Friday, February 15, 2013

holy mysteries

Alrighty folks - I've been doing this priestly thing for a while now, and I still never cease to be moved by the celebration of the holy mysteries.  Each week, the Eucharist maintains the ability to reach beyond "what we can ask or imagine".  
The Book of common prayer uses the phrase that follows at the administration:
"The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee,
preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Take and eat
this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on
him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving."

I've taken to using "The body of Christ broken in love for you"

But lately I've been finding myself searching for some different, simple words.  Something that fits with the season.  Something that might prompt a different encounter with the sacraments.  I've been doing some research in different prayer books across the countries, and even the translations are slightly different and offer a different perspective.  But I'm also torn.  I know the comfort that the same words can offer.  Week after week, some continuity can be both comforting and confronting.  So I've compiled some thoughts for the distribution of the elements for various seasons.  Some I like, some are only just passable.  (but you should have seen what I discarded... sheesh!).  I'd be interested in some feedback both on the concept of changing the words slightly, as well as comments on what follows below:

Lent:
The body of Christ....strength for the journey, given for you
The body of Christ... sustain you in hope and love
The body of Christ.... calling you to repentance.
The body of Christ.... to uphold you in truth and life.
The body of Christ... light in our darkness... given for you

Palm Sunday
The body of Christ uphold you with courage and faith

Maundy Thursday
The body of Christ.... broken in love for you.
And the disciples knew the Lord in the breaking of the bread

Easter
Alleluia Christ is Risen!!!

Easter Season
The body of Christ... to help us live the good news we proclaim

Pentecost Sunday
The body of Christ transform daily through through the Holy Spirit
The body of Christ to heal and reconcile our brokenness

Trinity Sunday
The body of Christ made one in praise and love
The body of Christ the mercy of God, the hope of the Spirit, given for you

Pentecost Season (feria)
The body of Christ which gives life to the world
The body of Christ strengthen you, as you transform the world

Advent
The body of Christ, light in our darkness
The body of Christ.... light incarnate.

Christmas
The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, light of the world, given for you

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Sermon for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Day 3 Journey towards Freedom, 2013

 What we are doing here, today and this whole week is amazing! All over the world Christians are setting down that which divides us and choosing to celebrate, together.  And if we think about it, If all of the Christian communities gathered here in Chatham, and we have, what, 50 churches?  Lets really underestimate and say
there are an average of say 75 people at each place each Sunday.... That's 3750 people.  (you didn't know we'd be doing math today did you?!?!)  So... Lets say in Kent county we have another 60 churches in the surrounding communities.  So that's 110 communities and an additional 4500 people so far that's 8250 people.
That's a lot of Christians gathered in prayer each week.  We could fill the John Labbatt Centre in London if we all got together!

But if we go bigger.... The 2001 census said that there were 30 million people in Canada Stat's Canada identified that 22 743 255 people called themselves Christian
That makes 76 percent of our population, who identify themselves as Christian.

There are certainly not that many bums in the pews each week....

Statistics also estimate that there are 2.1 Billion Christians in the world, thats one third of the global population...

This day.  This whole week, the world council of churches calls on 1/3 of the worlds population to remove that which separates us from each other.  The organizers of this week of prayer for Christian Unity chose a life changing theme this year from Micah 4 what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

I'm sure many of you will recognize this piece of scripture.  As much as I love it, It scares me.  It is soooooo big!  It's such a large goal.  It doesn’t sound like it at first.
maybe because in our minds eye, we all want to do justice
and to love kindness
and to be humble on our walk with God.
and we generally think we're doing a pretty good job of it!

But this is meant as something we do ALWAYS! 
We are to ALWAYS do justice
         no matter how hard it may be!
We are to ALWAYS love kindness
         even when we don’t like the other person
and we are to ALWAYS be humble in our walk with God
         admitting when we’ve screwed up the previous two!

Today is Day 3 of this week of prayer for Christian unity.  And the theme is....   walking towards freedom.  Today we are invited to celebrate the efforts of communities across our world that are oppressed, like the Dalits in India,
The Dalits are the “Untouchables”, they are the ones who do the jobs that no one else would do.  Have you ever seen the TV show worlds dirtiest jobs? Those would only be done by this group of people in India.

"Today we remember as they protest against all that enslaves human beings. We too, must be committed to greater unity, and to remember that the removal of all that separates people from one another is an essential part of fullness of life, freedom in the Spirit."

It makes ya think!  To seek what is in this world and work towards eliminating that which separates us.  Those things that wound and divide. What separates the Dalits in India from the other casts the other levels of society, is the same thing that separates:
Man/Woman
Old/Young
Black/White
Rich/Poor
Tall/Short
Slave/Free

I'd say we make those separations out of fear
fear of the unknown
fear of the different
fear of change
fear of the other.

The Samaritan woman at the well understood all too well what it meant to be separate, to be other!

“The account makes it clear that she is thirsty, not only physically but in deeper social and spiritual ways.  Her life is a dried up, desert-like waste.  She has been through 5 husbands in that male-dominated society. And the one who has taken her in now couldn’t even be bothered to grant her the dignity of marriage. She’s treated as social trash. No rights. No dignity. No worth. No place.” So when Jesus asked her for a drink of water, he, a Jewish man, asking a Samaritan woman she knew this would not be an ordinary conversation.  After all, they were enemies.  Not personally, how could they be..... they'd never met but culturally she would have been like the "untouchables" from India this conversation simply would have been astounding even if it stopped there.

“But Jesus, gratefully accepted the water from her, then he offered her a drink of a much deeper kind. He offered water that would not just meet her needs for one day
but water that would give her a new life, and would last forever;

He offers her, in other words, a source of life refreshment, of energizing strength, that would last beyond the moment and go deeper than the surface; something with staying power to keep her going through life.”  You have to know, there is more to the story Jesus went against social custom to do this.  He disobeyed what many thought should have been his place He shouldn’t have been talking to HER
to a WOMAN, in the city, in the street, by the well, by herself!

She was someone that he wasn’t supposed to Love.  She was someone he was supposed to ignore, go about his daily life and never wonder how much pain she must have been enduring to have gone out to the well, the social place of the town
at the hottest part of the day by herself.  When no one else would be around.
He wasn't supposed to notice her.

But he chose to live the life changing words from Micah.  He chose to do justice,
and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with his God.

Separating her from the world was not JUST ignoring her because of her ethnicity, her gender or her social status was not loving or kind.

Jesus tore down those boundaries that kept them apart.  Jesus made it known that this was not acceptable.  This was not the kind of world we should live in.  What if we took our cue from Jesus and tore down a boundary that kept us apart from another child of god?  What if instead of trying to keep up with the Jones's to have everything we want no matter the cost?  What if we spent time to get to know someone else?  Someone who is completely unlike us!
someone of a different race
someone of a different gender
someone of a different sexual orientation
someone of a different social status
someone of a different culture

What if you could engage the world around you as if you really did see the face of God in EVERYONE you met

How silly would those barriers of class and culture start to seem?  How many of those silly barriers do you think we could break down?  How much justice could we see begin in our world?  How much compassion could we start to live by?

Now imagine what could happen all the Christians in our town could do that.  What about if all the Christians in our country could do that?  What if all the Christians in the world all 2.1 Billion of us?  What if each person tried to truly seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God?
WHAT IF???

You know, this will stay a question lingering in the air unless we act unless we choose to take up God's challenge to lower the mountains and raise up the valleys
to make the world a level place for all.  When we leave here today, we all  have a choice.  Each and every day we live we have a choice.  Will I take the easy road and live in my little bubble or will I step out and live the love of God?

If fear stops you today you have the choice to try again tomorrow.  If fear stops you tomorrow, you have the choice to try again the next day. But if you allow God's love to truly sink into the depths of your very being, you won't be able to remain silent very long.

Drink long from this well of life that feeds our souls with the breath of life and walk in the footsteps of Christ each day you breathe.  May that the face of Christ becomes so obvious in each person you meet that you cannot help but act.