Author Archives: Rev. Dawn Hutchings

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About Rev. Dawn Hutchings

Retired progressive Lutheran Pastor. Exploring the DIVINE MYSTERY that some call, "GOD," hoping to learn about the LOVE which is BEYOND the BEYOND and BEYOND that also.

The Ascension Never Actually Happened – Ascension is Always Happening

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Leaving Behind the Miraculous Jesus to Welcome the Human Jesus

The celebration of Jesus’ Ascension is a church festival that I have always chosen to ignore. The ancient tradition that has Jesus floating up into the clouds stretches the credibility of the church to such an extent that I’ve always assumed that the less said about the Ascension the better. But last year I was challenged by a parishioner to try to make some sense out of the Ascension story so that 21st century Christians would not have to check their brains at the door should they happen upon a congregation that still celebrated the day. What follows is a transcript of my attempt to leave behind the miraculous Jesus in order to be better able to welcome the human Jesus down from the clouds. I am indebted to Bishop John Shelby Spong together with Clay Nelson of St Matthew-in-the-city for their liberating insights.  

Traditionally, on the 40th day after Easter, the church celebrates the feast of the Ascension. But because so few people in the 21st century are willing to come to church during the week, the Ascension is celebrated by the church on the first Sunday after the feast of the Ascension. Since I have been your pastor we have not celebrated Ascension Sunday. But as this particular Ascension Sunday follows so closely after Jack Spong’s visit with us, I thought that it was about time that rather than avoid the Ascension, I’d like to try to confront it.

Jack has been telling his anti-Ascension story for quite a few years now. Just in case you’ve never heard it or have forgotten it, let me remind you. It seems that Jack was speaking with Carl Sagan, the world-renowned astronomer and astrophysicist. Jack says that Carl Sagan once told him  “if Jesus literally ascended into the sky and traveled at the speed of light, then he hasn’t yet escaped our galaxy.”

With that said, let me just say, that the Ascension never actually happened. It is not an historical event. If a tourist with a video camera had been there in Bethany they would have recorded absolutely nothing. 

I know what the Nicene Creed says, “Jesus ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” But like the members of the early church, I do not have a literal understanding of the scriptures. And so, as I do not understand the Bible literally, neither do I understand the Nicene Creed to be a literal interpretation of the faith. Like all creeds the Nicene, Apostles and Athanasian creeds are snapshots of theology as it was at a particular time in history.

We would do well to remember that the Creeds were developed to answer questions about the faith in a time when people understood the cosmos to be comprised of a flat earth, where God resides above in the heavens and located beneath the earth were the pits of hell. I know that the universe is infinite.  I also know about gravity. I also know that it is highly unlikely that Jesus had helium flowing through his veins.  I’ve flown around the world, and I can tell you that there is no heaven above the clouds. So, I can say with confidence that:  The very present Jesus of resurrection faith did not literally elevate into heaven while his disciples looked on.

The writer of the Gospel according to Luke and the Book of Acts are one and the same person. The same writer wrote the Gospel according to Luke to tell the story of the life of Jesus and the Book of Acts to tell the story of the Holy Spirit at work in the followers of Jesus.  Although we don’t know who the author was, we do know that he was not an historian. Neither Luke nor Acts are historical accounts. They are both addressed to a character named Theopholus. Theopholus is  Greek for lover of God. The books are addressed to the lovers of God, that’s you and me and the author makes it clear that he has written these books so that we, the lovers of God, can believe and have faith.  The books were written somewhere near the end of the first century. Somewhere between 50 to 60 years after the death of Jesus.  Perhaps between 80 and 95 of this Common Era.

The important question for most biblical scholars is not whether the Ascension actually happened but rather, what did the Ascension mean to the author in his context. And to that question we might add a more pressing question: Given what the Ascension meant in the first century, does it continue to have any relevance for those of us who live in the 21st century?

I believe that the followers of Jesus experiences of Jesus the man were so overwhelming that they saw in him the human face of God. I also believe that in very powerful ways the followers of Jesus continued to experience Jesus presence.

Those powerful experiences of Jesus after his death were so intense that they defied description. Given that Jesus was now dead and gone, yet his presence still seemed to be with them, the followers of Jesus used the Hebrew story of Elijah and Elisha to construct a belief about the Spirit of Jesus continuing to be powerfully among them.

By the time the writer of Luke and Acts got around to writing these stories down, there were different versions of the story being passed around in the early church. The writer of Luke/Acts paints a picture of a re-formed bodily Jesus going up into the heavens in the Ascension and a windy, fiery Spirit coming down at Pentecost. The writer uses powerful familiar Hebrew images to portray the experiences of Jesus’ followers after his death.

In order for us to move beyond the literal and beyond the historical and even beyond the metaphorical meaning to arrive at the meaning that the story of the Ascension can have for us today in this time and in this place, I’d like to tell you two stories that I heard about from a preacher who serves an Anglican parish in Auckland, New Zealand. Clay Nelson is a friend of Jack Spong who tells great stories.  The first story is an actual, literal, historically accurate Ascension story followed by a metaphorical Ascension story.

The literal historical Ascension story took place in 1982. But it the story that actually began some twenty years earlier when Larry Walters was just 13 years old and he saw weather balloons hanging from the ceiling of an Army & Navy surplus store. It was then that Larry knew that some day he would be carried up to the heavens by balloons. Sure enough when he was 33 years old, on July 2nd 1982, Larry Walters tied 42 helium-filled balloons to a lawn chair in the backyard of his girlfriend’s house in San Pedro, California. With the help of his friends, Larry secured himself into the lawn chair that was anchored to the bumper of a friend’s car, by two nylon tethers. Larry packed several sandwiches and a six-pack of Miller Lite and loaded his pellet gun so that he could pop a few balloons when he was ready to come down. His goal was to sail across the desert and hopefully make it to the Rocky Mountains in a few days.

But things didn’t quite work out for Larry. When he cut the cord anchoring the lawn chair the second one snapped, launching Larry into the skies above Los Angeles. Instead of leveling off at about 30 feet as he’d planned, Larry rose to 16,000 feet and at that height Larry couldn’t risk shooting any of the balloons.    So he stayed up there drifting cold and frightened for more than 14 hours when he found himself in the primary flight approach corridor for LAX.

Legend has it that a Pan Am pilot was the first to spot Larry and quickly radioed the tower telling them that he’d just passed a guy in a lawn chair with a gun. The Federal Aviation Administration was not amused. Larry started shooting out the balloons to start his descent but accidentally dropped the gun. After drifting for a couple of hours he eventually landed in a Long Beach neighbourhood entangled in some power lines. Larry survived without any serious injuries.

Now that is an historically accurate ascension story. It’s a funny story and a true story, but it is not a life changing story. But Larry did inspire a wonderful Australian movie, called Danny Deckchair, which is untrue, is in fact full of truth. Now when a New Zealander recommends an Australian movie, I take notice, so yesterday I watched Danny Deckchair and I do believe that it is a modern metaphorical interpretation of the Ascension.

The movie’s hero, Danny, is a bored labourer who drives a cement mixer. Danny is an unlikely Christ figure whose story is similar to Larry’s. Danny ascends from his backyard in Sydney during a barbecue and lands less than gracefully in a small town in the Australian outback. By this act of departure and arrival everything changes not only for Danny, but also for those he left behind and those he meets in the outback. Danny’s unique departure inspires those at home to take risks of their own: to live life more boldly, to act on their dreams, to become all they can be.

In acting out his dream, Danny finds new confidence and becomes the source of inspiration and affirmation for the townsfolk in the outback who used to see themselves as backwater hicks, but now see the importance of their actions in the life of their town. Everyone is transformed by Danny’s ascension. New Life and love accompany his resurrection.

The writer of Luke/Acts two versions of Jesus’ Ascension are not true like Larry’s lift off but are true like Danny Deckchair.  While the event certainly did not happen in a literal way, the story does attempt to capture the quality of a real man whose coming and going in their lives changed them forever.  The writer of Luke/Acts Ascension story is not so miraculous after all. The Ascension story is about the joy the disciples felt about the ongoing ever so real presence of Jesus after his death. The God they saw in Jesus they found in themselves. In Jesus’ departure they discovered that they could love as wastefully as he did.  They could live abundantly as Jesus did. They could heal and reconcile just as Jesus did.  With Jesus pointing the way they had found God and while Jesus was gone, the God that Jesus pointed to was everywhere, even in them.

If we are to move beyond the literal, beyond the historical, beyond the metaphorical to the life-changing meaning of the stories that have been handed down to us, we may just have to give up our tenacious hold upon the notion of Jesus as some sort of miracle worker who defies the laws of gravity, and time and space.

If we are to engage the stories about Jesus in a way that allows those stories to intersect with our lives we will have to embrace Jesus’ humanity. My Kiwi colleague Clay Nelson puts it like this:  “If your faith is sustained by a miraculous understanding of Jesus that has to ignore what you know about the real world, then let me ask you: Is it a faith that can sustain you in the real world?             Eventually this world of advancing scientific knowledge, that no longer requires a personal God to create, heal and sustain life will make the God we have had irrelevant, if it hasn’t already. I think God would rather be dead than irrelevant.             And if God is irrelevant, Jesus, who has been portrayed by the author of Luke/Acts and the church as the incarnation of this God, will suffer the same fate. If he hasn’t already.”

Nelson reminds us that Jesus was human and the human Jesus does not suffer the fate of an irrelevant god.. “The human Jesus, instead of only showing us God in all God’s glory, also shows us in all of ours. This Jesus becomes a window through which we can glimpse the mystery of love and life and being we are all called into. This Jesus through his radical love of even his enemies invites us into that mystery that surrounds us and is part of our very being.  This Jesus becomes the doorway through which I’m willing to walk into that mystery. For this mystery, I am willing to die to have new life. Mystery makes sense to me, the miraculous doesn’t. The mysterious Jesus inspires me and calls me to new levels of being. The miraculous Jesus helps me as much as telling a child that Santa comes down chimneys. The mysterious Jesus sustains my faith.  The miraculous Jesus impedes my faith.”

Like my Kiwi colleague Clay, I no longer need to believe in a miraculous Jesus in order to experience the mysterious Christ who lives and breathes in with and through Christ’s body here and now.

The writer of Luke/Acts is preparing his audience of God lovers for the arrival on the scene of the very Spirit of God that lived and breathed in with and through Jesus.

So, as we approach the celebration of Pentecost, may you find in these stories handed down to us by our ancestors in the faith an inkling of the powerful presence that Jesus’ first followers experienced after Jesus had left them.

May the joy they felt at the realization that the God they saw in Jesus they now found in themselves. May the realizations that those first followers experienced in Jesus’ departure, when they discovered they could love as extravagantly as Jesus did, that they could live as abundantly as Jesus did. That they could bring about healing and reconciliation just as Jesus did. 

May these realizations live and breath and have their being in you. May you know the joy of seeing Jesus point the way, the joy of finding God, may you know the God Christ points to who is everywhere, even in you. May you love as extravagantly as Jesus loved. May you live as abundantly as Jesus lived.             May you be Christ’s Body here and now, in this place in this time!

Read about the real Lawn-chair Larry here

Preaching on Mothers’ Day – Don’t Compromise!

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True Mother Julian of NorwichPreachers have several choices when it comes to proclaiming the Gospel on Mothers’ Day.  We can of course ignore the fact that it is Mothers’ Day. After all Mothers’ Day does not appear on the Church calendar of feasts and commemorations. However, Mothers’ Day is reported to be the third highest attendance day; out numbered only by Easter and Christmas! I suspect that a great many offspring choose the day to placate their mothers. So ignoring the event seems like adding insult to injury to those guilt-ridden offspring who hope that their efforts won’t go unnoticed. Sadly, the presence of the Christmas and Easter crowd, all too often tempts the preacher to resort to sentimentality in order to entertain the infrequent worshippers. The history of the creation of Mothers’ Day ought to compel preachers to resist temptation and find the courage not to compromise. 

Most of us think of Mothers’ Day as a kind of conventional holiday that celebrates traditional family values; the kind of traditional values that encourage women who are mothers to keep on keeping on.  But celebrating the traditional motherhood is definitely not what Mothers’ Day was originally intended for.  The very first Mothers’ Day was intended to be a celebration not just of mothers, but rather it was designed to be a call to action by all women. 

One of the first founders of Mother’s Day was Anna Jarvis back in 1858.  Anna Jarvis gathered women of the Appalachian mountains together in what she called mother’s day work clubs. Where women worked together to eliminate poverty.  When the Civil War came about, the mother’s day work clubs created medical camps.  They were places of nonviolence for men from both sides who were wounded in the war. 

At the end of the Civil War, Anna Jarvis organized the Mother’s Day Friendship Day, which was a call for radical peace.  Anna Jarvis brought together the leaders from the north and the south for a time of reconciliation.  Mother’s Day was originally about reconciliation and peace.

Then along came a  woman named, Julia Ward Howe who wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Julia Ward Howe called for women to protest the cruelties of war everywhere and to gather together to call for peace.  She called for a national day of peace for all women.  She issued women’s’ declaration, and from the streets women shouted :

“Arise then women of this day, arise all women who have hearts, say firmly our husbands shall not come to us reeking with the carnage for caresses and applause.  Arise women of peace.” 

Anna Jarvis’ daughter also named Anna Jarvis approached President Wilson and petitioned for a national Mother’s Day.  It was Woodrow Wilson who called for the second Sunday of May to be the national Mother’s Day. Shortly thereafter, n anti-suffragette movement spoke out against the women who were calling for peace.  So instead of being a day for women who were active and present in the world, it became a day to celebrate mothers who stayed at home with the children.

Anna Jarvis the founder of Mother’s Day was so angry with Woodrow Wilson that she filed a law suit, that petitioned the courts to put a stop to Mother’s Day because as the court papers insisted, instead of it being run by women, suddenly Mother’s Day was being run by men in an effort to keep them in the house barefoot and pregnant. 

Sadly, the world was not ready for such strong willed women to shout out loud. And so, Anna Jarvis was arrested at a Mother’s Day celebration and she spent the rest of her life in a sanatorium? 

On mothers’ day we would all do well to remember Julia Ward Howe’s Mothers’ Day Proclamation.  Dated 1870 but sadly it is still so very relevant today:

“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!

Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm!” The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail & commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesars but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.”

What the Hell is Heaven?

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Heaven – Brett Dennen

Beyond the rules of religion
The cloth of conviction
Above all the competition
Where fact and fiction meet
 
There’s no color lines cast or classes
There’s no fooling the masses
Whatever faith you practice
Whatever you believe
 
Oh, Heaven, Heaven
What the hell is Heaven?
Is there a home for the homeless?
Is there hope for the hopeless?
 
 Throw away your misconceptions
There’s no walls around Heaven
There’s no codes you gotta know to get in
No minutemen border patrol
 
You must lose your earthly possession
Leave behind your weapons
You can’t buy your salvation
And there is no pot of gold
 
Mmm Heaven, Heaven
What the hell is Heaven?
Is there a home for the homeless?
Is there hope for the hopeless?
 
Heaven ain’t got no prisons
No government, no business
No banks or politicians
No armies and no police
 
Castles and cathedrals crumble
Pyramids and pipelines tumble
The failure keeps you humble
And leads us closer to peace
 

Oh, Heaven, Heaven
What the hell is Heaven?
Is there a home for the homeless?
Is there hope for the hopeless?

Is there a home for the homeless?
Is there hope for the hopeless? 

Knowing Beyond Belief: Julian of Norwich

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dying and rising copy

Today the church commemorates the life and witness of Julian of Norwich.

Click here for an Evening Prayer liturgy with texts from Julian of Norwich

Julian of Norwich lived as a contemplative; that is to say she spent a good deal ofhazelnut time pondering the big picture. One day Julian had a vision. It was a vision of Jesus and in that vision Jesus was holding a ball; that ball was all of creation and instantly Julian understood that contained in the vision was the gift of knowledge and that knowledge is that all of creation was created by God, held by God and loved by God. Suddenly, there was in Julian’s hand a hazel nut. A tiny little hazel nut and staring down and that hazel nut, Julian knew that that beautiful, wondrous little nut was created by God, held by God and loved by God.  The gift of that knowledge led to an even greater gift of knowledge because suddenly Julian knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that she Julian was created by God, held by God, and loved by God and that very knowledge led her to have the faith she needed to believe that “all will be well; all things will be exceedingly well.”

I see Julian’s insight as a beautiful definition of what faith is: knowing beyond belief that you are created by God, you are held by God, you are loved by God. There’s no need to sweat the details, because “All will be well; all things will be exceedingly well.” That’s the gift of faith, the knowledge that we are created held and loved by God and that all will be well; all things will be exceedingly well. That gift of faith, the knowing beyond belief that you are created, loved and held, gives you the freedom to live and the freedom to die: to die secure in the knowledge that all will be well; all things will be exceedingly well. As for the details, the gift of faith means you don’t need to worry about the details. It’s enough to know that when a seed falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. We don’t have the details. I can’t give you a list of details and say, “hey here you go just believe these answers and all will be well.”  All I can tell you is the same thing that I declare loudly and clearly at every graveside I’ve ever presided over: in the words of the Apostle Paul I declare: “Lo! I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall all be changed.  For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:  ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is they victory? O death, where is thy sting?’”

Trusting that we need not fear death is a powerful freedom that liberates us to live fully here and now, knowing beyond belief that all will be well!

Love Julian

Jesus was wrong! Can I Get an Amen? – a sermon for Easter 7C – John 17:20-26

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window4Before I could go to seminary I had to obtain an undergraduate degree.  So I enrolled at the University of British Columbia in their religious studies program. In order to obtain a degree in religious studies, we were required to study the religions of the world. My professors and classmates were Islamic, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, and together we explored all sorts of religions, both ancient and modern.  I remember registering in a course on ecumenism where I expected that we would study the various movements to restore unity to Christianity.  We did that, but we also did so much more.  We learned that ecumenism is not just about Christian unity.  Ecumenism includes inter-faith dialogue.

During the course I was required to write papers on Hindu-Christian dialogue, as well as a paper concerning what was written about Jesus in the Islamic Qur’an.  This course introduced me to the reality that unity does not mean uniformity. In his book entitled “Who Needs God”, Rabbi Harold Kushner writes: “Religion is not primarily a set of beliefs, a collection of prayers, or a series of rituals. Religion is first and foremost a way of seeing. It can’t change the facts about the world we live in, but it can change the way we see those facts, and that in itself can often make a real difference.”

Sadly, over the centuries the religions of the world have shaped the way we see people whose religious practices are different than our own in ways that have made it possible for us to pre-judge our neighbours. Studying the religions of the world broadened my horizons and I actually began to believe that at long last I had escaped the prejudices that were bred into me. Continue reading →

Remembering Who We Are: a sermon for Easter 6C

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Inner Peace Kempis

Readings: Acts 16:9-15; Merger Poem (Judy Chicago); John 14:23-29

Listen to the sermon here

Merger Poem (The Dinner Party) by Judy Chicago

And then all that has divided us will merge

And then compassion will be wedded to power

And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind

And then both men and women will be gentle

And then both women and men will be strong

And then no person will be subject to another’s will

And then all will be rich and free and varied

And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many

And then all will share equally in the Earth’s abundance

And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old

And then all will nourish the young

And then all will cherish life’s creatures

And then all will live in harmony with each other and the Earth

And then everywhere will be called Eden once again

 

 

Don’t Piss God Off! – a sermon for Easter 6C – Acts 16:9-15

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“Warning!” written by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

lydia of philippiLydia is one of the many mothers of Christianity. Lydia was the first European convert to Christianity. Lydia was the founder of the church at Philippi. The Scriptures tell us that before Paul and Silias proclaimed the Gospel to Lydia, she was a “God Fearer”. God Fearers, was the name given to people who were not Jewish but who were so intrigued with the God that the Jews worshipped that they lived their lives as if they were Jews. Indeed, most God Fearers followed all the Jewish laws except for circumcision. Circumcision, for adult males, living in the first century, when sanitary conditions were primitive and no antibiotics were available could lead to death.  So, most male converts to Judaism, were not called Jews but God Fearers. Generally women were given the same designation as their husbands or fathers.

So right from the beginning of the story, Lydia is described in an unconventional way. We are told that Lydia was “a God fearer; a worshipper of God and a dealer in purple.” Now an introduction like that may not seem very unconventional to us but we have to remember that for the writer of the Book of Acts to have described a situation where, Paul and Silias, two strange men in town meet a woman, any woman was in and of itself unconventional.

When the Acts of the Apostles was written sometime between at the end of the first century, (most scholars date it between 80 to 100) this sort of encounter would have been considered outrageous; women and men, especially strange men, simply didn’t have encounters in public. And as for Lydia being a dealer in purple; well people hearing this story in the first century would have been amazed at the very idea of a women conducting business. And as for the colour purple: it took thousands of mollusks; mollusks are tiny little crustaceans…shellfish; and you’ve got to crush and treat thousands of the little suckers just to make enough dye to make a yard or two of purple cloth. So it was very expensive, worth its weight in silver. Wearing purple was a statement of status and wealth. Purple was the Gucci handbag or Rolex watch of the first century. Lydia is selling purple; purple cloth, purple robes, the power of purple. She’s not local. Lydia’s is from Thyatira, a town well know for making purple cloth.  Lydia seems to be the head of her household, there’s no man mentioned and that alone is remarkable, because Lydia is traveling in the public realm, to trade her wares. As a seller of purple, she’s not poor; a poor woman wouldn’t be able to afford that kind of stock. She’s not Jewish, but she believes in God. She’s not part of any organized religion.

According to the story, when Paul and Silias arrive in Philippi to proclaim the good news about Jesus Christ, they begin by looking for a synagogue. They figure a synagogue is a good place to begin because that’s where the folks who already believe in God hang out. But to have a synagogue you need ten men who will meet together to say prayers. Philippi, it seems, didn’t have a ten men to form a synagogue. So if there’s no synagogue, then any Jews or God Fearers that happen to be in the town or passing through know to meet down by the river on the Sabbath to pray.

So, Paul and Silias head down by the riverside, hoping to preach the gospel to the men; and down by the river they find only women. And the scripture tells us that Paul and Silias, “sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there.  A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to them; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. We’re told that, “The Lord, opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.” And then we are told that Lydia and her household were baptized and Lydia invited Paul and Silias to come and stay with her.

Many scholars agree that the church that was formed in Philippi, the church to whom Paul address his letter to the Philippians; this church, the first church in Europe was in all likelihood founded and then led by the first European convert to Christianity; a woman named Lydia.

Looking back to a time when we have been lead to believe that conventions demanded that women to stay out of the public realm,  we see that even the Apostle Paul, who down through the centuries has been credited with trying to keep women silent in the churches, even Paul promoted the proclamation of the Gospel by  entering into all sorts of ministries that were actually lead by women. Lydia was one of several women, named and unnamed who established the first congregations in their homes. Most of these women were wealthy women of means who saw to it that the church had what it needed to grow and flourish.

From the very beginning Christianity has flouted convention.  Yet so many of those of us who call ourselves Christians, spend so much of our time content to be conventional. Christianity is not about preserving the status quo. Christianity is not about being conventional.  Christianity is dangerous. Those who call ourselves Christian need to put away our desire to play it safe. We need more purple hues in our lives! We need to dare to step out of bounds, and take some risks. Christians need to colour outside the lines!

Don’t shun the unconventional. Remember Lydia and ask yourself:  are you old enough to wear purple; how about a red hat that doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit you?

Do you think your ready, to make up for all those years of following the rules? Do you want to go out in your slippers in the rain, or pick the flowers in other people’s gardens and learn to spit? NO. Well maybe you’re right; maybe you’re not old enough just yet. But maybe you ought to practice a little now? So people who know you are not too shocked and surprised when suddenly you are old, and start to wear purple. Come on, what have we got to lose, listen to the ways the Spirit of God is moving in you. Come on let’s take a chance and mosey on down by the riverside!

Let’s dare to wear purple! Perhaps, in daring to be unconventional we will know the peace the promised peace of Christ. So, let’s mosey on down by the riverside…

Lydia’s band of women down by the riverside reminded me of Sister Rosetta Tharpe; an unconventional woman who dared to be who she was. There’s another sermon here somewhere about the peace that Christ offers. Preach it!

For more about Sister Rosetta click here

 

Anam Cara, The Blessing of a Soul Friend

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anam-cara-wall-plaque

The sunshine of these May days have beaconed me outside into the newly awakened garden. My companion on these respites is John O’Donohue’s “Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom.” Anam Cara is Irish Gaelic for “soul friend”. As the gentle breezes and the warm sunlight caress me, I am struck by the pleasure of knowing the Earth as my anam cara.

God: A Changing Reality – John Shelby Spong

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jack spongFrom the spirit-filled world of animism, through the tribalism of the patriarchs, the warnings of the prophets Jack Spong’s sermon examines our visions of God and demonstrates the journey from God as tribal god who orders genocide to the loving god who calls us to love our enemies. This sermon was preached at Countryside Community Church in Omaha, Nebraska on April 14, 2013.

Conversations Beyond Church: A Place for Rob Bell’s New Book

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Bell bkIn the twenty-first century, all too many of the conversations about God are simply beyond the Church. By that I mean, talking about God to people who are outside of the Church is simply beyond the Church’s demonstrated abilities. The faithful remnant who scurry about within Christianity may talk about talking to people who have left the church, or people who have rejected the church, or even to people who have never darkened the door of a church. But when push comes to shove, very few of us are capable of engaging in serious conversation with those who live their lives beyond the Church. Rob Bell’s newly released book: “What We Talk About When We Talk About God” may not be a deep theological endeavour. It may not offer much that is new or insightful. But it does have a place in the conversations that don’t seem to be happening between church-goers and those who live beyond the Church. Indeed, Bell’s book might enable those of us who talk about talking to those outside the walls of the Church to actually begin a conversation with someone who does not share our beliefs. 

In my experience of speaking to those who have rejected Christianity and the Church, I have discovered that the God and the religion that so many people have walked away from the Church over, is not the God or the religion that Christianity, at its best, actually proclaims. Bell’s book articulates a Christianity that is closer to the faith most church-goers actually embrace.

Following the success and controversy surrounding his book “Love Wins”, Bell has the notoriety to generate the kind of interest that leaves the average church professional drooling in an  “if only I could generate that much interest” kind of way. So there will be plenty of “tut, tuts” coming from those who will insist that it’s not a serious academic work. But don’t let their jealousy of Bell’s appeal fool you. Bell has matured some. He’s been talking to scientists and he’s been influenced by academics and he has made an attempt to talk about God in ways that the unchurched as well as the churched will find engaging. Bell’s also been talking to Peter Rollins (Irish philosopher and theologian) whose work appears to have had a refreshing influence on Bell. Indeed, Bell has chosen a title that  could be considered a positive restatement of Rollins’ first book title “How (not) to Speak of God”. 

Whether your a fan of Bell’s work or not, it’s difficult not to concede that Bell has mastered the art of communicating in this social media world in which we live. “What We Talk About When We Talk About God” provides an effective tool that will enable many of us to engage in conversations beyond Church. I’ve already purchased several copies and can’t wait to engage in a conversation or two with folks who are ready to engage in talk about God. Bell has given us the gift of a place from which to begin to engage in some serious God-talk.

Below you will find a promotional video created to promote the book, that will wet your appetite for the second video in which Bell lecture at Vanderbilt addresses some of what you will find in the book. Enjoy and after you read the book, use it to begin a conversation beyond Church.

Promotional Video for “What We Talk About When We Talk About God”

Rob Bell Speaking at Vanderbilt University

Beauty: A Human Calling and An Aspect of God – John O’Donohue

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John O'DonohueHaving only recently been introduced to the work of John O’Donohue, (thanks Susan!) I find myself totally enthralled! O’Donohue was an Irish poet, philosopher, theologian, environmental activist, and storyteller whose writings explore the wisdom of Celtic Christianity. O’Donohue was an imbiber of beauty which he heralded as a human calling and an aspect of God. I’ve spent a good deal of time this week absorbed in the beauty of his masterpiece Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom (1998). Anam Cara is Gaelic for “soul friend” and the book is just that as it gently guides you through the spiritual landscape of Irish imagination. The book reads like a prayer. O’Donohue insisted that “it is within our power to transform our fear of death so that we need fear little else this life brings.” Sadly, O’Donohue died young (just 52 in 2008), but he left a legacy of wisdom in a series of books that I look forward to immersing myself in. 

“When love awakens in your life, in the night of your heart, it is like the dawn Anam Carabreaking within you. Where before there was anonymity, now there is intimacy; where before there was fear, now there is courage; where before in your life there was awkwardness, now there is a rhythm of grace and gracefulness; where before you used to be jagged, now you are elegant and in rhythm with your self. When love awakens in your life, it is like a rebirth, a new beginning.” (Anam Cara)

As I bask in the beauty of O’Donohue’s wisdom, I am delighted to discover a film he made shortly before his death to compliment Anam Cara. The film in and of itself is a “soul friend.” You can enjoy it below. If you are familiar with O’Donohue’s wisdom or if you’ve never encountered the man, you will enjoy the brief video of O’Donohue speaking to a gathering of psychotherapists on the subject of observation. Quoting Heidiegger “true listening is worship” O’Donohue draws in his audience with humour and makes listening a joy while slipping in his subversive advocacy of a  “kind of un-thearaphy”.  His humour will wet your appetite for the longer film, which is well worth the time. I recommend putting your feet up with wee dram to add to your enjoyment!

Anam Cara – 2008

“God is the crack where the story begins. We are the crack where the story gets interesting.”

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Padraig O'TuamaPadraig O’Tuama describes himself as a “gay catholic theologian” he is also a poet and a troubadour. I was introduced to his work by Peter Rollins and I have spent much of this week enjoying his book of poetry: “Readings from the Book of Exile”. O’Tuama is quite the performer. I suspect that his ability to tell a good story has much to do with his life in Belfast. Like all good storytellers, O’Tuama’s stories have the ability to transfix his listeners and he uses his beguiling powers to challenge theological doctrines and move people to places that a mere lecturer or preacher would be heard pressed to lead them. On the power of story told to him by his mother, O’Tuama opines: “Does it matter if that actually happened? It did happen that she told it to me. Does it matter where it came from? There is an examination of truth that is vulgar. Truth as empirical fact or truth as something that creates a life? I suppose that what I’d like to say that part of the value of story is to create a way to live a life. It is only the most vulgar analysis that depends purely and solely on whether or not the empirical analysis works.  There are other measures of success for story.” 

A line from one of O’Tuama’s poems insists that, “God is the crack where the story begins. We are the crack where the story gets interesting.” A beautiful Belfast word is “crack”! It can mean anything from “news” to “debauchery”. Some folk use it to mean gossip, music, drinking, fun, party or good times. I remember relatives using it to mean “word”.  So what is the crack? In Padraig’s case the WORD dances through the crack! The notion that God is the “good times” where the story begins, that we are the  “party” where the story gets interesting is “good news” indeed! 

Padraig O’Tuama is one storyteller whose crack I look forward to hearing more of! Enjoy!

Padraig O’Tuama begins at the 4.25 minute mark.

The Story of Judas Iscariot – John Shelby Spong

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judas and jesusThis Sunday, in churches all over the world the story of Judas Iscariot will be read. So, this video of John Shelby Spong’s lecture on Judas Iscariot is a timely one. Both  preachers and listeners of sermons will find Jack’s take on Judas’ story thought-provoking. Enjoy!

What is Judas Doing Here Now? – A sermon for Easter 5C

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A sermon based on the readings for the fifth Sunday after Easter

Revelation 21:1-6 and John 13:31-35

Judas hanging

Think very carefully about a couple of questions. The questions are simple ones. They are designed to help you form images in your mind; images that will help to shed light on a particular kind of wound. But before I ask the questions, let me give you a definition of the verb that drives both of the questions that I’m going to ask. The verb comes from the Latin verb “tradere” which means to hand over. In English we say:  betray. The word betray literally means to hand over to an enemy by treachery or fraud. The word betray can also mean to be unfaithful; to violate trust or to deceive. So, here’s my first question: Have you ever been betrayed? Think about it very carefully. Has someone ever turned you over to the enemy by treachery or fraud? Has someone ever disappointed you; been unfaithful to you, violated your trust, or deceived you? Have you ever been betrayed?     

The second question is this: Have you ever betrayed someone? Think about it carefully. Have you ever handed someone over to the enemy? Have you ever let someone down, been unfaithful, violated a trust or deceived someone? Have you ever betrayed someone? 

Now take those two questions further: Have you ever been betrayed by someone you love?  Have you ever betrayed someone you love?   Continue reading →

Nanny’s Mugs: The Agony of Dementia – A Sermon for Easter 5C

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NANNY'S MUGSIn my kitchen there are some teacups that we call Nanny’s mugs. They are smaller and more delicate than all the other mugs in the cupboard. Whenever I drink tea from them, I think of my Grandmother. That first summer, I moved to Newmarket; some 3,000 miles from my home, my Grandmother decided that she was going to move in with me.  She lived with me in the parsonage for about 3 months.  It was an impulse decision on her part; a decision that I had very little say in. Nanny decided that I was the only one in the family she could trust and so she would move in with me. She was in her late eighties at the time. I didn’t fully understand her lack of faith in the other members of the family. I never dreamed that her suspicions about the relative trustworthiness of our relatives was the beginning of the end.  I loved my Nanny and I was determined to provide a home for her. I was delighted when she arrived. I was always delighted when my Nanny arrived. I remember as a child, I would long for Nanny to arrive.

Nanny was always full of fun and I have all sorts of wonderful memories of usImage 19 getting into trouble together.  Nanny was all of 5 feet tall, she was just a wee little woman, but there was more power and strength in that wee little woman from Belfast than in most of the women I’ve ever met in my life. She was kindness and fierceness all rolled up into a woman who loved nothing better than a good laugh. Nanny was born in Belfast the oldest of 14 children. When all three of her children ended up living in Canada, even though they were well into their sixties she and my Grandda immigrated to Canada to begin a new life in a new country. Immigrating at any age is an incredible undertaking, but immigrating in your 60’s takes guts. I was twelve years old when my Grandparents arrived in Vancouver. I watched my Grandda begin a new job and my Nanny try to make the best of life far away from everything that was familiar to her. Nanny’s homesickness was palpable. Continue reading →

Pray If You Must. And If You Must Then Pray It For Real!

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prayer noSo much of what passes for prayer these days leaves me cold. I have it on good authority that there are people in various places praying for me. Sadly, most of the things they are praying for on my behalf sound like hell on earth; this despite the fact that these folk insist that the things they are praying for will keep me out of hell. The sung prayer in this video has been a favourite of mine for a few years now. Padraig O’ Tuama is an Irish poet, song writer, theologian and troubadour whose earthy prayer is at the very least a conversation worthy of the Divine’s attention: “I fucked it up. I fucked it up. Maranatha.” 

Each and Every Day Is Earth Day

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every Earth copyOn this glorious morning the splendour of the Earth is intensified by the Sun’s light and I am reminded that for the inhabitants of this planet each and every day is Earth Day. Let us not forget the beauty that awaits us in the ordinary! It is this beauty that we hold in common which reveals the extra-ordinary splendour of the Earth. Breathe deep! Breathe deep the breath of God!

A Tough Week for the Planet: Earth Sunday Sermon

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earth-day-2013On the heels of Peter Rollins visit to our congregation last weekend, this Earth Sunday sermon flows out of Peter’s work. You can listen to Peter’s sermon which is the jumping off point for this Earth Day sermon here

Listen to the Earth Day sermon here

Worship Bulletin here

The readings are here

The video of the excerpt from Chief Seattle’s Response is below


Resurrection: “Believe Whatever You Want About What Happened. Now Can We Talk About What This Story Means”

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borg & Holt

Recorded February 7, 2013: Marcus Borg and Charles Holt discuss Jesus’ resurrection.

The Raising of LOVE: the “more-than-literal” meaning of the Raising of Tabitha – a sermon on Acts 9:36-41

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dorcas

“Can the ways in which we tell the stories of resurrection transform us into followers of Jesus who embody a way of being in the world that can nourish, ground, and sustain the kind of peace that the world yearns for?”  I preached this sermon on the raising of Tabitha years ago, as an attempt to convey the academic essay of New Testament scholar Rick Strelan into the form of a sermon. I believe that it is vital for preachers to convey the wealth of insights that are bandied about in the halls of academia, so that congregations can let go of so many interpretations of scripture that insult their intelligence, so that we can  begin to explore the “more-than-literal meaning” (Marcus Borg) of biblical texts. Rick Strelan’s essay appeared in “Biblical Theology Bulletin, May 1, 2009, under the title “Tabitha: the gazelle of Joppa”. 

Yesterday, I went for a walk. As I was walking along, minding my own business, a bright light appeared in the sky. The light nearly blinded me and so it took a while for me to figure out what was happening. Suddenly, it was so clear that the light was actually coming from a very large spaceship. I could scarcely believe by eyes. I stood frozen to the spot as the space ship landed in the middle of the road. You’ll never believe what happened after it landed. A couple of little green creatures with giant eyes gout out, took my picture, and then got back in the spaceship and flew off into the farthest reaches of space.

You don’t believe me, do you? You think that I’m making a joke of some sort, or maybe I’ve been working too hard and I’ve finally lost the plot. I know there’s probably nothing that I can say that would convince you that little green men have photographed me. Quite frankly that’s a relief because if you’ll believe that, you’d probably believe anything.

I do find it interesting that you won’t allow yourself to believe that I encountered aliens from another planet, and yet, you’ll suspend your disbelief when I tell you a story from the Bible. Or will you? Take our first lesson from the book of Acts.    The miraculous story of how the Apostle Peter raised a disciple named Tabitha from the dead. You all know that when someone is dead, that’s it they are dead. You can pray over them all you want, but they’re never going to sit up, let alone stand up like Tabitha. There’s about as much chance of a person standing up after they’ve actually been dead as there is little green men from outer space landing on the street outside this church.The story of the raising of Tabitha is one of those stories that we wouldn’t believe for a second if it weren’t in the Bible. I suspect that when it comes to stories from the Bible, most of us don’t really believe that they happened exactly the way the Bible says they happened. Or do we?Now maybe you’re the generous type and so you say, “Don’t be too hasty, it could happen if the person wasn’t really dead.”  I mean, maybe Tabitha’s friends got it wrong and she just appeared to be dead. The story says that Tabitha died, then her friends washed her body and laid her out in an upper room. Then, since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples sent two couriers to Peter, who was in Lydda and they asked Peter to head back to Lydda, which was about 10 miles away. That’s a 20 mile round trip on foot with a walking speed of about 3 miles per hour it would take at least 7 hours. She was definitely dead. According to the story Peter sends everyone out of the room, knelt down and prayed and then said, “Tabitha, stand up!”  and she did just that.

The story of the raising of Tabitha is one of those stories that we wouldn’t believe for a second if it weren’t in the Bible. I suspect that when it comes to stories from the Bible, most of us don’t really believe that they happened exactly the way the Bible says they happened. Or do we? Continue reading →