, over the last few months, the Session of St. Andrew’s Hespeler has been discussing how we ought to make use of this freedom that the General Assembly has given to us. The Session feels that it is very important at this time to affirm that there is a place at St Andrew’s Hespeler for everybody. That includes every kind of family including singles, married with or without children, single parent families and divorced. That includes people who are straight but also those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual and asexual. In addition, all genders and gender identities are welcome to fully participate.

In addition, we want to affirm that we welcome not only all people who have a firm faith, but also all those who doubt. We welcome those who struggle with addictions or bad habits, those who’ve got it all together and those who feel like they’re coming apart.

Now, on one level, we believe that all such people have always been welcome in our church. But we also confess that we have not always been successful making all such people feel welcome. We are glad to take this opportunity to be much more explicit about our welcome and also to think about the implications of that welcome.

We also confess that all of us continue to struggle to be all that God is calling us to be and we pray that, with God’s help and the support of our siblings in Christ, we may rise to the challenge of living up to God’s calling upon us all.

Marriage

The Session is very concerned about the state of marriage in our society. We feel there are too many domestic relationships that are marred by disrespect, abuse and violence. We want to reaffirm our commitment to support and bless marriages that are based on mutual respect, love and support. We will joyfully celebrate any such marriages between two persons under God and according to the laws of the Province of Ontario.

Leadership

We want to affirm at this time what has always been true, that it is up to the whole congregation to choose those who will lead it. That includes ministers, elders and all other leaders. We will maintain our commitment to open and democratic processes for the choosing of leaders. We will also not exclude anyone from such positions merely on the basis of gender, gender identity or sexual orientation.

Conscience and Freedom of Belief

The session wants to state this as an expression of everyone’s freedom of conscience and belief. We do recognize that not everyone in the church will see these matters in the same way. We do not want to exclude anybody because they see these matters differently. The bottom line is we want to declare that there is a place for everyone no matter who they are. We are all just trying to do our best to take the Bible, apply it to our lives and live in Christ as we share His love with the world around us.

https://youtu.be/WBy4HBozqXE

Hespeler, 7 November 2021 © Scott McAndless – Communion, Remembrance Sunday
1 Kings 17:8-16, Psalm 146, Hebrews 9:24-28, Mark 12:38-44 (Click to read)

Just put yourself for a moment in the mind of that poor child, the son of that widow in Zarephath. Ever since your father died unexpectedly, you and your mother have been living on the very edge of survival. But that all got so much worse over the last couple of months as the entire countryside has suffered under a drought. Everyone has had a hard time, of course, all of your friends have been struggling. But many of them have, at least, a few resources to fall back on – some small savings or perhaps the ability to borrow – but you and your mother have had nothing at all.

Nothing, that is, except for one small jar of cracked barley grains and a little jug of olive oil. And so, you have watched day after day as your mother very carefully takes out the smallest amount of grain possible and just barely moistens it with a little bit of oil before frying up the resulting cake.  The cake is so small that it barely requires even two sticks of wood to build a fire big enough to cook it. Your portion of the cake hardly does anything to take an edge off your hunger, but that is not what alarms you the most. What alarms you the most is to watch how that small store of meal and of oil grows ominously smaller every single day. You know very well that there will be no more when that is gone.

The Very Last Cake

And finally there comes the day when you watch your mother very carefully divide the remaining supply in half. Tomorrow is going to be the very last cake and you both know it. The next morning, probably because she cannot even face the possibility of looking you in the eyes, she gets up even before you awake and goes out to gather some wood in order to build a fire to prepare your very last meal. And so you awaken alone, wash and get dressed and sit and wait for her to come back.

But then, after she’s only been gone for about an hour, she returns. And everything looks different. She is carrying her usual two pieces of wood, but she is also flushed and excited like you haven’t seen her since your father died. And she breathlessly announces to you surprising news: “I have met a man of God!”

She explains to you that she is now going to take the meal from the jar and the oil from the jug and she is going to make a small cake to take to the prophet. After that, the prophet promises, everything is going to be just fine for you and your mother.

How do you Feel?

And my question for you today is how do you react and how do you feel? I suspect that most of us would be immediately suspicious that our mother has just been taken in by a charlatan. There is a man out there in the woods who is taking advantage of poor widows by talking them into giving him their very last meals! And we would have all logic and reason on our side in thinking such a thing, wouldn’t we? I mean, isn’t that just the sensible way that all of us look at the question of scarce resources. When there is a stock of something that is in limited supply, something that we find to be essential or desirable, everyone seems to assume that the sensible thing to do is to save it and ration it and spend it as sparingly as possible.

Not Just a Miracle

And there is no denying that what the prophet Elijah asks of that poor widow defies all of those sensible assumptions we make about limited resources. He invites her to be extravagant and generous with the very little that she has with the promise that this is what will prevent what she has from running out. But of course, you might say that this story is all about defying logic and reason because it is, after all, a miracle story. Miracles are not supposed to make sense. Miracles require faith which is the opposite of reason, isn’t it?

And of course it is true that, on one level. This is a story about how amazing the prophet Elijah was and how God miraculously provided for him and helped some other people along the way. But I think it is actually a mistake to look at this as just a miracle story. Because if it is just a miracle story, then it would really only be something that applied to our lives under extraordinary circumstances. And I believe that there is a principle at work in this story that does not just apply to extraordinary circumstances. I think that this story applies very directly to your life right now and today.

Two Ways to Look at it

Because there are in fact two ways to look at the jar of meal and jug of oil in this story. There’s the way we are all inclined to look at it, as a limited resource. Whenever you look at something that way, you will naturally fall into scarcity tactics. When you are living with scarcity, you will save and ration and worry about what you don’t have. But the problem with scarcity tactics is that they form a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. When you assume that things are going to run out and act accordingly, things eventually run out.

But in this story, Elijah comes along and invites this woman to look at what she has from the totally different point of view. Rather than a scarce resource, he invites her to look at it as possibility and potential. And I would suggest to you that that simple change in perspective can actually make an enormous difference. Even though the practical number of resources available to you does not change, it will change the outcome. And, what’s more, though such a change in attitude may require a great deal of faith, the change in outcome does not always require a miracle to pull off, though it may feel that way.

A Church Story

This is a lesson that the Christian church always needs to keep learning. When I was first called to my second church, I spent some time talking to the people who had been there a long time to discover the real people’s history of that church. (This is always time well spent.) They told me that there had been a time, not all that long before, when the church had been poor. Membership had been stagnating or dropping, money always seemed to be in short supply and so that church had been doing what Presbyterian churches in particular seem to be so good at. They carefully cut all of their expenses to the bone, they put off repairs and they were very good at saving money. They were poor and they responded with scarcity thinking.

The Door

But the church that I had gone to did not feel like a poor church. Yes, they did sometimes struggle to balance their budget as most churches do, but they didn’t act like they were poor, so I asked them what had changed that for them. It had started, apparently, with a door. It was an old wooden door that led out to the street. It was drafty and broken and had long seen better days. But they couldn’t afford to replace it. They didn’t have the money. As that door was the main entrance for anyone coming into the church from the community, it was almost like they had put a big sign out front for everyone to see: we are poor.

But one day they were just cornered into a decision. They went ahead and replaced the old door with a brand-new glass door. They were terrified. They could never afford such extravagance! They were sure it was going to ruin them. But then something amazing happened. Almost overnight, without even trying, the door was paid for. And that experience opened them to a very different possibility. Maybe they weren’t as poor as they thought they were. In fact, maybe they were only poor because they thought they were.

Scarcity Tactics are Uninspiring

If they were just surviving and carefully doling out their scarce resources, somehow people didn’t find that to be something that was inspiring and that they were excited about supporting. But if people could see the church doing something, even something as small as a new door, they looked at supporting that in a very different way.

And so that church learned a very important lesson from that, and it was a lesson that they applied to much more then just keeping the building up to date. They learned to stop thinking about their church as poor and as having scarce resources. And, as a result of that, the church went on to take some amazing risks and do some very exciting things in the community.

It Matters How We Look at it

And that is a lesson that I have tried to carry with me ever since. For there are indeed many times when churches take a look at their little jar of barley meal and their tiny jug of oil and come to the conclusion that they had better hold on tight to what they’ve got, save it for themselves and cut back on any ministry and mission to the people around them. This scarcity thinking is what we always will fall into when we are motivated by anxiety and fear. And it always seems sensible, but it is not how the economy of God’s church is supposed to operate. God sent the prophet Elijah to that widow at Zarephath to break her out of such thinking. Who will God send to our churches to break us out?

So I do fervently wish that our churches would learn what that widow learned from Elijah. But it is a lesson that also applies in many other places. It certainly has applications in national economies and government policy.

Global Economics

Now, I am no expert on such matters, and I realize that they are all very complex, but I have at least noticed that slashing and freezing government spending does not always have the effect of balancing budgets and eliminating deficits that we think it should. In fact, such scarcity tactics will often make things much worse. The classic example of that, of course, is the Great Depression but it has happened again and again throughout history. In the Depression, governments and just about everyone else fell into the habit of thinking that resources and money were limited, and that they need to be rationed out, this led to a self-fulfilling prophecy as the belief that money was scarce made everyone hold onto what they had and that made everything become scarcer.

It spiralled out of control until the realities of a global war meant that there was no choice but to start spending enormous amounts of money. The number of resources available had not changed but the attitude about what was worth lavishing resources on did. Only a dramatic change of thinking like that was able to break North American society out of its spiral of scarcity.

And what about you?

But finally today, I don’t want to focus on government spending or on Church spending, but rather I want to focus a little closer to home. I believe that we all, at least in certain areas of our lives, have a habit of behaving like that woman and her son. What I mean by that is that we all have some resource in our life that we treat like that woman treated her jar of meal and jug of oil. We live in fear and anxiety that whatever it is is going to run out soon and so we ration it and share it with others only grudgingly if at all.

Now, I do not know what that resource might be for you in your life. Do you live in anxiety about money? Or maybe it is time that you just never have enough of. Others find that they struggle with a lack of options or of appreciation or of love.

These are all good things, necessary to life and you certainly deserve to have such good things. God wants you to have them. But God has sent Elijah to you today to challenge you to consider your problem is not really how little you have of such a thing; your problem is how you look at that scarcity. You are, after all, the child of the King of kings and Lord of lords. You should never think of yourself as poor. God will always give a person of faith not only enough, but enough to share in some powerful and life changing way.

Final Challenge

So here is my challenge to you today. This week I want you to act extravagantly and generously with something in your life. I want you to give something away – time, treasure, talent, whatever it may be. But this is the key point: I want it to be something that you do not feel that you can spare. If you are a free spender of money, if money doesn’t mean everything to you, then that is not what you need to be giving. You need to be extravagantly generous with something that you don’t think you can afford. Do it because it is something you can only do by faith. If you do it, I think God may surprise you with the news that you are not as poor in that resource as you thought.

https://youtu.be/H7wejqdyvX8

Hespeler, 13 October 2021 © Scott McAndless – Reformation Sunday
Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Psalm 119:1-8, Hebrews 9:11-14, Mark 12:28-34

It must have looked really quite disturbing. I mean, people were coming at Jesus from every side with these really tough questions. “Is it permissible for us to pay taxes to the emperor?” “This woman was married to seven different men, whose wife will she be in the afterlife?” “Is it permitted for a man to divorce his wife?”

I know that these are presented as tests and trials that people were putting to Jesus. And these stories have been handed down to us as perfect demonstrations of Jesus’ wisdom and cunning in argument. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that they were just these elaborate puzzles that Jesus was given to solve.

A Very Conflicted Scene

These were really difficult questions that people felt very strongly about. They were also politically charged questions that, just by being raised, would have gotten people very agitated on both sides of any issue. So, you can bet that people were not asking questions in calm and even tones. They were shouting and reacting with a great deal of anger. That’s just what it was like around Jesus sometimes. He was a very polarizing figure and I’m sure it must have been exhausting to watch the extreme reactions all around him.

What People Might Ask Today

Imagine, for example, the kinds of questions that would provoke such extreme reactions today. “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth,” someone might come up and say. “Tell us, is it lawful for the emperor to mandate vaccination in order for people to dine in restaurants and go to shows?” Oh, can’t you just feel everybody clenching their fists and turning red in the face as they wait for Jesus to try and give a definitive answer to that one!

Or maybe, in the context of the church, someone might come up to Jesus and say, “Rabbi, is it permissible for us to move around the furniture at the front of the sanctuary?” Yes, right away I can feel everybody choosing sides and getting ready for a really big fight. Or, I don’t know, maybe in the American context, imagine someone coming up to Jesus and asking, “Teacher, was the 2020 election stolen by the Democrats or not?” I think we all better duck our heads because bullets are about to fly, right?

And it is not that I have any doubt that Jesus could give the absolute best answers to those very divisive questions. In fact, I would love to hear exactly how he would respond. But I can’t help but feel nervous about the thought of being in the middle of the discussion. Can you imagine the people arguing, pointing, threatening and then maybe doing more than just threatening?

Conflict is Unavoidable

It is true, of course, that conflict is a necessary part of life. It is not healthy to simply avoid all conflict and we need rather to put the effort into working out our conflicts in the most constructive ways possible. And yet, at the same time, we are certainly not designed to live in a perpetual state of conflict with one another. That is simply unbearable and it kind of seems as if it was like that a lot around Jesus – not because Jesus brought it, of course, but people certainly had a tendency to bring it to Jesus.

Identifying with the Scribe

And so, when I read our passage from the Gospel of Mark this morning, it struck me as a real breath of fresh air when I saw that one of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another. I mean, if I lived in that age with the degrees that I have received, I might be considered a scribe. So, I immediately identified with him, and I felt his distress at all of the dissension that he was observing.

And this guy is kind of my hero, therefore, because we are told that he decided to intervene in the midst of all this conflict and that he was the one who actually brought it to a close. It says that after he had done what he came to do, no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions in order to start anymore fights.

How Did he Do it?

So, what did this amazing scholar do to accomplish this incredible feat? Did he tell everyone off for being so contrary? Did he beg and plead with them all to please just get along? I definitely need to know because I need to use this wise man’s strategy the next time I find myself surrounded by conflict.

Well, you heard the passage, you know what he did. All he did was ask a question. But there was something about this question that was quite different from all of those other questions that went before. Those other questions all drew attention directly to those things that people were in conflict over – things like taxes, divorce and the afterlife. His question takes us in a quite different direction.

Finding a Point of Agreement

“He asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’” Think about what he is doing here. In essence, he’s asking Jesus what is one thing that we can all agree about. What is one thing that actually unites us? The law was something that was absolutely central to all of their identities as Jews. They might squabble over many things, including how to apply the law, but they would never disagree on its importance.

And here, therefore, is the first piece of advice that I would give us based on this passage. When you are surrounded by conflict and it seems as if everyone is just wasting all of their energy on disagreeing about everything, what you need to do from time to time is step back and remind everybody that there are actually things that we do all agree about. And there is always something that we can agree about.

The Power of Shared Passion

The reason people get upset and in conflict is because they actually care about something. People who are not invested in something, who are bored or apathetic, generally do not want to waste their energy on arguments or disagreements. Usually there is some shared passion that they carried into that disagreement and so it can be really helpful to step back and point out that shared passion.

The Church and Division

In the church, as you know, we seem quite capable of disagreeing about many things. The history of the church is a history of division. Indeed, there’s a whole branch of the church that gets its name from its protest against all the rest. And yes, Presbyterians are definitely part of that branch, which is why they call us Protestants.

I’m not saying that some of those things that we have disagreed about are not important things. But whatever may have divided us, there is a definite need for us to step back from time to time and remember that we hold a very significant thing in common and that thing is, of course, Jesus – his life and his death and everything he has accomplished for us. I think that that scribe can remind us of the importance of pausing to recall that deep point of connection.

Jesus’ Answer

But there is more in this interaction between the scribe and Jesus than just a reminder of what they all hold in common. Jesus’ answer to the man takes us to what had long been considered to be the heart of the Law. Jesus was hardly the first Jew and certainly would not be the last to affirm the centrality this statement taken from the Book of Deuteronomy. To this very day, Jews of all sorts repeat this passage of scripture as their daily morning prayer. So, it was hardly controversial for Jesus to say what he said about this law. But the law itself is the perfect antidote to the conflict and disagreement that is so often a feature of people who feel passionately about anything, especially religion.

When you are arguing and disagreeing, your focus is always on yourself. It’s all about you being right, you having the correct understanding. You are often so invested that it also starts to be about defending yourself against what feels like attack. So, you are very clearly directing all of your heart and your understanding and your strength towards the goal of shoring yourself up.

Where we Need to Focus

But, of course, with his answer, Jesus is telling us all exactly where we need to be directing our hearts and our understanding and our strength. When we’re disagreeing, our focus in all three of those areas is on ourselves, but Jesus reminds us that it all needs to be on God. And that is absolutely the cure to much of the dissension that tears us apart. When we stop making it all about protecting ourselves and building ourselves up, we can actually start to get someplace.

Think back to some time in the life of a church where you have been involved where different factions were all caught up with fighting with each other. If you’ve been involved in churches for any length of time, it’s probably not all that hard to think of an example. It happens all the time. But how many of the people in the thick of that conflict were really fighting because they were passionate about God.

Oh, they might have said that they were, of course. The people often claim to know exactly what God wants in those kinds of conflicts. But so often, I have observed, it’s actually about people fighting for their own vision for how things ought to be, for something that has personal sentimental value for them or something that will prosper them in some other, maybe intangible, way.

 So, in his answer Jesus very clearly points out to all of the bickering people around him that no one should be arguing for their point of view for their own sake. And the message is clear. If we do make this all about pouring our hearts, understanding and strength towards God, rather than about defending or promoting ourselves, I think we will find that a lot of our causes of dissension will melt away.

Jesus Cheats (a Bit)

But Jesus is not yet done with his answer. At this point, to tell the truth, Jesus does cheat just a little tiny bit. The scribe, after all, only asked for one law, but Jesus manages to sneak in a second one. He jumps from the Book of Deuteronomy to the Book of Leviticus and adds in a second law taken from Leviticus 19:18: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.”

Now, again, Jesus is far from unique in making this connection. Jews, both in ancient and modern times, would certainly wholeheartedly agree with him. And of course, when we choose to love our neighbours like ourselves, obviously that is going to go a long way towards diffusing any conflicted situation.

But notice how Jesus accomplishes much the same thing with this commandment as he did with the first one. The first one, as we said, had the effect of deflecting the arguers’ attention away from themselves on to God. In the same way, this commandment also deflects attention away from yourself directly onto your neighbour. And when you stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about the person you are arguing with and what they’ve got going on in their life and what is troubling them, your appetite for conflict will be greatly diminished.

Dealing with Conflict

I don’t think that conflict in this world or in the church will ever entirely disappear. It is a necessary part of life. It’s not just that things would be deadly boring if we never disagreed about anything, though that is true, it is also that healthy conflict is an important part of any good relationship. And yet I think that if we can hold on to the lessons we learn from this interaction between a pretty wise scribe and a man named Jesus, it might well go a long way towards preventing us from being consumed and drained by conflict. And that is something that helps nobody.

Shall I say it once again? When we find ourselves consumed by conflict, let us:

• Step back and consider what we hold in common rather than what tears us apart.
• Instead of spending your heart, understanding and strength on defending yourself, lavish it on God.
• Stop thinking about yourself in order to think about what your neighbour or your sibling in Christ is struggling with and needs.

https://youtu.be/kijxcA7SvKY

Hespeler, 24 October, 2021 © Scott McAndless
Job 42:1-6, 10-17, Psalm 34:1-8, 19-22, Hebrews 7:23-28, Mark 10:46-52

The Book of Job is a deep theological and philosophical dive into a very difficult question that people have always struggled with. It dares to ask the question why bad things happen to good people. But, as we read the end of the book this morning, I am struck by another question that is just about as difficult to deal with. Of course, the book tells the story of all of these terrible things that happen to Job. He loses all of his possessions to marauding bands of warriors, all ten of his children, seven sons and three daughters, are killed in a tragic accident and he deals with sickness so severe that it leaves him in constant pain and suffering.

About Recovering from Trauma

Of course, all of that tragedy does set up the difficult discussion of the question of why these things happen. But that is not really what the end of the story is about. In many ways, the end of the story raises an issue that is just as important for our present circumstances as the question of why bad things happen. At least, it leads me to ask the question how we can recover from trauma, from our losses and the really bad things that happen to us.

In some ways, the end of the Book of Job is a perfect picture of recovery. After losing everything, including his own health, Job gets it all back. He recovers physically. He gets his wealth back. And this is presented as a precise calculation. Wealth, in that world, was mostly measured in livestock and so Job gets back precisely twice as many sheep, twice as many camels, twice as many oxen and twice as many donkeys as he had before. Don’t tell me that’s a coincidence; there’s got to be a message in something as exact as that. In the same way, Job gets his children back and this is, once again, quite exact. He lost seven sons and three daughters and gets back exactly the same number of both. Again, this is no coincidence.

Recovery is not as Simple as that

So, there you go, right? Everything lost has been given back. Trauma over. All’s well that ends well. Except here is the problem. Recovering from trauma is never as simple as just getting everything you lost back. Never. And you might think, based on these details, that the Book of Job totally fails to reckon with that reality. It suggests a completely happy ending. But I’m not so sure about that. I think that if we play close attention to the story of that recovery, we might see how hard Job and the people around him had to work at it. But to understand that, I think we may need to consider the story from the point of view of somebody who lived it, maybe, say, as Job’s eldest daughter might have told it. That’s right, we need to hear Aunt Jemima’s story.

Job’s Sorrow

Come on, children. Come and sit at your Aunt Jemima’s knee because I have a story to tell you. You need to hear this story because my father, your great grandfather, Job, is coming to visit later this afternoon. You need to know this story before he comes. Your great granddaddy had some terrible things happened to him many, many years ago. He lost everything that he held dear, not only everything that he owned but also everyone that he loved. He had ten children in those days, seven strapping sons and three beautiful daughters. But he lost them all in one tragic accident. Oh, my beautiful babies, you have no idea how much Job wept for those children.

And your great granddaddy tried for days on end to understand why such things had happened to him. He knew he had done nothing to deserve such tragedy. He spoke to his friends trying to find an answer and, in the end, he spoke to God and God came to answer. Now, did God ever explain to Job why such terrible things had to happen to him? Not really. God just sort of overwhelmed Job by talking about all the complexity of the universe until Job just gave up his arguments. Sometimes, you see, we never do get a clear answer to that question of why bad things happen to us.

You Can’t Replace Children

But the good news is that your great granddaddy got through it all. He survived and came out the other end of all of his struggles. He got all of his possessions back, in fact twice as much as he had before. And, blessing of blessings, he had ten more children – seven sons and three daughters. I was the first of those children.

And this is what you need to know today, children. Job loves me and all his children and he loves his grandchildren and, you, his great grandchildren. He loves you so much. But when he comes today, it may not seem that way. Instead of smiling and laughing, he will probably weep when he sees you. He’ll weep because you remind him of those children that he lost.

No matter how many children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren he has, they cannot possibly replace even one that he lost. Lost children never work that way, never have and never will. I know that sometimes people, trying to comfort someone who’s lost a child, will say that. They’ll say, “Can’t you just have another one?” That can sometimes be the hardest thing for a grieving parent to hear, because they know they just want the one they lost back.

Living with the Fear

What’s more, having once lost so much, Job also lives with a fear of losing it all again. That has made it hard for him to just enjoy the things that he has and to show love. Recovery from loss – especially the loss of children is just that hard. So be gentle and loving with your great grandfather, it is what he needs most of all.

The Trauma of Generational Loss

Children, I don’t think that many people understand how hard it is to recover from this sort of trauma, especially when a whole generation is lost. I heard about a tribe once – they lived far away from this land of Uz – but they were invaded by a foreign people who came in and occupied all their territory.

These new settlers treated the people who had been living there forever as if they were ignorant savages. They decided it would be better if their entire culture were eliminated. And so, they took all of the children of the people of this tribe away from their parents. They took them and put them in schools where they were not allowed to speak their language or practice their culture or religion. Many of these children were also abused in various ways.

The Challenges of Survival

But, much to the disappointment of the settlers, the original people survived. Many of their children died, but the people survived. But survival itself brought its own challenges. For the children did not know who they were anymore. And, when they had their own children, they had no parenting models to follow. So, even after the original destruction had come to an end, the effects of the trauma kept on being passed down from generation to generation to generation.

That’s exactly what Job didn’t want to happen for his family, and he worked hard to make sure it didn’t. And so, children, I’m going to tell you what measures he took because you might need to take similar measures some day.

Accept Help from the Right People

This is the first thing that Job did that helped him to recover. He accepted help. This is exactly where too many people fall short. When you’ve been through a really hard time, when you have struggled mightily and just barely managed to survive, there is a tendency to withdraw. After all, you don’t really want to talk about what you went through. That stirs up too many difficult emotions. And you can also feel this real need to be self-sufficient. But it’s just not going to work. Recovery, real recovery that lasts, always happens within a larger community of support.

So Job found that community of support. He had to be choosy. Not every friend was going to be helpful to him. In particular, the three so-called friends who came and argued with him that he must have deserved all of these bad things that happened to him, they weren’t going to be much help. So, he prayed for them, but then he just let them go on their way.

But then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all that he had gone through. They understood. And to them, Job could really talk about everything he had gone through and all of his emotions. And that, just that, was a necessary step for his recovery. It allowed him to begin to build his own story of what he had gone through and what it meant. And that became the beginning of a new story of who he was and where he was going from there.

Accept Other Kinds of Help

So, the sympathy and listening ears they brought meant a great deal. But they were also the beginning of his financial recovery as well as each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. So, my darling grandchildren, never forget that you need the help of good and trustworthy friends in order to recover from your trauma.

Job’s Emphasis on his Daughters

But there was something else that father Job did that truly saved the future generations of his family, something that I will never forget. It was about his children. He had seven new sons and three daughters. But here is the funny thing, if you go and look at the records of his family, you will not find the name of any of those sons anywhere. Now, Job loved his sons, there is no question about that! But he lived in a world that put all the emphasis on sons. They were the ones whose names were supposed to live on. They were the ones who were expected to build the future. But Job, after all he had gone through, decided that recovery for the future of his family needed to be led from someplace else.

Job had three daughters. I, Jemima, was his first born, and then Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. And you all know those names because your great-grandfather resolved that no one would ever forget his daughters. He knew that they would be the best leaders for the recovery from trauma. He even made sure that his daughters would inherit an equal portion of all his property with his sons, something that is quite unheard of in our world, as you know.

Women are a Key to Recovery

Job did all of this because he understood something that people too often fail to realize: there can be no recovery from tragedy if women are not a key part of it. There was a time when banks and development agencies tried to help whole countries recover from poverty or natural disasters by making investments, but they made a mistake. They chose only to invest in the traditional economic drivers like government and established industry. It was often not successful, sometimes driving corruption and embezzlement and often leading to a high failure rate. But they discovered something. When they gave loans to women, even very small loans to start some small enterprise, it almost always drove economic growth that helped the whole community.

This may have something to do with how women prioritize family and community and want to build for the next generation. It certainly has something to do with how women are often the carriers of important traditions that they keep and pass down, kind of like I’m doing when I tell you this story today. Well, Job understood this.

People told him that he shouldn’t make so much of his daughters, that he shouldn’t let them inherit alongside his sons. But Job knew better than anybody the trauma that he had been through, and in order to make sure that the scars of that trauma didn’t get passed down to the next generation and the next until it came to you, this was the wise decision that he made. If you ever get the chance to help people recover from trauma, you need to keep this in mind as well.

End of Story

Well, children, that’s the story that Aunt Jemima has for you today. Great granddaddy Job will be here very soon, so you all go and you put on your best clothes and wash your faces and get ready to greet him with the biggest hug any patriarch has ever received.

The Challenge of the End of the Book

I know that people often turn to the Book of Job as they try to process the very difficult question of why bad things happen. It is a useful book for that, even if it doesn’t give crystal-clear answers, probably because there are no crystal-clear answers. So, I’ve always loved the book for how it helps us to deal with that question.

But I’ve always had problems with the ending. Yes, it does say that, in the end, Job got everything back that he lost including a whole set of replacement children. But that always troubled me because I have tried to minister to many people who’ve gone through traumatic loss, and I know that just getting back what you lost is not the same thing as recovering. I also know that it never helps a parent get over the loss of a child when you suggest that they can just have another one.

But this time as I read the story, especially as I reflected on Jemima and her sisters, I realized that there is more to the story than that, and it really does lay out some of the steps that actually do help a person to recover from such devastating loss.

Dealing with your Trauma and Loss

So, if you have suffered that kind of trauma, or if you know someone that you love who has, I would counsel you to never underestimate the impact of the wounds and the scars that you carry. They are serious and they do not just affect you, they can also be passed down in your family. Be wise like Job and take steps to deal with your trauma. Find safe and supportive people that you can trust who will listen to you and help you process your experience. In some cases, you may need someone who has been professionally trained to do that. Do not be afraid to ask for help, we all need it sometimes. And make investments in the people who will build a better future for yourself and your family and everything you want to leave for the generations yet to come.

Watch the YouTube video here:

https://youtu.be/eqMWMoNod68

Hespeler, 10 October, 2021 © Scott McAndless – Thanksgiving
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15, Psalm 90:12-17, Hebrews 4:12-16, Mark 10:17-31

The story is told that, in Jerusalem in the early years of the first century, there was a gate in the city wall that was popularly known as the eye of the needle. This gate was apparently quite handy for those who engaged in the import/export trade – maybe especially those who engaged in it without wanting to bother paying annoying things like taxes and tariffs, if you know what I mean. The reason they liked this gate was because it was generally left open at night when the main gates were closed. As such, it offered an easy way to avoid the attention of customs inspectors.

Getting Through the Gate

But there was one problem. The gate was very small. And so, when a trader arrived at this gate with a camel train carrying all manner of goods that he wanted to take to market, he would quickly discover that it was so small that a camel bearing all of its burdens could not pass through it.

And so the merchant would have to remove every pack from the animal’s back. Then he would have to remove the beautifully engraved saddle that he had inherited from his father and even the fine metal bridles and bits that had been in his family for generations. The man would have to lay all of these possessions and assets of his on the ground and only then lead the camel towards the gate.

But even then, it was not possible for the camel to pass. Camels are quite unique as beasts of burden in their ability to bend their knees and get right down to the ground, and that is what the camel would have to do next. And it was only in that extremely humble position that the camel was able to crawl its way through the gate. Only then, could it stand again, and the trader could push all of his possessions through the gate, put them back on the animal and go on his way.

The Saying of Jesus

And it is said that, when Jesus turned to his disciples one day and said to them, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God,” that he understood and all his disciples understood that what he was actually referring to was not the eye of a literal sewing needle, don’t be ridiculous! No, they all understood that he was talking about that gate in Jerusalem.

And if they all understood that, then doesn’t that give us a perfect interpretation of that famous saying of Jesus? Because then it would mean that Jesus was saying that the problem is not really with our wealth and possessions. It is not really these things that prevent us from being part of the kingdom of God. The problem is our attitude towards our wealth and possessions. And if we, like the camel, can lay aside all of our earthly possessions without regret and if we can get down on our knees in thanksgiving to the God who has provided all of these things for us, well, then we too can pass through the gate and into the kingdom, at which point, I guess, we get all our possessions back too.

A Perfect Thanksgiving Application

It seems just perfect, doesn’t it? And wouldn’t that just make a beautiful application of this saying of Jesus on this day when we celebrate Thanksgiving? It’s a reminder that we can enjoy the good things of life, so long as we set aside a day like this on which we are truly grateful. You have maybe even heard that interpretation of this saying of Jesus before because it has been used in many sermons by preachers of all sorts. It is a very popular interpretation.

It is Bunk

There is just one problem. It is all bunk. The fact of the matter is that there was no such gate in the city of Jerusalem in the times of Jesus nor at any other point in time. Jerusalem is one of the most archaeologically investigated sites on the face of the earth, no such gate has ever been found. Even more significant, there is no mention of such a gate in any of the ancient records. In fact, nobody ever seems to have heard of such a gate until, in relatively modern times, the story I just told you began to circulate.

The Illustration that Took Off

So, do you know what I think likely happened? I suspect that, at some point, there was a Christian preacher much like myself who was struggling with this particular saying of Jesus because it is, of course, a really troubling saying. And he (let’s face it, given how long ago this likely happened, it was probably a male preacher) – he was looking for some way to make this saying relevant and palatable to the people in his congregation.

So, he made up a gate that never existed. He probably originally made it up just as an illustration. I’ll bet, in the original sermon, he did not actually say that the gate really existed. But, you know how people are. They always remember the sermon illustrations much better than they remember the actual point of the sermon. So, the story just spread around. And, before long, the actual existence of the gate was taken for granted. Nobody questioned it.

Looking for Loopholes

And I can understand why. Such an interpretation is so much easier to take than what Jesus was apparently really saying. In fact, the history of this particular saying of Jesus is a history of people looking for loopholes. I heard a joke the other day saying that Elon Musk, who is apparently now the richest man in the world, has been funding research lately on the miniaturization of camels and the magnification of needles’ eyes.

I heard that joke and I laughed, but then I thought about what the richest men in the world, men like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, have been doing lately. They, and a few other global billionaires, have literally been engaging in a self-funded space race. It rather seems as if they have decided that, if they can’t fit a camel through a needle’s eye, they are just going to fly directly to the kingdom of heaven in rockets.

How Jesus would Reply to the Super Rich

I can’t help but wonder how Jesus might reply to such men and their quest today. I think that men like that actually have a lot in common with that rich young ruler that had come up to Jesus that day. We are told that this man came up to Jesus with this question, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And notice that that question is very specific.

He doesn’t ask, for example, “Good teacher, how can I get into heaven?” Nor does he ask, “How can I be part of this ‘kingdom of God’ that you are always going on about?” Being part of the kingdom of God was all about how you lived out this life as a part of what God was accomplishing in the world. Getting into heaven was all about what happened after you died, but this man asks about neither of those things. This man just wants to straight up live forever.

What the Super Rich are Doing

That is what I see the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk doing these days. They’ve already got everything of this world they could possibly desire. I mean, these are men who have so much wealth that they literally could not possibly spend it all no matter what they did. The interest and return on investment they earn grows much faster than what they could possibly spend buying things. They’ve gotten to this place where possessions don’t actually mean anything anymore.

And so what do they seek? They seek eternal life. To quote a movie score, “(Fame) I’m gonna make it to heaven, Light up the sky like a flame. (Fame) I’m gonna live forever. Baby, remember my name.” And they think that using their wealth to conquer outer space is the way they are going to do that.

And I know that they’ve done their best to present what they do as being ultra cool and all for the sake of the future of humanity, but I really think most people see through that. I suspect that Jesus would have seen through it too. Had they come up to Jesus and said, “What must I do to live forever?” They would have probably cut Jesus off even before he started listing off the commandments and said, “Hey, did you hear that I went into space?”

But the story still would have ended with Jesus shaking his head and saying, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and use it to lift billions from poverty, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

Little has Changed

These men remind us of just how little has changed since Jesus first spoke to that rich young ruler. The richest people in the world are still full of themselves. And even when they do things that they like to think of as trying to better the world, their extreme wealth tends to skew their perception.

Yes, today’s billionaires may think of themselves as saving humanity by providing us a path to the stars, but it’s pretty clear, from the way they go about it, that it’s all about them saving the world. Yes, Bill Gates, who was once the world’s richest man, may have given away huge quantities of money through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but when you look at how he set all of that up, he managed to keep a whole lot of control over how the money was spent so that it would align with his vision of what the world was supposed to be. He made sure that it was kind of all about him.

The Distortion Caused by Wealth

And I think that that is what Jesus is really getting at in his interaction with this rich young ruler and his saying about camels and needles’ eyes. There is no denying that you can do a lot of good with wealth. In fact, given all of the ways in which the world actually works, it is practically impossible to do good without access to wealth. That is why churches and non-profits actually have to invest a fair bit of energy into raising funds. But what Jesus is saying is that wealth itself has a power to distort even the noblest of goals. And the more there is of it, the more distortion may occur. I think that’s what we are seeing happening in the billionaire space race these days.

Jesus Asks for More

And Jesus was saying more than just that we have to take all of our belongings off of the camel and make the camel kneel down before going through the gate. He was saying that, if we really want to be part of the kingdom of God, which, remember, is all about what God is doing in this world to bring about God’s vision of peace and justice and goodness for all, then we have to let go of that distorting influence in our life. Wealth and the pursuit of it and the illusion of security that it brings, these are the very things that prevent us from being a part of the kingdom of God here and now.

And, while some can and will take Jesus’ advice to just give everything away to the poor, the practical truth of living in this world is that most of us will not be able to do that. But understand that, by not giving everything away, we are choosing the much more difficult path, indeed the impossible path. We have to deny the power that wealth has over us. The good news, however, is that God is so committed to bringing about God’s kingdom, that the impossible can happen.

Embracing the Impossible

So, yes, we are in a tough spot on this Thanksgiving Sunday. We do want to gather and celebrate the incredible bounty of harvest and all of the good things that God gives us in this world. And I would say yes, be truly thankful for all of these things today and every day. But do not forget to go beyond thanks to embrace the real challenge that your God gives to you today, to actually pursue the impossible reality of the kingdom of God.

https://youtu.be/Ccbbjr4tLb8