Category: Minister

https://youtu.be/p0Q4ig2CNr0

Hespeler, March 2, 2025 © Scott McAndless – Transfiguration Sunday
Exodus 34:29-35, Psalm 99, 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2, Luke 9:28-36, Luke 9:37-43a

The rumour in the camp was that underneath the veil, the face of Moses was shining so brightly that no one could stand the sight of it. That’s what they said, but of course, none of them had ever actually seen it because of the veil.

He would disappear for hours at a time in a tent – in a place that was called the holy of holies. And people said that he met with God and received messages from God there.

What was it like? They knew that Moses wasn’t hearing some voice booming from heaven because surely that was something that they would have heard outside of the tent. Some people argued that perhaps the voice of God came to him more like a whisper – a disembodied voice emanating from the empty space just above the Ark of the Covenant. Others liked to imagine that God materialized bodily right in the tent as a heavenly being in the form of a man or perhaps as a spiritual being made of little more than wind.

They Hadn’t a Clue

They imagined all kinds of things because they really hadn’t a clue what went on in there. They just imagined these wild scenarios, terrifying themselves in the process. All that they knew for sure was that he did encounter God in there and that God gave him messages for all the people.

They probably would have been surprised and maybe disappointed to find out what actually went on in that tent.

Moses didn’t hear voices, not really. He spent his time in deep meditation, emptying his mind of all extraneous thought and then reflecting upon his experience and the law that had been passed down among the people of Israel to discern what God might have to say about any particular circumstance.

And yes, he did believe that the answers that came to him were answers given by God. But that belief was often mixed with doubt and always mixed with an understanding that any answers he came to were partial and incomplete. He struggled over every answer as someone who was called to lead God’s people.

The Veil Effect

But the people saw none of that struggle because of the veil. Yes, they said it was to cover up the scary aftereffects of him being in the presence of God. But they never got to peek under it. If his face was actually shining or if it was just showing lingering uncertainty or doubt, they didn’t know because all they saw was the veil.

It made everything that Moses said when he wore it absolute truth, the unquestioned word of God. It removed all shades of grey and reduced it all to black and white. But sometimes, I think, Moses must have wished for someone to understand that, under the veil he was just a man and maybe struggled with many of the things that they did.

I find that image of Moses wearing that veil and speaking for God through it to be extremely important. It is fascinating because the wearing of the veil indicates the presence of something that no one can see because of it: the shining of Moses’ face – the lingering aftereffects of being in the presence of God. Ironically, they only know that it is there because they can’t see it.

The Role of Clergy

I think that this brief passage is key to understanding the role that priests and clergy have played in society down through the ages and right up to today. Clergy are these people who have been seen as having a unique relationship with God. They go into their study or vestry or prayer closet and God speaks to them in ways that are not accessible to other people.

In ancient times it was not uncommon for clergy to then literally put a mask or veil over their face and become the literal voice of the god to the people. We have become a little bit more sophisticated than that, of course. But we still have this tendency to defer to our clergy when we see them wearing certain collars or vestments or speaking from special places. It marks them as speaking for God.

My Conflicted Feelings

I have always felt a little bit conflicted about all such thinking. Let me say this. As a member of the clergy and as someone called to preach in the church of Jesus Christ, I do believe that God uses me to speak the word of God. I know that I have written sermons and said things that, unquestionably as far as I am concerned, come from God and are things that God wants said here and now.

And, no, that is not because I have heard God speaking to me as a voice booming from heaven, nor even some still small voice whispering to me from an invisible point above the communion table.

I have found that message through years of studying the Bible and reading many scholars. I have particularly found that message by reflecting on contemporary events and struggling with the question of how they might relate to scriptures written in a very different time and place. On top of that, I also take the time to meditate and reflect on all of that to allow space for the Holy Spirit to guide my thoughts.

My Doubts and Questions

And when I do all of that, I have often been amazed to discover a message that I am quite convinced is from God. But, at the same time, I would never say that I don’t have any doubts about that.

I would also never suggest that I have received a complete and final oracle from God – it is more of a particular word for a particular moment. But it certainly is exhilarating to receive and to be able to pass on such a message.

But then what do I do? I come into the church and pass on that message. And, though I do not wear a literal mask or veil, I do feel like there is a kind of a metaphorical veil when I do so. All of the doubt and the ambiguity and the incompleteness of the message is covered up. All of the shades of grey that were there in the study somehow get filtered down to black and white.

That’s why I think I can understand what Moses went through when he put on the veil. I think, to a certain extent every priest and member of the clergy can understand. And maybe, to a certain extent, that veil is necessary. Maybe there are times when we need to have the message presented in black and white, but I still wish that we could find ways to give people more glimpses beneath that veil.

The Role of Clergy

I think that this passage is inviting us to probe a little deeper into the role of clergy in our churches at a time when it seems to be in flux. For many decades now, the life and work specifically of our Presbyterian Churches has been dominated by the clergy.

Most of us grew up in a time when it was normal for every congregation to be led by one minister, at least in urban settings. In rural settings, two or sometimes three-point charges were also quite common. But the assumption was that there would almost always be that clergy in that leadership position.

When a minister moved on or retired, the expectation was that they would be replaced in fairly short order. The interim period was a scary time; congregations did their best to move through it as quickly as possible. The church could then breathe a sigh of relief when a new minister was called and get back to “normal.”

Not Working That Way

I don’t know if you have noticed this, but things don’t quite work like that in many of our churches these days. Many of the other Presbyterian churches around us these days don’t have full-time clergy. Many of them can’t afford them or struggle to find them if they can.

As a result, the clergy that we do have are being stretched thinner and asked to do more to keep our churches going. This is something that has been contributing to clergy burnout and people leaving the profession, something that has been happening across the religious spectrum in recent years.

Now, I do believe that there is a vital role for the clergy in our churches. I do believe that the depth of study and experience we bring to the church is essential. I expect clergy to continue to contribute in that way for a long time to come. But I also think that we are going to see a shift in the role of the clergy in coming years.

In particular, I see us shifting from being a denomination that is clergy led and supported by the laity to one that is led by the laity who are supported by the clergy. That is a subtle shift, but its an important one. And one of the key parts of that is a changing attitude towards those jobs that have been traditionally reserved only for the clergy.

Traditionally, in our denomination, the things that only clergy could do were preaching, leading the sacraments of baptism and communion, and moderating sessions. But that is changing, and I believe the change will accelerate in years to come.

Lay Leadership

For some time now, we have come to realize the wisdom and blessing that comes from the preaching of the laity. We have learned that lay preachers are not lesser preachers, nor greater preachers, but they are different preachers and they bring their own perspective which is valuable and enlightening.

More recently, the church has opened up ways for the laity to step up and offer leadership in the sacraments. And again, that’s not because they do it better nor is it that they are second best. They bring their own unique approach and wisdom to the task and that is also a gift to the church.

That is why, when the session considered the possibility of designating one of our elders as a sacramental elder, I supported the motion. I think having Steve as such an elder is an incredible asset that we now have.

We can ask him now to preside at the communion table or at the baptismal font when it is needed. We can even designate him to go to other congregations and lead in the sacraments when they may have a hard time finding someone to do so.

Important Development

I welcome this development. Some might say that it takes away from the uniqueness and the mystique of the role of the clergy. Some even think that it will make the clergy irrelevant. But I don’t see it that way. I see it as welcoming us all to peek beyond the veil. It is an invitation to see that whoever is preaching or whoever is leading in the sacraments, they are human.

They don’t really have all the final answers. They don’t have an absolute truth that they can present in black and white. And they are not manipulating some sort of magical power. But they do have what we all have, the ability to encounter God in our own way and on our own terms and to share that experience with others in powerful ways.

I respect the traditional role of the clergy and also the traditional ways in which their special role has been marked. We don’t use veils or masks, but we have found other ways to mark them as speakers of the truth.

But truth, as important as it is, is seldom black and white. Finding truth is a struggle and a quest. It involves frequent doubts and questions and uncertainties. But it is the most important struggle that we can ever have. And it is something that I invite us all to engage in, beneath the veil.

https://youtu.be/2ke6vHUS1Hc

Hespeler, February 23, 2025 © Scott McAndless – Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany 
Genesis 45:3-15, Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40, 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50, Luke 6:27-38 

The sons of Jacob had been hearing disturbing things about the country to the south (and west) of them for some time. It seemed that Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had essentially handed over the control of his entire nation to some unelected immigrant who he called Zaphnath-Paaneah. (Genesis 41:45) 

I realize that that name is a bit of a mouthful. That is why people mostly referred to this man as the First Buddy. When they wanted to mock the Pharaoh for giving up most of his power, they called him President Zaph.  

Having obtained enormous power, President Zaph immediately set about using it in unprecedented ways. He created a new department to achieve his goal of Disrupting Operations Governing Egypt (or D.O.G.E. as he liked to call it). And he sent out his DOGE goons to seize control of all of the granaries in the country. 

The Seven-Year Plan 

He spent the next seven years plundering the best food produced in the Nile Valley, the breadbasket of the ancient world, from the farmers and workers of Egypt. All of the food he took and stored up in the granaries that were under his exclusive control. 

When people complained and asked who he was to do such things, Zaph explained that he was doing it all for their own good. He understood that what he was doing might cause the people of Egypt enormous harm, but that was a price that he was willing to pay. 

The Collapse 

And then, after seven years of Zaph sucking up everything from the people and imposing complete control, it was like everything finally collapsed. The entire economy had been despoiled of all of its resources and many sectors just began to shut down. This led to a recession that caused widespread shortages. 

This was the crisis that President Zaph was ready to exploit. He opened up his granaries and storehouses to offer food to the Egyptians and even to people who were starving everywhere. And, since he had established complete control of supply, he was able to charge whatever he wanted for the food.  

Opposition? 

Did anyone complain? Did anyone point out that the food that he was now selling to the people of Egypt at a premium had actually been seized from them over the previous seven years? Did anyone add that it had been taken with the promise that it was being done for their own good and that it would be available for them when bad times came?  

Well, there were no reports of anyone raising any of those issues. Was that really because everyone was happy with the situation? Maybe, but the sons of Jacob suspected that it was more like no one was brave enough to object, or maybe even that anyone who did dare to step forward had been eliminated as a lesson to the rest. 

The View from Up North 

The people of Egypt, and indeed of the whole world including the sons of Jacob up north in Canaan were reeling. The change and chaos brought by Zaph’s actions had thrown everyone off balance. People were walking around shell-shocked and hadn’t a clue what to do. 

Many assumed that Zaph was just plain evil. Perhaps they would have had some sympathy for him if they had known some of the struggles he had faced in his life. 

He had always had a hard time fitting in. He was different – probably on the autism spectrum or neuro-divergent in some other way. His birth family had also treated him horribly, inflicting horrible emotional trauma on him. 

So maybe there was more to the story of Zaph and what had made him the man that he was. Whatever the whole story was, though, the devastating effects of everything that he was doing were plain for anyone to see. 

Practical Effects 

The Egyptian people lost everything – not only their life savings, but also their livestock, their ancestral farms and ultimately their own freedom as they literally sold themselves into slavery. 

And there was President Zaph sitting upon an ever-increasing mountain of wealth. He said that he was holding it on behalf of the Pharaoh and all people of Egypt, of course. But he was the one who had exclusive control of it. And when it comes to wealth, practical control always trumps theoretical ownership. 

The Crisis in Canaan 

The crisis in Egypt quickly became a recession. The Pharaoh responded by raising tariffs on surrounding nations which meant that the economic pain quickly spread beyond the borders. Up north in Canaan, the brothers were suffering. They needed to replenish their stores and they had heard that the only place where there was any surplus was in the granaries that were under control of Zaph. 

And so, they pulled together an enormous amount of money and headed down south to deal with the man himself. 

The Brothers in Egypt 

It was a horrible experience. First of all, he treated them like criminals, interrogating them endlessly, probing into every detail of their lives and family. Then, just for his own amusement, he just threw them in jail for three days. Finally he let them buy some supplies and return home, but actually kept one of them as a hostage that he said he’d only release to them when they brought back to him their youngest brother, Benjamin, their father’s favourite. 

They were terrified by this man, but what choice did they have? They played his game. And then when they returned with Benjamin, Zaph went on to frame him for theft, threatening to take him and make a slave of him. 

The brothers were beside themselves. This man was clearly a monster! But now he was not only robbing from the Egyptians and using the stolen goods to play with them. He was about to destroy the life of their baby brother for no reason! And this was not just about Benjamin, if they didn’t bring Ben home, the loss would probably kill their father too. 

That was when Judah stepped forward and fell to the ground before the evil oligarch. “Take me, take me instead, O President Zaph. You can ruin my life if you wish, but please, if you have an ounce of humanity in you, let the kid go.” 

Surprise Reaction 

That was when Zaphnath-Paaneah suddenly ordered all of his Egyptian attendants to leave. This included his Canaanite interpreter who had enabled the entire conversation up until this point. The brothers looked at each other uneasily. For all they knew this madman had just gotten rid of the witnesses and he was about to have them all killed, and their bodies thrown in the Nile! They were going to be annihilated! 

But, no sooner had everyone left than a strange look came over Zaph’s face. Then, as the brothers look at each other in utter confusion, the most bizarre thing that had happened yet in this entire story took place. Zaph began to weep uncontrollably. 

It was a real ugly cry. The tears flowed down his face like a waterfall. He kept trying to speak but he was sobbing so hard that they couldn’t make anything out even though he amazingly seemed to be trying to speak their own Canaanite dialect. 

True Identity of President Zaph 

This went on for several very embarrassing minutes until Zaph finally caught his breath. When they finally caught what he had been trying to say, they completely understood why it had taken them so long. It was literally unbelievable.  

“Judah, it’s me. It’s Joseph. Remember, the brother that it was your brilliant idea to sell into slavery for 20 pieces of silver? Is… is my father really still alive?” 

That was about all he managed to get out before he turned and hugged his brother Benjamin like a man who had never before been hugged in his entire life. 

That was when the fear of the brothers turned into utter panic.  

Skipping the Troubling Parts 

We have a certain tendency in the church to skip over some of the really troubling parts of the story and rush to the happy ending. I think that might be one reason why people sometimes think that the Bible is irrelevant to modern life. We give people this impression that it only says that all is well and that God is obviously in control and making everything well. Meanwhile, people are living in a world where things go very wrong all the time.  

Well, the story of Joseph is a story that is very much set in the real world. To just reduce it to a happy ending (which our reading selection from the Lectionary would have us do) is to totally miss all of that. For one thing, we skip over the terrible trauma that Joseph goes through. It starts with him being rejected, beaten and sold into slavery by his own family and gets worse from there. 

Egypt’s Trauma 

But more interesting to me today is how we skip over the trauma that was inflicted on Egypt and the world because of the trauma that Joseph had suffered. The story I just told you about what I call the disruption of Egypt is absolutely there in the Book of Genesis and it is the story of people who had their whole world systematically dismantled. 

The Story in Genesis 

Of course, the story in Genesis is told from the point of view of Joseph who seems to be confident that he is doing the right thing for the people of Egypt. 

But let me tell you something. Anyone looking from the outside on the actions of the man given the name Zaphnath-Paaneah by the Pharaoh would have seen it much like I have described. He disrupted every system and norm of the Egyptian state leaving fear, destruction and chaos in his wake. And everyone was terrified at where all of this might lead – even Canaanites looking on from the North.  

Does any of that sound familiar? Does any of it sound relevant to the kinds of things we see going on in our world today? I’m afraid it does. And I talk to many people who are reeling these days as so many of our assumptions about how the world is supposed to work are thrown into chaos.  

Well, I wanted to tell you this story to let you know that, if you are feeling like that, you are not alone. The people of Egypt experienced it in biblical times and so did their appalled neighbours to the north. 

So, the Bible understands what you may be feeling. But I suspect you may be looking for more than just understanding today. The big question for today is what do we do when the world falls apart like that. The big question is where do we find hope. 

Seeing Their Enemy Anew 

Joseph stared at his brothers; his brothers stared at him. It was a remarkable moment. The sons of Jacob had spent the last nine years seeing this man in front of them only as President Zaph – their enemy who had been put on earth merely to torment them.  

And now, they were being forced in a moment to see him a completely different light. They were forced to see how they were connected to him. Indeed, they were all part of the same dysfunctional family and had even played their own part in making him the flawed person that he was. 

I wish I could tell you that that recognition of their connection suddenly made everything alright. The damage that Zaph had done still remained. The Egyptians were still destitute and enslaved. The whole world was in an economic mess that was causing untold misery. There are no easy fixes once the oligarchs take over and plunder everything of value.  

More Connected than We Think 

But perhaps if this story can teach us anything, it is that we are more connected than we usually realize. The objects of our hatred and scorn – the ones who seem to be ruining our lives are our own family.  

That means, for one thing, that we have a voice. We can speak up against the systems at work that are robbing people of their autonomy and freedom. It also means that we can have compassion for those who are plundering the world – to understand that they are only trying to fill an aching void within them that can never be filled by all the wealth in the world (as some of our wealthiest billionaires are definitely demonstrating to us these days). 

Compassion doesn’t mean we don’t oppose them, of course, but it does recognize that healing can only come when we find the common humanity of all.  

Joseph wept inconsolably on the neck of his little brother Benjamin who reached up and placed his hand on Joseph’s head. 

“You are my brother and I love you,” he said. “You’ve made a terrible mess, but I love you.” 

https://youtu.be/kG2Xxz07Mtc

In the Gospel of Matthew, the beatitudes of Jesus – that famous list of those who are blessed – are delivered from a mountaintop. That is why we call it the Sermon on the Mount. Mountains represent hierarchy – the idea that some things are naturally higher than and rule over others. In Matthew the beatitudes are literally a teaching that is handed down from on high.

I find it interesting that, when the same teaching is featured in the Gospel of Luke, the setting is so strikingly different. There Jesus delivers the beatitudes “on a level place.” Rather than looking down upon his disciples, Luke says that he looked up at them.

A Different Perspective

Surely this represents a different perspective on this very important teaching of Jesus. It is given in a setting where everyone is on the same level. Everyone, at least in Jesus’ eyes, is equal. And that perspective definitely changes the meaning of Jesus’ words, doesn’t it?

For one thing, it means that Jesus’ words are no longer directed only to certain people in the crowd – those he sees as particularly worthy of blessing. He must also address the others.

And I would like to reflect on one of those teachings today. I would like to imagine it not only reverberating across the people standing in that level place, but also to imagine these words echoing down through the centuries until today. I wonder how people might hear them in our times.

That teaching is this: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” Or, as it is put in the Good News Bible, “you have had your easy life!”

Prosperity Gospel

Imagine, for example, those words echoing down all the way to the pulpits of certain modern preachers. There are a number of them who, in our times, preach something called the “Prosperity Gospel.” Their message is fairly simple, and often quite persuasive.

If you listen to their messages, they will inform you that God wants you to be wealthy, like really wealthy. And they will promise you that, if you only live out the Christian Life in the way they tell you, which almost always includes committing to send them significant amounts of money, God will make you extremely rich.

These Prosperity Gospel preachers are always an excellent example to their flock as they demonstrate how to live a lavish lifestyle replete with mansions, private jets and expensive parties. Oh yes, they show you how to be wealthy.

Biblical Basis and Misuse

This way of understanding the gospel is not just wishful thinking or something that they made up. There are definitely passages in the Bible that seem to proclaim a sort of Prosperity Gospel. The Psalm that we read this morning is a perfect example.

The psalmist describes righteous people like this: “They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.” You see, it is right there. If you are righteous, if you are someone who always does the right thing, prosperity is guaranteed.

It is a lovely thought, of course. Imagine living in a world where everyone who did the right thing was always generously rewarded. But here is the thing. It is not always easy to judge someone’s righteousness or right action. But it is pretty easy to see who is really prosperous and who is not.

Teaching Turned on its Head

That’s why this teaching of the Bible often gets turned on its head. We look around and see all the extremely wealthy people and conclude that, if they are rich, God must have blessed them. And if God blessed them, it must be because they are righteous. The other side of that coin, of course, is that, if people are poor, it must be because they are bad. They must deserve it.

This is an assumption that it is so easy to fall into in our world. And the preachers of the Prosperity Gospel take advantage of that easy assumption. But anyone who pauses and reflects has to realize that things simply don’t work that way. There are also lots of Bible passages that complain about the evil who prosper and the righteous who are mistreated.

So, perhaps when these words of Jesus come echoing down through the centuries till today, we need to allow them to challenge the ways we think about the rich and just how worthy they really are to enjoy their prosperity. Perhaps we need to allow them to challenge the easy judgments we make of those who are in the ranks of the poor.

A Famous Scene

But the preachers are not the only ones who need to be challenged by these words of Jesus. Let’s imagine, for a moment, them carrying all the way to a scene that famously took place about a month ago. On that day, three people were gathered in one place who were the richest people in the entire world. Their names were, in order, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.

But let me be a bit more precise. They were not just the three richest people in the world at that moment. They are the three richest people who have ever existed in the entire history of the world. More wealth was concentrated in that one spot than has ever been extracted from the global economy before. And it is wealth that every single one of us has contributed to because you actually cannot function in the modern world without using the various services that have made them so wealthy.

Now, was Jesus speaking to them when he said, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation”? He absolutely was. Sure, nobody in the crowd that day would have been able to imagine that such people could ever possibly exist. But there is no better example of what Jesus was really talking about.

Having Enough

So, what would they think if those words came to them? I suspect that they would find them hilarious. I think that they would especially laugh at the part where Jesus says to them, “you have received your consolation.” That implies, doesn’t it, that they have enough – that they don’t need anything more.

And let me tell you something. There is no group that is less satisfied with what they have than multi-billionaires. Every so often you will hear someone argue that billionaires make the best leaders because they already have what they need and so they won’t be tempted to engage in corruption or self-serving.

Insatiable Billionaires

That may sound reasonable. It is true that billionaires have so much money that they could never possibly spend it on themselves or their loved ones (if they have them) in several lifetimes. But it is actually only the very rare billionaire who ever decides that they have enough.

This is something that is absolutely undeniable as we see over the last few decades that all of the people who have billions have constantly managed to amass more and more. They have clearly decided that they have not yet received their consolation.

So, how would those billionaires react if they heard these words of Jesus echoing down to them. I think that I can hear them laughing from here.

Who Owns the Kingdom?

But there is another reason why they would laugh. This saying is contrasted in the Gospel with Jesus’ opening beatitude. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” So, Jesus has just promised the poor a kingdom and now goes on to say that the rich have already received as much as is coming to them. In other words, no kingdom for them!

Now, what kind of kingdom Jesus means when he says “the kingdom of God” is obviously a big question that we’ll come back to. But whatever this kingdom looks like, he is definitely saying that the poor get to rule over something.

And would our modern multi-billionaires laugh at that? You bet they would. I’m not sure we’ve all come to terms with this yet, but we are actually increasingly living in a world where the extremely wealthy have pretty much taken over.

Failing Systems

And yes, I know, you will say to me that our democratic systems of government are still in place and so the oligarchs are technically not in control. But the wealthy have such control over everything that keeps our democracy running that it doesn’t seem to matter very much. When, for example, they control almost all of our primary modes of communication, do they not also control most of the levers that flip our democracy one way or the other?

They have taken over the kingdom of this world and they don’t seem to be hesitating to use their position to build up their wealth and power even further. I kind of suspect that Elon Musk might take over the entire U.S. Treasury at some point if he hasn’t already. And the world is not stopping them. It seems to have declared, “You who are rich are obviously blessed, so why don’t you just take over everything and we’ll hope for the best.”

That is the simple truth, these words of Jesus would be met with nothing but mockery and derision from the wealthy of our world if they were spoken today. And so it also was when Jesus first said them.

Why did He Say it?

So, why did he say it? He was obviously not offering a commentary on how the world actually works, because it doesn’t work that way. It never has. It is clear that he was offering a picture of an entirely different system – a picture of the way that the world should work, rather than a pragmatic picture of how it does work.  That is what he means when he talks about the kingdom of God.

I know that we often speak about the kingdom of God as something that is only achieved in another world – a place we go only after we die. I understand where that kind of thinking comes from. The picture of a world where the extremely rich are satisfied and not in the process of taking over that Jesus presents here seems so impossible that we are often left thinking that the kingdom of God must be a literal pie in the sky idea.

But Jesus wasn’t talking about what might happen in heaven one day. He was talking about here and now. He said “Blessed are you who are poor, For yours is the kingdom of God.” And he spoke of the consolation of the rich as something that was over and done with.

So what do we do with that? Because I am not ready to say that Jesus was just delusional and had no understanding of what he was talking about. I hope you aren’t either.

An Alternate System

Jesus was proclaiming that the world’s system and much of its functioning was corrupt. But when he spoke about the kingdom of God, what he was promising you and me was that we don’t have to live according to that system. We, by choosing to follow him, could opt out of this world’s system and choose to live in an alternate system – this thing that he called the kingdom of God.

And living in the reality of the kingdom of God is not just living in denial of how the world really works. It makes a practical difference. It is a difference that is to begin here, in the church, where we are called to live into the reality that, as Paul wrote, “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” He also could have added that there is no rich or poor, no oligarch and no powerless people in the thrall of oligarchs.

It Starts Here

It starts here where we demonstrate to the world that things can actually operate according to a different system. And it extends from here as we reach out into the community to treat all people, no matter who they are – no matter if they are poor or immigrants or minorities or people who don’t fit into the traditional roles of society – as people who are more valuable in themselves than the richest billionaire is according to this world’s measure.

And if we do it right, o my family in Christ, if we do it right, we will shake the wealthy in the very halls of their power. It is, to be fair for a moment, something that the church has rarely gotten right in its long history, but the potential is there. That potential was what Jesus was talking about when he stood and shared blessings and woes on that level place.

https://youtu.be/O4aeuUsvRs4

Hespeler, February 9, 2025 © Scott McAndless – Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 6:1-13, Psalm 138, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11

There I was, minding my own business. It was early in the morning and my partners and I had been out on the lake all night. We had worked our fingers to the bone casting and pulling in our nets just like we had been doing for years. Just like our fathers before us had also done, and their fathers, and their fathers for as long as anybody could remember.

We hadn’t caught anything on this night. Not that we necessarily minded. There was just something about being out there with our nets in our boats on the water that reminded us of good times past and stirred up many happy memories.

Time to Take Care of the Nets

And now, as the sun rose upon the horizon, we had one job left to do before turning in for the day. We pulled our boats up on the shore and we took out our nets.

And let me tell you something about our nets. We took great pride in them. These nets had been in our families for generations. But, as old as they were, they didn’t show it. We took such extraordinary care of them that, at the first sight of any sort of rip or tear, we carefully replaced and mended each cord.

Over the years, most every strand had probably been replaced at least once. But despite that, we knew that they were still the same nets. Somehow there was this indescribable essence to them that had not changed. We were bound and determined that it never would.

And so, at the end of the night we drew each net up and carefully washed each portion of it. We removed every scrap of seaweed and debris that might cause the fabric to smell, decay or discolour. It was a ritual for us, and a pleasing way to end our night of hard labour.

A Crowd Forms

At first, we barely noticed when the crowd began to form near the seashore. They were gathering around a man, an itinerant preacher who had come to town. He was telling them stories.

I’ll be honest. He was pretty good at it; he definitely held their attention. But they were mostly stories about things that didn’t concern fisher folk like us – stories of sowing seeds and farming and such. What did we care about such things? Our job is not to make things grow. We just go out to take what we need to survive.

So we were doing our best to tune him out as he went on and on. But the crowd kept on growing until there were so many people that many of them on the edges couldn’t hear him. That is when he came over to me.

An Odd Request

“Hey, friend,” he said, “would it be alright if I got in your boat and we pushed out a little bit so that the people could hear better?” I was honestly a bit surprised that this guy, who I’d heard was just a tekton, an unskilled construction labourer, was even aware of something that all fishers know – that a voice carries much better over the water than the land. He wouldn’t have learned that on his building sites.

Preaching from the Boat

I shrugged. Sure, that was something that I could do, but something in me wanted to make sure that he knew where my priorities lay in this whole situation. “Okay, I guess,” I said. “I can clean my nets just as well from the stern of my boat as on the shore.”

So we climbed in and I pushed off. Once we were a few yards from the shoreline, he nodded to me and I threw out the anchor stone and went back to my work. As he continued to speak, it was a little harder now to tune him out. He was just beside me. So, even as I continued to concentrate on my very important nets, I couldn’t help but be moved a bit as he spoke of a kingdom of God that was growing and spreading.

Deep Water

Eventually both his voice and the people had had enough. I looked over at him, expecting that he would ask me to put him ashore. But, to my surprise, he said to me, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 

Now, here’s the thing. We had been out all night fishing. Sure, we hadn’t gone out in the deep water. We had remained in the shallows because we didn’t like to try anything too dangerous or unfamiliar.

Our families had been fishing in this way – in the safe shallows at night – for generations. And I couldn’t help but feel a bit resentful that this tekton, this unskilled worker in stone and wood, was presuming to teach us how to fish. Sure, our approach hadn’t us netted us any fish this night – indeed it often didn’t – but it was how we had always done things.

Tricking Myself

So I started to say so. “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing.” But, even as those words came out of my mouth, they didn’t quite seem like the rebuke that they were in my mind. Hadn’t I just admitted that our traditional approach was actually getting zero results?

And so I guess I kind of tricked myself into what I said next. “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” Rather than arguing with him, it seemed better to just demonstrate that his approach wasn't going to work . That is why I am almost embarrassed to tell you what happened next. No sooner did we get to the deep water and cast the nets than we began to haul them up bursting full of fish.

The Problem With Success

Now, you might think that me and my mates would have been thrilled at such an outcome. And for a few moments, perhaps we were. But then we realized the real downside of such success. Our precious nets – these family heirlooms that we had so lovingly cleaned and cared for for so long – immediately began to tear at the weight of all the fish.

Then, as we just barely managed to haul the nets back on board, we soon discovered that the bottoms of our boats were so filled with squirming and flopping fish that they began to swamp and sink.

Our most precious possessions were at risk! This was not acceptable! I had to make it stop! I turned to the man whose fault all of this was. I fell down at his knees and cried out, “Get out of here, Lord! I am a sinful man, I’m not equipped to handle this kind of success!”

Not About Fish

The story of the great catch of fish in the Gospel of Luke is not about fish. I mean, maybe that is something that is absolutely obvious to you. After all, Jesus himself says as much at the end of the story. But I really think that it is important that we understand that here today.

This story is not about something that happened by the side of the lake in the town of Capernaum. It is absolutely about us and it is about today. And who are we in this story? We are clearly Simon and his team.

Nets and Boats

And what do the nets and the boats that the fishers inherited from their ancestors in this story represent? They are the church buildings and items and traditions that we have inherited from our spiritual ancestors. We, like they, can get pretty obsessed with making sure that they are clean and well taken care of, can’t we?

So, we are the fishers. The nets and the boats, they are our church buildings and traditions, right? And what about the complaint of Simon? “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing.” Well, that is totally our complaint isn’t it? I hear Presbyterian congregations all the time complaining about how they work so hard to keep their boat floating and their nets clean.

And they absolutely do. Many seem to be wearing themselves out just trying to keep things afloat. And they also complain that they aren’t catching any fish, that new people aren’t showing up in their churches. I hear both of those things all the time.

Are There No Fish?

But here is when it all gets interesting. Our complaint is usually that there aren’t any fish out there. No one is interested in what we have to offer and so we wear ourselves out just keeping things going.

But notice that Simon at no point says that there aren’t any fish out in the Sea of Galilee. What he says is that they have been out there fishing in the way that they have always done it, and they caught nothing. And I think that is usually what we are really saying as well.

Why Aren’t We Catching Fish?

Can you hear Jesus challenging us therefore? Could it be that the reason why we aren’t catching any fish isn’t because there are no fish out there? Could it be that the way you have always done it – at particular hours and in the safe and comfortable shallows among other things – just isn’t connecting with any of those fish anymore. It is something to ponder.

The Reaction to Success

But the truly shocking thing about this story is the surprising way that Simon reacts to success. He does give in and agree to try something new and a bit different even if it is only because Jesus says so. (Sometimes I think that is what it would take to get us to try something different in some of our churches too – we’d have to hear the voice of Jesus from heaven.) And Simon and company actually see the success that has eluded them for so long. But what happens next?

Do they exult in their catch? Do they immediately start celebrating? No, all we hear is how concerned they are for their precious nets which start to tear and their boats which start to sink. And it is in the shadow of those emerging problems associated with successful fishing that Simon falls on his knees and tells Jesus to get away from them.

How We Respond to New Fish

We don’t do that, do we? We all say that our fondest desire is to have more people in our churches. I hear it all the time. But here is the problem with that. The new fish that are going to come into our churches these days are not going to come from the shallow waters. They are not going to come from the same demographic and socio-economic and ethnic pools that they came from in previous generations.

They are going to come from the deep water these days because, frankly, the shallow waters are fished out. And that is a wonderful thing. It is wonderful in so many ways to see our churches diversifying in our time. It feels like a fulfillment of God’s promises.

What About Our Nets and Boats?

But, there is an issue that arises in that. To reach and incorporate such people means change. And that often creates a reaction. Our church isn’t the same anymore. We miss the way things used to be. We complain about our buildings being noisy or dirty and how sometimes things get broken because people are actually using the facilities. Our refrain becomes, “Our nets are ripping and our boats are sinking!”

And so, like Simon, we may be tempted to send Jesus away with his fancy new ideas about how to carry out our mission. “Get away from us lord so that we can go back to puttering around in the shallow waters and keeping our nets nice and clean by never catching anything in them.”

No, this story isn’t about fishing on the Sea of Galilee. It is a story about us. But I hope you don’t hear it as a rebuke of us. It is a story of hope.

When Jesus Gets in Our Boat

Are we like the disciples of Jesus? Absolutely. We, like they, often get things wrong. But Jesus got into their boat. And the word of God was spoken from their boat – not because they had all the answers and everything figured out but because they didn’t. And when Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people, “ he said it immediately after Simon confessed that he didn’t know what he was doing.

Jesus will transform us as disciples as well. And he only asks for one thing: everything. “When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.” Notice how they immediately walked away from the only things that they showed care for throughout this whole story: their nets and their boats.

Well, once we realize that catching people with the good news of the gospel in word and in deed is more important than our nets and our boats, we will be amazed at what Jesus will do among us as well.

https://youtu.be/kPjFE91WnXY

Hespeler, February 2, 2025 © Scott McAndless – Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Jeremiah 1:4-10, Psalm 71:1-6, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Luke 4:21-30

When you have been a minister as long as I have been a minister, you will find that the passage we read from 1 Corinthians this morning becomes an old friend. When I perform a wedding, I usually ask the couple to choose which Bible passages we will read and then I use those texts to talk about that couple and what has brought them together.

What Paul was Talking About

But it’s not. Sure, it contains wonderful teachings about the kind of love that can help to sustain an excellent marriage. But Paul did not include this as something for the church in Corinth to read at their weddings or to use in their marriage counselling.

In fact, married couples were about the furthest thing from his mind. Earlier in this same letter (Chapter 7), Paul actually tells them that he would rather they didn’t get married at all, though he understands if they do.

So, what is he talking about? He is talking about the whole congregation at Corinth and how they need to treat each other because apparently they have not been getting on very well.

Troubles in Corinth

So let’s step back and take a good look at what was going on in the church in Corinth that made Paul feel that, in order to find their way forward, they needed to receive what is arguably the best teaching on the nature of true love that has ever been written?

Well, part of it had to do with the fact that they were not very united. In fact, in many ways they behaved like they were several separate congregations often disagreeing with one another rather than what Paul would call the one body of Christ.

Several Different Congregations

This was not necessarily their fault. I think it is important to understand that. In many ways, their history had set them up to be at odds with each other. They had essentially been founded as a bunch of different congregations.

Paul had passed through Corinth and formed and instructed one congregation. Then sometime later a man named Cephas (who might be the Apostle Peter) had come along and gathered a different group and taught them somewhat differently. And then another founder named Apollos had come along.

Common to Many Congregations

Now, to a certain extent this is something that you will find in any congregation that has been around for a while. Various people will have come to the church or lived through their most formative years during the tenure of different ministers. And they tend to conclude that the way that “their” minister did things was the right way.

And so most ministers do get used to dealing with cries of “We never did things that way in Jeff’s time,” or “in Kevin’s day” or “in the time of Wally.”

But things were much more disorderly in Corinth where there had been a quick succession of founders over a very short period of time. They were still very much separate congregations who were having a hard time getting on the same page.

Two Congregations Come Together

And now you are perhaps starting to understand why I chose to preach on this particular passage today. Two weeks ago, St. Andrew’s Hespeler and Knox Preston came together to become one congregation. And it has been wonderful to see how everyone has been willing to approach this with a good will and with open hearts. I know that you made your promises and vows in such a spirit.

But good will doesn’t just erase two separate past histories. It doesn’t just erase expectations that have been built up by past experience. For that reason, I think we ought to be ready for some difficult issues to arise in times to come. That’s why I want to affirm to you today that this passage we read this morning wasn’t just written for the church in Corinth. It was written for us.

What was Dividing Them

Now, the struggles that the Corinthians had are not necessarily the same ones that we will face. Paul lists some of the things that were dividing them at the beginning of our reading. Some of them were speaking in strange languages, some thought that they had a power that allowed them to speak for God. Some of them demonstrated great faith and others thought that they had so much to give that they boasted about it all the time.

Paul actually mocks the attitude of these people by speaking in exaggerated terms about what they thought made them so great. He talks of people who “speak in the tongues of humans and of angels” and who have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge.” He talks about those who “have all faith so as to remove mountains,” and of people giving away all possessions and even handing over their bodies!

What They were Really Doing

Were people in Corinth doing all of that? Well, not exactly. They were engaging in ecstatic speech (probably like you might see in some Pentecostal churches today) but studies have shown that such speech is never actually any identifiable human (much less angelic) language.

None of them were actually moving mountains (that would be a major geological event that we would still find traces of today). No one has ever understood everything. And obviously none of them who were still part of the church had given up their bodies.

Making Good Things Ultimate

Paul is making a fine point here. He is talking about things that they were doing that were good things. They were meaningful parts of their spiritual lives. But Paul is criticizing them because they made them greater than they were. They made them into things of ultimate importance. That was where the problem lay.

Now, as I say, I don’t think that we will have divisions over the specific things that divided the church in Corinth. But I do expect that we have divisions over things that are meaningful to people in their Christian life and practice – good things and legitimate parts of spiritual practice but that we turn into conflicts because we give them ultimate importance.

Worship Spaces

We have actually already named some of these easily identifiable friction points in our discussions together up to this point. There is a recognition that we all find worship space to be a significant and positive part of our spiritual lives. The folks at Preston have all had to come to terms with the loss of a worship space that meant so much to them for a very long time.

But they shouldn’t be the only ones. We at St. Andrew’s also need to recognize that this new relationship will bring changes to our space and we haven’t even begun to process that. Part of that is, of course, finding places and ways that we can honour some significant items that the Preston people have brought with them, but I suggest that, as time goes on, we will discover other changes to our space that might prove more challenging.

Our love of our space is a good thing, and, for that reason, we don’t like to see changes. But the point is that we can manage such change so long as we don’t make the mistake they were making in Corinth and see this good thing as a thing of ultimate importance.

Obvious and Not So Obvious

Some of the other obvious friction points that we have identified include time of worship, congregational names, the Lord’s prayer. Each congregation has different traditions and of course there is absolutely nothing wrong with loving those traditions. It is the temptation to make them have ultimate importance that is the source of possible division.

But, as I say, these are just the obvious ones. There is no doubt that, at some point, we will run into some difference that will take us completely by surprise. Something will change because of this new relationship we have formed, and somebody will see that change as a bridge too far. We will see conflict. I can almost guarantee it because it is almost inevitable.

Paul Speaks to Us

So the Apostle Paul speaks to us, his voice echoing down through the centuries. He is teaching us how to deal with that kind of friction when it arises. He teaches us that the answer is that whenever we start to invest good things and meaningful practices with ultimate importance causing conflict, we need to realize that there is one thing that is more important than any of them. And that one thing is love.

So, when Paul starts to describe the nature of love, you shouldn’t be imagining a young married couple. You need to be imagining yourself dealing with other Christians in your church.

Living Out Paul’s Words

When he writes “Love is patient,” you need to be telling yourself to be patient with your brother in Christ who is having a hard time letting go of something that has been meaningful to him. When he says that “love is kind,” you need to be practicing kindness in all things with your sister in Christ.

When Paul says, “love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude,” you need to be examining your own conduct in the church and asking yourself when you have given into such attitudes.

And when he says that love “does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs,” you definitely need to be asking yourself when you have behaved like that. If you have insisted on getting your way even when it hurts another, you have not been practicing love.

How can we do that? How can we decide to let go of things that have been meaningful and significant to us because we decide to love? I think that Paul teaches us something about that.

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.” He teaches us. “When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face.”

How do we come to the place where we decide that our love for our fellow Christians is more important than some practice or place or name that has always been meaningful to us? We can do that because we recognize that our understanding of such things is never complete. We don’t have all the answers. We don’t have it all figured out.

What Lasts Forever

The things that have mattered to us have not mattered because they are necessarily the best for all times. Frankly, our forebearers in the faith probably just made a lot of them up along the way. And then they became traditions. Then we started to invest them with ultimate value. And then we couldn’t let go of them because they meant too much.

But if we can always remember that, at best, we only know in part, we can be willing to step back and give some space to what someone else has known because we have committed ourselves to love them.

Whatever practices of the Christian faith that we have had, they will not last forever. Our church buildings will all one day be reduced to dust, their names will be forgotten. That one thing that we thought was of ultimate importance and we refused to give it up, it will be gone.

Paul is clear, none of those things will endure. In fact, only three things in our congregation will last forever: faith, hope and love. And need I remind you that the greatest of these is love, so any of us can let go of anything in the life of the church if we do it for love.

https://youtu.be/_v4PuN7ti98

Hespeler, 19 January 2025 © Beth Anne Fisher – Amalgamation Sunday
Genesis 24:42-67

Rebekah was not out looking for a husband. She didn’t leave the house that evening with any prior awareness of what next twenty-four hours would hold. She was living her life as it had always been. She was taking care of her responsibilities, contributing to her family’s well-being, labouring on their behalf.

Then someone approached her with a request. “Please offer your jar that I may drink.”

And she responded with generosity. “I will draw water for your camels also.”

Her generosity was met with generosity in-kind - jewelry of gold, and a request for accommodations. A brief interaction became a conversation, a conversation became hospitality, which created space for a story to be told, and from that story, a decision was made. A marriage was set.

If we see this story as an image of the amalgamation that occurs today, two things stand out for me about Rebekah and her role in the story. Firstly: the life that she was already living opened the way for something she could never have predicted. She was going about business as usual, and business as usual for Rebekah included a readiness to interact with, to help, and to support strangers and travellers.

Similarly, St. Andrew’s Hespeler, from what I understand, was not looking to amalgamate this year. You were living your life as a community, walking out your commitments to community care, worshipping together, and doing what has been in front of you for some time.

And then came an invitation to conversation, the initiation of a discernment process that built upon itself in mutual dialogue, storytelling, a sharing of history, vision and values. Over these conversations, it became clear to both parties that God was at work. For Knox Preston, their clarity came largely from the way that St. Andrew’s is already living and from your openness to what is currently being called “The Preston Presence”; like Abraham’s servant asked of God to show him the right person by a marker of generosity, Knox Preston came into the conversation about amalgamation asking not only for a place they could call home, but for a partner willing to expand their scope of care to include the Preston community. St. Andrew’s has shown a generosity of spirit in this dialogue, a desire and a vision to not simply take the assets (human, financial, and otherwise) that Knox Preston offers, but also to ask how an expanded congregation might likewise expand their impact on the community around them.

So thank you, St. Andrew’s, for both the character of the life you were already living before Knox Preston entered the picture, and also for your willingness to consider the camels, to look beyond and see the needs of those nearby.

The second thing that stands out to me about Rebekah’s role in this story is her willingness for this wedding to take place right away. Her family asked for things to slow down. They weren’t ready to say goodbye, for their own lives to change as she moved far from them. This is no small shift in her life, in the lives of her family, or in the life of her husband-to-be! And Rebekah decided that she was ready enough to start now.

We all know that this amalgamation has come together quite rapidly. Perhaps there are people from both St. Andrew’s and Knox Preston who are feeling rushed, who are wishing for a little more time to say farewell or to prepare for what will be different now. That is more than understandable! No one thinks Rebekah’s family was unreasonable in asking for a little more time.

The invitation I want to offer, the question I want to leave us with is, “Could we be ready enough?” What might it look like if we, like Rebekah, choose to set our attention and focus on what is ahead of us, to gather our resources and our community and go forward into a future that we hadn’t even considered a very short while ago? How have the ways we have already been living prepared us to bring generosity, hospitality, and stories of God’s leading and goodness to build a new relationship, a formidable partnership, a family of faith?

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Hespeler, 19 January 2025 © Scott McAndless – Amalgamation Sunday
Genesis 24:42-67

It was evening and Isaac went out of his mother’s tent to walk in the fields in the cool of the evening breeze. He had come from Beer-lahai-roi and settled here in the Negeb Desert some time ago. It was a harsh and dry place where little grew, but there was something about living in such a place that appealed to him these days.

He spent his time in hard labour, working relentlessly just so that his flocks and herds survived. But it kept him busy which meant that he didn’t have a lot of time to think, and that suited him just fine.

What Isaac had Lost

He didn’t want to think about what he had lost – how his mother had died leaving a huge gaping hole inside him. And he didn’t want to think about how he hadn’t even been there to bury her – how he had been so angry at his father (who he blamed for her death) that he could not bring himself to be present as his father went a buy a piece of property for a tomb and lay her to rest. He wanted to block all of that out and so he filled his days with busyness.

But when evening came and the stars came out, when sleep eluded him as it so often did, he would go out and walk in the fields and all of his thoughts and feelings came flooding back to him.

An Answer to Loneliness

The aching hole that the loss of Sarah had created in him became overwhelming. Being alone there in the field, as the magnificence of the stars slowly appeared above him, should have filled him with awe at the Creator, but it only served to remind him how crushingly lonely he was.

But then he heard a strange sound in this isolated locale. He looked up and saw a long camel train approaching. In the half-light he could make out the silhouette of a young woman climbing down from the back of one of the beasts. And suddenly he knew that, while the challenge of ongoing survival might not be over, something bigger than just him and his needs had suddenly intruded. Nothing would ever be quite the same again.

The Struggle to Survive

There are things that often conspire to bring us down in this world. Life is hard and so the struggle to just survive, to make it through one more day, can consume us. That can be true for us as individuals, but it seems especially true for us as congregations these days.

Declining membership and attendance, the givings dropping off while expenses only seem to rise, it all makes it feel as if we are always at threat. Perhaps even more challenging is the seeming loss of societal relevance and privilege within the culture. These kinds of situations have pushed many of our congregations to the place where they simply focus on keeping the doors open and the lights on.

More than Survival

I know that that is absolutely something that helped to bring Knox Preston to a place of crisis. They were in a situation where they were using all of their energy just to survive. I’m glad we’ve not gotten to that place at St. Andrew’s Hespeler, that we have been able to continue to direct lots of energy towards our mission and outreach, but it does seem that getting to that place of survivalism is awfully close for many churches these days. That is what Isaac living in the Negeb desert represents.

But I think that the image of him walking under the stars in the evening represents him dealing with his losses and challenges while yearning for something more. And that is also something that has brought us to where we are today. The good folks at Preston felt a yearning for something more than just survival. They wanted to be a part of something that had a larger sense of vision and mission.

God’s Challenge

And what about us here at St. Andrew’s Hespeler? We have been able to keep our eyes raised above the question of mere survival, but does that mean that God hasn’t been challenging us to look for something more?

I think, more than anything, God has been challenging us to look beyond the walls of our building and that immediate impact we’re able to have. God has been showing us that it is not enough to just try and make it on our own while we ignore other congregations and how they may be struggling. In short, when we have time to ponder as we walk in the desert fields in the evening, we recognize that God may be calling us to embrace a whole new model of ministry.

Not an Ultimate Solution but a Beginning

Well, today it finally happens. Rebekah dismounts from the camel, Isaac greets her with joy and takes her into the place that he has inherited from his mother, the church. And, by the way, please note that I have been very careful not to say who is Rebekah and who is Isaac in this scenario because in a sense we are all both of them.

A wedding, no matter how beautiful, isn’t going to get rid of your flaws and problems. It is not going to solve anything on its own. Any wise couple knows that they have to keep working on their personal issues, they just have the benefit of being able to work on them together. And, by putting together their strengths and weakness and discovering how they can complete each other, they also realize a much greater potential for the future than they would have had apart.

It is the same with an amalgamation. It doesn’t solve anything on its own. But just as Isaac and Rebekah came together to form one of the most formidable couples in the entire Bible, I am totally excited about the potential that is here in this union.

https://youtu.be/OjzXR4PoGnU

Hespeler, 12 January 2025 © Scott McAndless – Baptism
Genesis 26:17-33, 1 Kings 18:41-46, Psalm 107:31-43 

If you have been around this church for a while, you know that we try to make a baptism service very special. And it has been my practice, whenever we baptize, to make sure that the entire service is all about that – especially the sermon. I’ve always been able to find some Bible passage to preach on the helps us to reflect on the person who has been baptised and on their family. 

And I am particularly blessed today, aren’t I? Not only did Lindsay and David bring us two children to baptize, but both of them (like their older brother before them) have very biblical names. This is going to be easy, right? All I have to do is find a Bible story about Isaac and another Bible story about Elijah and find some way to tie them together with baptism. Nothing could be easier, right? 

June of 2019 

Isaac was born in June of 2019. And I think we all know what that means, don’t we? It means that, when he was only about nine months old, just when he was getting old enough to come out of his immediate family and join the world, the world said no. The world said, “Isaac, we are kind of afraid of you coming out here to meet us because either you might get very sick, or you might help to spread the virus that will get other people very sick.”  

The world told Isaac that it was sure that he was very nice and a very cute baby but it would just be safer if it waited to get to know him for a couple of weeks… or a few more weeks… or a couple of months… you know, let’s make it a few years just to be very safe.  

And the good news is that Isaac was safe and healthy and grew to be a strong young boy. The less good news is that he missed out on a lot of those early socialization opportunities that previous generations just took for granted. 

Digging Wells 

In our reading this morning from the Book of Genesis, we find the patriarch Isaac struggling to find his place in the world. Isaac was the son of a famous nomad named Abraham. Nomads, wanderers that they are, are people who sometimes struggle to fit in the settled world. And so, in our reading this morning, we see Isaac traveling from place to place. Everywhere he goes he tries to establish himself. He does that by digging a well. 

Water is a rare and precious commodity in that part of the world. It doesn’t rain much and the riverbeds, called wadis, are often dry. But a well, if you can dig one, gives you an anchor – a place where you continually return to find the one thing you cannot live without. 

So, as we read this morning, Isaac started to try and dig wells. He went to this place and dug a well but the people there quarreled with him and so he went to another place and dug again. But the same scenario happened all over again. 

This pattern is repeated five times in our reading. And I think that makes Isaac a perfect poster boy for the kinds of challenges we have lived through since 2020. We’ve all been trying to find our place in this world that we don’t quite recognize anymore and things just kept happening that meant that it didn’t quite work.  

Isaac and Abilmelech 

But, of course, Isaac’s story does have a happy ending and that is what we want to focus on today. At some point Abimelech, King of Gerar, catches up with him. And that seems at first like it is not going to go well. It is a long story, but the last time Isaac and Abimelech met, it ended in a really bad argument. And so Isaac says, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 

But then something amazing happens. The old enemies decide to put aside their differences. Abimelech recognizes that, even if Isaac has had troubles, his God, Yahweh the God of Israel, has been with him to bless him. And so, Isaac and Abimelech decide to make oaths. They promise each other mutual care and support in the ups and downs of life. 

Beer-Sheeba 

And while they are celebrating this, Isaac’s servants come up. “Master!” they cry, “you know that well we’ve been digging for you? We finally struck water and it is pure and clean and abundant. God has blessed you.” And so Isaac joyfully names this new well, this new source that will make a home for him, Beer-Sheeba, which means the well of promise. 

David and Lindsay brought their family here to St. Andrew’s Hespeler late last year. We have been greatly blessed by their presence and their enthusiasm. They came to us because they were looking for a spiritual home, a place where they could belong after all of the disruption and wandering of pandemic years. 

Our Well of Promises 

And today they have brought Isaac here to Beer-Sheeba, the well of promises. Here have they made promises to be part of the life of this congregation and to make a place for their children in it. And we have promised too. We have promised to give them a supportive environment in which to raise their children with a good grounding in the Christian faith. All that has been sealed by the water in this well. 

I don’t think we’ve yet come to terms with how the experience of a pandemic has wounded our society. We seem to be in a place of great division and polarization that is very hard to overcome. But thanks today to Isaac, who has bought us to the waters of Beer-Sheba. Here conflict can be put aside in the shadow of binding promises made in love. And that is what baptism means. 

Elijah

The kingdom of Israel had seen no rain for a very long time. Everyone was struggling. Everyone was living on the edge. But our second Old Testament reading this morning tells the story of how, once three years of drought had passed, Elijah appeared and brought the people rain and hope. 

And there is a message in that for us today as we celebrate the baptism of Elijah. You see, after three years of pandemic had gone by, after we had all gotten used to a very different reality where we had to get by with less social interaction and an impoverished society, Elijah came into the world. He was born in October of 2022 in the third year of the pandemic. 

A Lesson from Elijah 

And so I would like to think that there is a lesson for us in the story of Elijah and how he brought the rain. Maybe it is a message that is particularly timely for where we are as a church at this moment. 

The pandemic years have been a very hard time for churches and for other institutions as well. The statistics say that, through the shutdowns and the other measures, a whole lot of people just disappeared from our congregations. It varies from church to church and denominations to denomination, but across the board churches have found their congregations to be smaller, often with a quarter or a third of the people missing. To say that the church has been living through a drought might well be a good metaphor.  

Elijah’s Dedication 

And because of that, I think we can learn a great deal from Elijah. “Elijah went up to the top of [Mount] Carmel; there he bowed himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees.” That is, of course, an indication of his dedication. He is praying to God for an end of the drought but this is more than just sending a few words God’s way and hoping for the best. He is putting his whole body, his whole self into it. He goes into a position that, if I tried to demonstrate it to you, I might not just be able to get back up off the ground so I’m not going to try.  

This is a reminder that, if we are going to pray for the revival of the church in our times, we need to be all in. It is praying and doing. It is all of us stepping forward whenever we have something to contribute. This is not a time for half-hearted prayer or effort. 

But there is something else about how Elijah prays that is much more important for our moment. He prays with incredible patience.  

Elijah’s Patience 

“He said to his servant, ‘Go up now, look toward the sea.’ He went up and looked and said, ‘There is nothing.’ Then he said, ‘Go again seven times.’” 

This is precisely where we often fail in our Christian lives. We ask for something. We try something a little bit different. And then we ask the servant to go out and look towards the sea. When the word comes back that nothing has changed, that everything is just the way it was, what do we do then? We just quit. Oh well, I guess it’s not going to work. 

I did get that kind of reaction from a few people when we went through our journey together with Cathy Stewart a couple of years ago. We did some really good work. We listened for what God was saying to us. We introduced some really good new things. We prayed and worked for change. But, as we came to the end of that year-long process, let me tell you that there were some people who got up and looked out to sea. And when they didn’t see attendance levels suddenly restored, when they didn’t see people knocking down our doors, they were ready to give up. Some did. 

But Elijah didn’t. When the word came back that there was nothing on the horizon, Elijah went back to work. And he sent the servant again, and again, and again. Six times there was absolutely no sign that anything had changed. Elijah kept on going. And then what appears when the servant goes back a seventh time? All he sees is “a little cloud no bigger than a person’s hand… rising out of the sea.” 

Hope in the Smallest Signs 

And that might not seem like much. In fact, it isn’t much. But a wise and faithful prophet is able to read in even the smallest signs an indication that God is about to do something. And I honestly think that we have seen a few “little clouds no bigger than a person’s hand.” I think that the arrival of this family which we celebrate today is one such sign. 

They, and other young ones among us, are a clear sign of new life and new potential. The harmony with which we have been able to pull together our amalgamation is another little cloud. These are not, to be clear, complete game-changers in themselves, but they are signs of possibility and potential that we are in a great position to build upon.  

Empowerment 

And that brings us to what Elijah does next. After telling the king to hop on his chariot and get home before the roads get flooded out (at which I am sure the king looked at him as if he was crazy) we are told that the hand of the Lord was on Elijah. He girded up his loins (wrapped his robes up around his legs for free movement) and then outran the king in his chariot, beating him to the gates of the city.  

That is a promise to us too. We have waited on the Lord. We have prayed and endured even when it was hard. And God has sent us the signs – the little clouds on the horizon. Now, as the hand of the Lord comes upon us, he will empower us to run to meet the challenge and the opportunity before us. 

So, you see. Isaac and Elijah have not just come to us today to receive the grace of baptism. They have come with their family to bring us messages from God, messages of hope and promise and possibility. They have come to challenge us to gird up our loins to prepare for an exciting future. 

https://youtu.be/lU2cXTNlo2Q

Knox Preston, 5 January, 2025 © Scott McAndless 
Genesis 23:1-16, Psalm 34:15-22, Luke 7:11-17 

We are fast approaching something very special – in two weeks we will finally celebrate the fulfilment of a long and sometimes difficult process of amalgamation. On January 19, we will join together at St. Andrew’s in Hespeler and we will become something new – an amalgamated congregation.  

Up until now, however, we have mostly been working towards this separately. And I’d like to take a little bit of time to bring the folks from St. Andrew’s up to date on how the folks from Knox have experienced this.  

A Metaphor 

In many of their discussions, there was one particular metaphor that they kept coming back to. They talked about it as a marriage. When they were looking for a partner in an amalgamation, they used words like “dating” and “courting.” They even came to look at their participation in our summer experiment as a kind of “speed dating.” 

And do you remember the congregational meetings that we held back in the beginning of November? Each congregation had to separately hold a vote to decide if we wanted to begin the process of working out the details of an amalgamation. And Preston met a week before Hespeler. They said, yes, that they wanted to come together with St. Andrew’s. And then they had to wait seven days to hear our answer. 

Any guesses how that felt? It felt as if they were down on their knees, holding out that jewellery box with the engagement ring and the one they were proposing to just said, “Hey, can I get back to you in a week?” It made for a bit of an emotional roller-coaster.  

Isaac and Rebekah’s Wedding 

With all of that in mind, I would like to embrace that marriage metaphor as we think of what is going to happen in a couple of weeks. In fact, I have concepts of a plan to preach about the wedding of Isaac and Rebekah on that day. But I would notice today that there is something important that comes before that marriage. 

Today we read the story about what happened before the joyous wedding of Isaac and Rebekah – the sad death and burial of Sarah, Isaac’s mother. We sometimes don’t realize that there is a connection between the two stories because we tend to read Bible stories without making those connections. But the story of Isaac’s marriage to Rebekah ends by saying that “Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” (Genesis 24:67) 

Sarah’s death is only mentioned at the end, but it clearly looms over the story of his marriage. He has suffered a great loss. It seems to have broken him. 

Father-Son Estrangement 

But it is not just that Isaac has lost his mother. He also seems to have lost all contact with his other parent. How else can you explain it that Isaac is not there for Sarah’s funeral or for all of the arrangements for his own wedding. Abraham isn’t even there for the “wedding” when Isaac takes Rebekah into his tent. Isaac just seems to have taken his mother’s tent and gone to live in Beer-lahai-roi. 

That is odd, isn’t it? What could explain such a rejection of a father by a son? Well maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with the time when Abraham took his son, tied him up, put him on an altar and held a knife to his neck. Do you think that maybe that kind of trauma – even if Abraham did it for the right reasons (which is what the Bible insists) – might put a bit of a strain on a father-son relationship? 

Processing a Loss 

And that does bring us to something that I think we need to talk about today. I mean to celebrate a wonderful wedding in two weeks, but first, can we talk about the traumatic journey that brings us to this point? Can we talk about a congregation that has to process the end of a 134-year independent history? 

That would be hard under the best of circumstances, but some things made it more difficult. Due to the circumstances and some difficult decisions made by the Presbytery, the folks at Preston kind of felt up against the wall. They had a very difficult timeline and a necessity imposed upon them by the Presbytery. 

Now, maybe this was a necessary thing. Maybe nothing at all good would have come out of this without that external pressure. I don’t mean to judge it. But I’m sure that you can understand how that felt. It might have felt a little bit like being tied up, laid upon an altar of sacrifice and having a knife held to your throat!  

So, if we are like Isaac and heading towards a joyous wedding, let’s also recognize that we are also like Isaac in that we are carrying some grief and scars and maybe even some unprocessed trauma as we limp towards this wedding. And I can’t help but feel as if the passage we read this morning might have some advice for us where we are right now. 

Isaac’s Anger 

The first thing I would note is this: Isaac really doesn’t seem to process his grief for what he has lost very well. He is completely absent as his mother is laid in the tomb. This is clearly not because he didn’t love his mother or because he doesn’t feel her loss. I believe it has to do with his resentment of his father. His anger at what his dad has done prevents him from properly grieving his loss.  

Now, anger is a part of grief. Psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross famously identified anger as one of the essential stages in grief. We need to accept the anger that we feel and process it by asking where it has come from and whether it is legitimate. But getting stuck in anger doesn’t help you. And that is what Isaac seems to have done, and it is probably one good reason why he struggled unnecessarily with his loss for so long.  

The endings we are marking this month are real. And the rituals and services that will be held are there to help you to work through that in constructive ways. I hope you don’t make the mistake that Isaac made and rob yourself of the opportunity they give you because you are mad at Presbytery or any leadership that has brought us to this place. You won’t hurt the people who you feel have hurt you; you will likely only hurt yourself. 

Abraham Comes to Terms with his Nomadism 

So, that is what we can learn from Isaac’s grief. What can we learn from Abraham’s? The death of Sarah seems to force Abraham to come to terms with his nomadic status. He has been living in Canaan as a wanderer for a very long time and has done very well with such a status, so much so that the Hittites see him as “a mighty prince” living among them. He has never suffered from having no place to call home until the loss of Sarah hits him like a ton of bricks. All of a sudden, he realizes that he needs a place where he feels like he belongs.  

And I am sure that the folks at Knox can relate to some of the things that Abraham is feeling. You are losing an anchor in your lives, a place that helped you to know who you were and where you belonged. It is at moments like this that you realize, like Abraham, that you need to find new places of belonging. 

Will Abraham Pay? 

And that is what this whole passage is about. Abraham sets out to find that place much like the folks at Preston set out to find a partner. But the interesting thing about this particular story is the whole question of whether Abraham is going to pay for it.  

Once Abraham has discovered the place where his family can belong for all time, he goes to the Hittites to try to obtain it. They react strangely to say the least. Both the Hittites as a whole and the man who actually owns the property want him to have it. They want him to have a place. But they insist that they don’t want him to pay for it. 

It is hard to know what is going on here. Perhaps it is just a unique look into the ways in which people bartered in that culture. That might be what going on when Abraham keeps on insisting that he must pay until finally Ephron says, “My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver—what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” And that is the price that Abraham finally pays. 

Why it’s Important to Invest 

But more than an insight into how such things were done in that culture, I suspect that this exchange is there to teach us something today. When you are going through a great loss, the people around you, if they are compassionate people, may well react like the Hittites in this story. They may say to you, “No, you have suffered too much; you have lost too much. You shouldn’t have to pay anything more. Let us just take care of everything now. That comes, to be sure, from a place of care. But it is not necessarily the most helpful thing.  

Abraham is wise enough to recognize that that isn’t going to work – that he can’t just be given a place and feel that it truly belongs to him. It must cost him something or something inside him will always tell him that it is not really his. This too is an essential part of the grieving process. You must decide to invest in something new moving forward and, until you do, your natural process of grief may be stunted. 

Why You may Hesitate to Invest 

And I think there is an important message in that for us. Coming out of a difficult experience of loss, you may be tempted to coast. You may hesitate to invest yourself too readily into the life of the amalgamated congregation or wherever else your next stop in your personal spiritual journey may lead you. 

That is perhaps understandable. You have been burned before. The last time you invested in a religious community maybe it let you down. But do not listen to the Hittites around you, or maybe the Hittites inside your own head, who are saying, “what is that between you and me?” The Hittites may be telling you to step back and hesitate to engage yourself but Abraham says, take a risk; step forward with your 400 shekels of silver. Get involved. 

More than Money 

And I hope that you understand in that that I am not merely talking about making a commitment for financial support. Sure, that is important, but it is hardly the only way, and I am not even sure that it is the most important part when it comes to dealing with the grief and loss that you have suffered. 

Maybe concentrate at first on making new connections – put yourself forward as a new friend. And you who are welcoming new people into already established groups, welcome people as new friends with the expectation that they have wisdom and valuable contributions to bring, because they do. 

And most of all, find a place where you can step in and begin to contribute your time and energy and the gifts and abilities that God has given you. This may be a risk. What if you get something wrong or make a mistake in this new context? No one can guarantee that nothing will go wrong. But Abraham understood that if you do not take a risk, you may never discover where you truly belong. 

Loss and Opportunity 

Abraham came to Canaan as an outsider, a wanderer who did not belong. Isn’t it interesting that the first foothold he found in this new land came on the heels of the greatest loss he ever suffered, the loss of his wife. This is a reminder that grief and loss cannot be avoided in life, but such times also offer us the greatest opportunities to find ourselves and our place in the life that God gives us. 

The wedding is coming. It will be an opportunity for celebration and joy. But take note of where you are now. Perhaps there is a reason why God has brought you here as well. 

https://youtu.be/Mm7PIjoUWRc

Hespeler, December 29, 2024 © Scott McAndless – First Sunday after Christmas Day 
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26, Psalm 148, Colossians 3:12-17, Luke 2:41-52 

There are certain scenes from the Bible that have been depicted in art over and over again down through the centuries. The crucifixion, the annunciation to Mary, the sacrifice of Isaac are biblical episodes that artists have turned to again and again, seeking to explain and interpret the meaning of these amazing stories through the medium of art. 

And one of those scenes that has been depicted like that comes from our reading this morning in the Gospel of Luke. There is something about that idea of the young Jesus talking with the scribes and teachers in the temple that artists just haven’t been able to resist. Again and again, they have taken up their brushes to try and show us what they think it looked like. 

And so, I went on Google to do a bit of a survey of the history of the depiction of this scene. And I’ve got to say that I found it all very interesting. So many of the pictures had much in common. But let me show you one picture that stood out to me because it incorporates all of the key elements. It was painted by Ludovico Mazzolino sometime around 1524 in Northern Italy. 

Ludovico’s Version 

Let me point out a few details that are very common. First of all, and most important of all, your eye is immediately drawn to the central figure, the young boy Jesus. He is dressed in pure white and bathed in light. Everything else is in relative darkness. This Middle Eastern child also looks surprisingly white and European, but of course that is a common feature in most Western art depictions of Jesus!  

And then there is the expression on his face. Jesus is perfectly serene. He is clearly self-assured and is making a firm “talk to the hand” gesture towards someone who is arguing with him that seems to say, “You poor man, you don’t understand anything, do you?” 

The Faces Around Jesus 

Meanwhile, look at the expressions on the faces of the people around him. Their faces (which are, by the way, all stereotypically Jewish) reflect only confusion, annoyance and anger. There are, three exceptions, though. On the right of Jesus, we see his parents, Mary and Joseph, approaching. Mary also looks very white and is in an attitude of adoration while Joseph (who I guess is allowed to look Jewish) seems to be staring at Mary trying to figure out what she is thinking.  

And then there is another puzzling figure on the left. This balding man also looks European and is an attitude of pure devotion. Who is he? Well, it turns out that we know exactly who he is. His name is Francesco Caprara and he is the guy who paid for the painting. I hope he paid well to be immortalized for all time! 

But I don’t share this picture with you as a lesson in art history. I think it gives us a great deal of insight into how people have read and interpreted this story down through the ages and right up to today. There are all kinds of theological ideas and assumptions that we bring to this story that are reflected in it.  

Theological Assumptions 

For example, we all know who Jesus is supposed to be – that he is God incarnate. And so, the assumption in this picture seems to be that, even if he is only twelve years old, Jesus already has everything figured out. Nobody needs to teach him anything. He already has all the answers. Most of all, Jesus is literally above everyone else when it comes to understanding. 

There are also, to be frank, a few antisemitic assumptions at work in the picture. It sees Judaism as a possibly false religion of anger and confusion that Jesus has come to supplant. The Jewish teachers who appear in the picture are not very attractive. The message seems to be that Christians have all the answers and they understand nothing. The message is Christians good, Jews bad. 

And all of those assumptions that are there in that painting are part of the baggage of the Christian faith that many of us still carry with us to this very day. The idea that the Christian faith has somehow superseded the ancient faith of Israel is very common, even though the church officially rejects that as a heretical notion. 

He Already Knew 

But it is the other assumption that I particularly want to focus in on today – the notion that, when the twelve-year-old Jesus was in the temple, he already knew all of the answers. No one had anything to teach him. In fact, he must have been there to teach the Jewish teachers and set them all straight. 

I understand where this kind of thinking comes from, of course. If, as we often confess, Jesus really is, in any sense, God living among us, then surely Jesus came into this world with the full knowledge of, well, everything that God knows. The conclusion, therefore, that nobody could presume to teach Jesus anything seems obvious. 

We’ll get to the question of whether that is really how Jesus is portrayed in the gospels in a moment, but let us first reflect on how that assumption affects us in our Christian lives.  

The Example of Jesus 

Jesus, is after all, our perfect example of faith. Because of this, many seem to assume that the supreme proof that they have faith is that they never have doubts. They never question what the Bible says and that no one can change their mind about what they believe. Have you known people like that? I have.  

I remember once, when I was quite young coming to what I thought was an amazing realization. I suddenly decided that I knew how to be right all the time. All I had to do was find a quote in the Bible – something that declared a simple truth – and I could know that whenever I said that I would be right.  

I Got Wiser 

Now, I grew out of that notion fairly quickly. I had not asked if we are even supposed to read the Bible as literally true all the time or if there might be other kinds of truth. I had not considered things like whether words might have had different meanings in their original language and context or whether what the Bible said in one place could be contradicted someplace else.  

As I grew older and wiser, I discovered that the more I read the Bible, less I knew for sure. The more I studied, the more I realized that I had to learn. But the thing is that many do not grow out of my early childish assumption. They think that the only way to show that they are people of faith is to never express any doubt or ask any question. 

Self-Assured Christians 

For them, being a good Christian means that you are always self assured. Like Jesus in the painting, their only response to anything other than what they have already decided is true is, “talk to the hand.” 

But all this time I have been talking about how this episode in the Gospel of Luke has been portrayed and what people think it means. I think it might be time to consider what the passage actually says. Does it say that Jesus already had all the answers or that he had gone there to set all the Jews straight? Well, let’s take a look at the text. 

What the Text Says 

We are told that, when Mary and Joseph left Jerusalem traveling, we must imagine, with a large party from their hometown, they traveled for a whole day without realizing that Jesus wasn’t with them. They then turned around and went back – another whole day of traveling – and searched the entire city for him for three days. 

So, Jesus has been missing for five days in the big city. I don’t even want to think of all the horrible things that his parents might have imagined happening to him. And what has he been doing for five days? Well, it seems that he has spent all of that time “in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” 

He didn’t Have it Figured Out 

And that, to be clear, is not what Jesus is pictured doing in my favourite piece of art. The Gospel of Luke doesn’t say that Jesus already had it all figured out. It doesn’t say that he had all the answers and had been busy for five days teaching the Jewish leaders. On the contrary, he seems to have decided that he has a lot to learn and so, on the fifth day, he is still listening and asking questions. 

I realize that people might be confused by the next verse where it says, “And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” You might take that as saying that Jesus was answering their questions because he understood better than any of them. 

But the word “answers” can also be translated as “his responses.” And since Luke has already told us that Jesus was the one asking the questions, what he seems to be saying is that Jesus was responding to their teachings with questions that were so insightful that they were amazed at his understanding. 

Questions 

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? What kind of questions was Jesus asking? I mean, I think I could come up with a few.  

“When it says the God created light on the first day and the sun, moon and stars on the fourth, where was the light coming from for those first three days? When God stopped the sun in the sky for Joshua why, since the sun doesn’t actually move and it only looks that way because the earth is rotating, didn’t everyone go flying off the face of the earth due to centripetal force? How on earth does a Twelve-Year-Old child survive for five days in a big city with no food and no place to sleep?” 

I mean, those are a few questions that come to my mind but I’m sure that, if everyone was amazed at his understanding, Jesus’ questions must have been much more insightful than anything I can come up with. But my point is that you can’t ask questions like that without wondering, without expressing a bit of skepticism or doubt. Intelligent questions can only come out of minds that are open enough to consider all possibilities. 

God Incarnate 

And that means that when we confess that Jesus was God incarnate, whatever that means, there has to be enough space in what we are saying for the twelve-year-old Jesus to not have all the answers – to not have it all figured out and to be in a position where he’s truly questioning everything.  

And, while that is something that may challenge the way we’ve always seen Jesus and the Trinity, it also needs to challenge something else. It needs to challenge the ways in which we think of what it means to be faithful Christians.  

The notion that many people have that being a good Christian means that you never question and never doubt is very unhelpful. It leads people to suppress things like critical thinking and discussion. It leads them to treat those who express an alternate view or who struggle with teaching as dangerous adversaries when they should be friends and allies. It encourages a kind of Christian life that is defined by judgement and a false air of self-assurance that frankly turns people off. 

Christology 

The Christian doctrine of the Christ (which is called “Christology” if you ever want to impress people at parties) teaches that, while he was fully divine, Jesus was also fully human. And true humanity does not exist without the experience of questions and doubt and critical thinking. These things make us human. 

If you want to follow in the path of Christ, you will not succeed by suppressing what makes you human. That is why I would indeed hold up the story of the young Jesus as an example – not the story as it lives in our imagination and our art, but the way that the story is actually told in the gospel. 

https://youtu.be/Bp5hjd0qGnY

Hespeler, December 08, 2024 © Second Sunday of Advent
Luke 1:5-14, Malachi 3:1-4, Luke 1:68-79, Philippians 1:3-11,

If you read the story of the birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, you will find that one of the most important characters in that story is a king named Herod the Great. He is the one who meets the Magi when they arrive in Jerusalem searching for a newborn king. He calls together the priests and scribes to answer their question as to where the Messiah should be born.

Herod is also the one who asks the Magi to come back to him and tell him where the child is and, when they don’t come back, decides to send his soldiers to Bethlehem and kill all of the young children there for fear that this Messiah might take his kingdom.

And since, by the way, we know that Herod the Great died around 4 BC, that gives us a pretty clear date for the birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus must have been born sometime before 4 “Before Christ,” which I know messes with our calendar no end, but there you have it.

Matthew vs. Luke’s Nativity

Herod the Great is all over the story of the birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. He is the great malevolent presence, the villain whose villainy moves the plot forward. The story wouldn’t work without him.

Imagine my surprise therefore when I flip over to the nativity story in the Gospel of Luke. Where is Herod the Great in that story? Nowhere! Far from being the main antagonist, he is completely absent. The chief villains are instead Roman officials like Caesar Augustus and the Governor Quirinius.

One Small Note

But there is one small note at the very beginning of the Gospel. As the Gospel story opens, there is a description of the father of John the Baptist. “In the days of King Herod of Judea,” it says, “there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah.”

Now, there are actually a few “King Herods” in the Bible, but that seems to be a reference to the one known as Herod the Great. Many scholars take that as an indication that, despite the fact that Herod plays no role in Luke’s story of the birth of Jesus, the Gospel of Luke agrees with Matthew that Jesus was born before King Herod died.

But I am not so sure. I think that there is actually a whole lot more going on in those few words of introduction than that. I think that there is a whole story being told in those few words and I’d like to try and tell that story to you.

Herod and the Priests

Zechariah would never forget the day when he was ordained as a priest of the Lord. It had happened in the days when Herod was king over all Judea. And that was the source of so much scandal. Herod thought that, as king, he got to decide who served as High Priest. For example, he once removed one High Priest and installed another who was the brother of his wife. Then, when that High Priest wasn’t loyal enough, he had him murdered within the year!

And that was just one example of Herod’s meddling with the priesthood. Unsurprisingly, his blatant nepotism and use of the priesthood as a tool of his own political interest only lowered the esteem of the temple in the eyes of the populace. How could such a corrupt and dysfunctional institution possibly mediate the relationship between the people and their God?

Worthy Priests

And that is what made his own position so meaningful to Zechariah. He was not a High Priest, of course. His position was so lowly that Herod was probably not even aware that he existed. Zechariah gained his position because God (and not the king) had chosen his family as one of twenty-four to serve in the temple.

What’s more, Zechariah’s wife, Elizabeth, was descended from none other than the OG High Priest, Aaron himself! She had more of a claim to the high priesthood in her little finger than any of Herod’s choices had in their whole bodies – or at least she would have if she were a man.

And so, though he was nothing more than a small cog in a temple institution that seemed completely corrupt, Zechariah decided that he was going to be the one to make a difference. He vowed that both he and Elizabeth would be righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. That, if nothing else, would set him apart from the complete mess that had overtaken the temple “in the days of King Herod of Judea.”

Zechariah did this because he knew that it was the right thing to do. He did it to go against a culture of corruption and self-interest that had overtaken the temple. The only question was whether God would notice. Would the faithfulness of Zechariah be enough to trigger the salvation that the nation needed?

Fruitless Service

As the years went by, the answer to that question increasingly seemed to be no. Zechariah did his best. God had chosen him to serve in the temple – and, yes, he did believe that when he was chosen by lot it was God making a choice, calling him to serve by name. Zechariah knew that his very existence as a priest made him a living challenge to King Herod who thought that he got to decide who could serve God.

Season after season, Zechariah did his best to serve with integrity. He maintained the noble traditions of worship of the Lord and resisted the lure of wealth and power that led the chief priests astray. He quietly did what needed to be done, interceding for the people with constant rituals of prayer and doing what he could to communicate God’s grace to the people.

But it all seemed to have no effect. All the people could see was the corruption of the temple – a rot that had set in from the top but that seemed to have permeated it through and through. They began to avoid the temple, finding that it did not help them in their relationship with God. They continued to pray, recognizing their need for God, but Zechariah increasingly found that, when he was inside sacrificing or offering incense, they found it more helpful to pray outside.

A Message to Zechariah?

The increasing fruitlessness of the temple institution seemed to be a message to Zechariah that all of his hard work was bearing no fruit. But there was another far more personal sign of his failure that bothered him. His wife, Elizabeth, could not have a child. They tried and they tried for years, but nothing ever resulted.

This lack of fruitfulness devastated Zechariah. It was not his own personal disappointment that bothered him, or even that he felt heartbroken for Elizabeth who longed for a child. It was the knowledge that, if he failed to produce a son, his own priestly line that that went all to way back to the time of Moses would be broken forever. That seemed to him to be a failure that was a judgement of him. It seemed near impossible to bear.

But so it went. As the years went by, he kept hoping for change. But nothing happened. Herod died eventually, but he had so thoroughly corrupted the temple by making it a political tool that the institution only festered.

And nothing changed for Elizabeth either. Month after month, no life stirred within her and they began to fear that very soon there would be no months left. It would cease to be after the manner of women for her.

Those were the things that Zechariah was feeling when his section’s turn of duty came up and he set off to Jerusalem to do his temple service one more time.

An Offering of Incense

The lot fell to Zechariah that day. He had been chosen – chosen by God it seemed – to go into the sanctuary and burn the incense upon the altar. It was a task that had always felt so meaningful to him.

He would take the mixture of stacte, onycha, and galbanum that had been blended with pure frankincense and then beaten to a fine powder, and he would pile it up on the altar of incense in a great mound. Once he had lit it on fire, it would send up a sweet and aromatic smoke that he found pleasing.

But more than the smell of it was the sight of the white smoke climbing heavenwards in a straight line. He liked to imagine it ascending directly to the throne of the God of Israel – a sign of God’s close attendance to the fears and concerns of the people.

It made Zechariah feel as if he was given the privilege to personally bring the concerns of all the people directly into the heart of God even though the people were not here – even though they prayed outside, stubbornly rejecting their corrupted religion.

An Extraordinary Experience

But on this occasion, something truly amazing happened. As he breathed in the smoke, he calmed and he felt a great sense of expectation settle over him. Something was about to happen.

When the figure appeared, soft and insubstantial at first, like a being made of the smoke itself, he did not know what to think. Suddenly every sense in his body was heightened and he felt as if he was transported to another plane of being. A great trembling came over him, but he wouldn’t exactly call it a sense of fear – at least it was not Iike any fear he had experienced before.

“I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you,” the being seemed to say. And Zechariah knew that his faithfulness had not been in vain.

A Promise and a Sign

The promise that Zechariah received that day was very personal. He would have the son that he had always dreamed of. The impossible would become possible; Elizabeth would conceive and would have a son.

But he knew that this promise, as welcome as it was, was not just for the two of them. It was a sign. Just as Elizabeth’s womb, which had resisted for so long, would burst forth in new life, he knew that this was a promise that his faithfulness in the midst of a corrupted temple institution would also not prove fruitless.

He had felt as if he was getting nowhere for so very long. Surely those who were only bent on using the faith of ancient Israel to serve themselves – to enrich themselves or to pursue power and political domination – would continue to win. The small group of righteous priests who believed in what they did, would be forgotten as obscure and misguided idiots.

But now, because of this promise, he knew that God had not forgotten him. God might have bided God’s time, but God would not tolerate such things forever. That was the promise that Zechariah would cling to – even if he had to cling to it in silence while he waited a little bit longer.

The State of Christianity

I will admit that I sometimes get discouraged by the state of Christianity these days. I am not talking about the declines in membership or attendance that have struck the great majority of churches in recent years. There is something else that troubles me more.

I despair when I see people using the Christian faith as a tool to advance their own personal or political goals. I see people employing Christian leaders and teachings to persuade people to vote in ways that are ultimately against their own interests. I see them using the Bible (or bizarre interpretations of the Bible) to persuade people that they must hate immigrants or minorities or other marginalized people when the Bible teaches so clearly and consistently that we must do the opposite.

Alongside that, I see Christian leaders enriching themselves to the extreme and living lavish lifestyles while their donors only suffer. I see others using the power that they have amassed in their organizations to abuse and harass their own followers in abhorrent ways.

It is enough to cause many to lose their faith altogether, which it has indeed done in many cases. How many today, like in the story we read, are “praying outside” of the institution. They are holding on, however tenuously, to their faith in God, but they have lost all respect for the institutions of Christian faith.

The Situation in Herod’s Time

What we don’t realize is that that is the situation that we encounter in the opening of the Gospel of Luke. That is why Luke’s first words after his prologue are, “In the days of King Herod of Judea.” These words are not to set the date of the birth of Jesus. Luke will carefully set that in the next chapter. These words are meant for us to understand what was the state of the temple in which Zechariah served.

Herod was, without a doubt, one of the worst offenders in the history of Israel when it came to using the religion of Judea for his own personal and political goals. Everybody knew it and the people had lost respect for the temple institution because of it.

Faithful Zechariah

And so, I like to think that Zechariah would understand many of my own frustrations – serving within an institution that had been used by some to such nefarious ends. I marvel at his ability to be “righteous before God, living blamelessly.”

How did he do that for so long without losing heart – without giving up? I don’t know. But the fact that he did inspires me. The fact that God noticed and launched a renewal of the faith through his son, John, gives me hope.

I don’t know how righteous I am before God. Sometimes I wonder. I would also not claim to live blamelessly. But here is what I will say because of Zechariah, I will not cease to do what I can to live in such a way as to challenge all those who would use my faith for their own selfish ends. Will you do that too? I believe that that is the best way to honour the memory of a man like Zechariah.