Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost:
Luke 17:5-10 – October 6, 2013
Jesus’ Parable of the Mustard Seed
I am indebted to Peter Rollins for his modern parable “Finding Faith” found in his book The Orthodox Heretic
Listen to the sermon here:
Watch Desmond Tutu describes Ubuntu
GOD WOULD KNEEL DOWN – St. Francis
Bishop Spong is not exactly enamoured of religion and or religiosity. Speaking at the Seattle Rotary Club on August 28th 2013, Jack Spong tackles a number of subjects as only Jack can, including his friendship with Desmond Tutu, his belief that the Gay Marriage debate in North America is over, his latest book, number 24, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, and of course why “Christianity must change or die!” As he often does, Jack reminds us that “Jesus didn’t come to make us religious, but to make us whole, so that we may live life abundantly.” Enjoy!!!
I will be preaching on St. Michael and All Angels this coming Sunday. But for those of you who are working on the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, here’s a copy of a sermon I preached a few years ago.
I moved out of my parent’s house when I was quite young and like most young people I didn’t have much money so I lived in some pretty weird places. I once shared a house with a bunch of people that I met working in the travel industry. I didn’t know them very well when I first moved in but as the months dragged on, I got to know some of them better than I would have liked. There were five of us living in a four-bedroom house about a block from Spanish Banks in Vancouver. The house’s proximity to the beach made up for some of my roommates’ shortcomings and the rent was cheap. So, even though I didn’t like the idea, I didn’t kick up much of a fuss when one of my roommates brought home a puppy.
Now there are those people who would argue that all puppies are cute, I just don’t happen to be one of them. Besides this thing was a Doberman and I don’t care if it was cute, I don’t like Dobermans. I was trying to convince my roommate David that he couldn’t possibly keep a Doberman in our house, when two of my other roommates showed up and quickly became besotted with the creature. One of my roommates when so far as to insist that the puppy was the cutest thing she had ever seen and that we simply had to keep it. While she was hugging and kissing the puppy, David got quite annoyed and pulled the puppy away from her and insisted that this dog was not going to be a pet. He declared that we needed this dog to grow up and be a guard dog, and if that was going to happen then we needed to start treating this dog as we meant to continue.
I had no intention of sharing a house with a Doberman, let a lone a guy who wanted to have one as a guard dog, so I started looking for another place to live. Before I moved out of that house, I had the unfortunate opportunity to watch David as he tried to train his puppy. First of all, David had to give the dog a name and it had to be a name that would instill fear into people, so that’s how the puppy ended up with a name like Vader as in Darth Vader. None of us were supposed to cuddle the dog or pat the dog or play with the dog. That was just fine with me. But one of our roommates, Ellen was forever getting into trouble for treating the puppy like a baby. So, David insisted that Vader be chained up outside. A few months after I moved out of the house, I went back to visit and discovered that even Ellen was afraid to go into the backyard because Vader was actually turning into a viscous guard dog. She told me that David had been leaving Vader chained up for longer and longer periods of time and no one in the house would dare to go out into the back yard to feed Vader. I found out from the others that even though they’d tried to get David to pay more attention to Vader, he insisted that it there was nothing wrong with the way he was treating Vader. For months David left Vader chained in the backyard for days at a time and as the dog got bigger and bigger, the three roommates that were left in the house with David became more and more afraid of the dog and eventually they had to insist that David move out. A few months later, I heard that David and Vader had parted ways. It seems that Vader had taken a chunk out of David’s arm and David had to have the poor creature put down. For some reason Jesus’ parable about Lazarus reminded me of Vader the Doberman. Continue reading
This coming Sunday, we at Holy Cross will begin the new Living the Questions interactive DVD adult education program Painting the Stars. Throughout this week I will be posting introductions to the various contributors to the program. So, if you are anywhere near Newmarket this Sunday consider joining us as we explore the dynamic relationship between science and faith!
One of the primary contributors to the program is Canadian Bruce Sanguin. Until recently, Evolutionary Christian Bruce Sanguin was the minister at the Canadian Memorial United Church in Vancouver. This summer Sanguin left parish ministry to pursue his writing and expanding his speaking career.
Bruce has written several books that have to inspired my own worship planning. Two of his books are of particular value to any pastor who seeks to plan worship without slipping into the trap of words that re-inscribe old theological patterns: Darwin, Divinity and the Dance of the Cosmos: An Ecological Christianity and If Darwin Prayed: Prayers for Evolutionary Mystics. Sanguin’s latest book The Advance of Love: Reading the Bible with an Evolutionary Heart explores the relationship between science and faith to shed light on biblical texts.
This video in which Bruce is interviewed by fellow evolutionary Andrew Cohen will wet your appetite for Bruce’s work while giving you an interesting look into evolutionary Christianity. Enjoy!
Companion from the Latin “com pinionem” for “with bread” or “bread fellow”
For those of us following the lectionary for the Season of Creation, Diarmuid O’Murchu’s reminder that the word “pagan” comes from the Latin for “lover of the earth” functions as a call for Christians to embrace Creation! O’Murchu is an evolutionary theologian whose work is breaking new ground as he reconnects 21st century Christians to the riches within the tradition and moves beyond the confines of church doctrine toward a holistic understanding of what it means to be human which offers hope for living together in the “companionship of empowerment”.
Herald of the Divine Feminine, reformer of the church and green prophet! September 17th is the feast day of the Christian mystic Hildegard von Bingen, a woman of great vision, a woman centuries ahead of her time. During her 81 years Hildegard’s talents as an artist, musician, poet, healer and theologian allowed her to produce a wealth of resources for the church which ought not to be ignored. And yet the Roman Catholic Church only got around to officially canonizing this giant of the church this past year.
In 2009, German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta wrote and directed the movie “Vision”. The DVD version is available from Amazon and I highly recommend it!!!
Matthew Fox’s new book “Hildegard of Bingen a Saint for Our Times, Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century” will be released next month and I am eagerly awaiting my copy. You can listen to an interview of Matthew Fox on the subject of his new book here. Fox describes Hildegard as a Trojan horse whose teachings he hopes will shake up the vatican.
At Holy Cross we have developed an Evening Prayer Service inspired by the work of Hildegard. The worship bulletin and an audio recording of the service are linked below. Enjoy the video of contralto Karen Clark who preforms Hildegard’s antiphon “O Virtus Sapientie”
Evening Prayer Service Bulletin which is to be printed double-sided
Evening Prayer Audio – the silences are intentional. Enjoy!
“I also think we need to maintain distinctions – the doctrine of creation is different than scientific cosmology and we should resist the temptation, which sometime scientists give into, to try to assimilate the concepts of theology and the concepts of science.” (Pocklinghorne)
Years ago, while visiting Cambridge, I happened upon a lecture being given by John Pocklinghorne. Since then, I have felt compelled to read his work in an attempt to wrap my non-scientific mind around the complex relationship between science and religion. Pocklinghorne’s description of the relationship as one of friendship helped me to see beyond the all too often enforced boundaries between these two ways of seeking understanding reality.
Lesley Hazleton’s is always worth reading! But her new book, “The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad” is a must read for those of us who live in the West! I have blogged about Lesley Hazleton before (here and here) because I believe that as a Jewish agnostic she is a brilliantly articulate story-teller who is uniquely placed to bring a much needed understanding of Islam to Westerners. If you are looking for a great introduction to the life of Muhammad or if you’ve slogged through other biographies of Muhammad, this book will provide you with a powerful view of the Prophet who continues to speak to millions. In this video, Hazleton discusses her work.
They’re at it again, the powers that be, calling for a military strike to punish a dictator for a military strike that went too far. As the drums of war sound, I hear phrases like “We must stand with Israel”, “Christians are being persecuted” and “Muslim Brotherhood”. When will the children of Sarah, Abraham and Hagar stop their squabbling? Surely, it’s time for us to move beyond our tribal ways? Are we doomed to go on repeating the patterns of the past or can we look into our past as a way of moving beyond our history?
“We cannot be religious in the same way as our ancestors. Our perspective has entirely changed. We have looked at the world from outer space for example. Each generation has the task of looking back at its traditions, looking back at its scriptures and looking at its own peculiar and unique circumstances and making a creative jump to apply the past tradition to the problems of the present.”
Theologian/historian/lecturer Karen Armstrong’s book A HISTORY OF GOD forms the basis for this documentary which explores the way humans have perceived the idea of a supreme being throughout history. During these days, of warmongering we would do well to reflect upon our shared histories.
He was once the Primate of the Episcopal Church in Scotland but these days Richard Holloway describes himself as an agnostic Christian hungering after transcendency and preaching a gospel of uncertainty. The kind of religion that Holloway envisions includes the
sort of faith that bends toward inklings of transcendence in ways that exercise humility in loving ways. Holloway’s autobiography: Leaving Alexandria is as delightful a read as it is a challenge to the church to move beyond certainty to embrace doubt as the foundation of faith. Richard Holloway wears his soul as well as his heart upon his sleeve in this video. Enjoy!
I first became aware of Michael Morwood several years ago when I was looking for prayer resources that did not use anthropomorphic images of God as if the Divine is some far off character who lives somewhere out or up there waiting for us to speak the correct incantations or pass judgement prior to intervening on our behalf. We can talk, preach, teach and even insist that God is not an old angry bearded guy in the sky, but if our liturgies, prayers and hymns continue to beseech mercy from the Lord we will continue to inscribe an anthropomorphic deity upon the hearts and in the minds of those
few worshipers who continue to worship in our sanctuaries while generations of our neighbours continue to reject our sacred assemblies. Michael Morwood’s little book Praying a New Story gave me the courage to begin creating more sources for worship that move beyond theism. Since then I learned so much from Morwood as I have read all of his books, especially: God Is Near, Is Jesus God and his latest, It’s Time. I’m convinced that Morwood’s thirty years as a parish priest have provided him with the necessary insights to articulate Christianity in ways that 21st century Christians can understand. The videos below feature Michael Morwood doing just that. I encourage you to take the time to listen and learn from this brilliant theologian.
Still enjoying a wonderful vacation, and I am grateful not to have to preach on the difficult text assigned for this Sunday. Here’s a facsimile of the sermon I preached a number of years ago on the gospel text.
Now large crowds were travelling with Jesus and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when the foundation is laid and the tower cannot be finished, all who see it will begin to ridicule the builder, saying, “This person began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If not, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all you possession Luke: 14:25-33
Jesus you’ve got to be kidding! “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and even life itself, cannot be my disciple?…None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions?”
Hate your father; hate your mother; hate your wife; hate your children; hate you brothers; hate your sisters; hate even life itself and oh yes while you are at it give up all you possessions and then, and only then will you be ready to take up your cross and follow Jesus. What is Jesus talking about? Has Jesus forgotten about the fourth commandment? Are we to forget about honouring our parents? Wasn’t it Jesus who said that we are to love our neighbours as we love ourselves? Didn’t Jesus try to talk people into loving their enemies? Has Jesus forgotten that God is love? Why does Jesus rant and rave about hating our father’s, mothers, children, sisters, brothers and even life itself?
It is difficult to recognize the Jesus in this text. This is not the gentle Jesus of my childhood. This is not the happy Jesus who smiled out from the pictures in my illustrated Bible.This is not the Jesus that the rightwing conservative Christians point to when they harp on about family values. This is not the gentle Jesus we have come to expect. This Jesus sounds to harsh. This Jesus wants to turn us into religious fanatics who hate everybody and give up everything, even life itself.
For a few years now, there has stood on the shelf above my desk a quotation from Deuteronomy 30. I put it there so that these word’s of God might guide me in my decision making. According to the writers of Deuteronomy, God says: “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live”. God says “Choose life!” How do I reconcile this to the Gospel lesson in which Jesus says whoever does not hate even life itself, cannot be a disciple of Jesus? Why was Jesus so harsh? What is going on here? Continue reading
John Dominic Crossan is by far my favourite New Testament scholar. That he just happens to be one of the leading New Testament scholars in the world has something to do with why I hold his work in such high esteem. More importantly, my love for Dom stems from the generosity with which he has shared his gifts, talents, wit and considerable charm with our little congregation. Holy Cross has been blessed to play host to Dom twice and during his weekends with us we learned so very much from him.
In the videos below, Dom delivers three lectures at All Saints Church in Pasadena (2010). The dvd education program mentioned at the beginning, “The Challenge of Jesus” is brilliant. Holy Cross’ Adult Education Class used it in 2011 and I highly recommend it!!!
I have often heard Jesus’ teaching about who sits where at a wedding feast used to encourage a kind of humility that requires those who would follow Jesus to take a back seat or better still adopt a cloak of invisibility lest we be mistaken for the proud and self-righteous. Canadians have a special affinity for this particular way of interpreting this text. It seems to me that the image of Canadian humility suggests that Canadian Christianity has had a huge impact upon our national psyche. I know that there are many who would insist that our humble national character is a direct result of living in the shadow of the Americans, whose national identity is anything but humble. I have to admit that the constant drumbeat of “We’re number one!”, “We’re number one!” coupled with a patriotism that champions the idea of American Exceptionalism which is the notion that the United States alone has the right, whether by divine sanction or moral obligation, to bring civilization, or democracy, or liberty to the rest of the world, by violence if necessary. With such pride of place, you can be sure that each and every one of our American cousins is endowed with the confidence on knowing exactly where they belong at the head table. So, is it any wonder that living next-door to a nation that instills such patriotic ardor in its citizens, that we Canadians would find a more humble approach more appealing.
Don’t get me wrong; I know that stereotypes rarely express the full character of a nation and so, it would be a mistake to paint all Americans with the same brush. But I dare say that you’d be hard pressed to find a Canadian who would disagree that even the most enlightened of our American cousins who might be found from time to time to speak softly, doesn’t underneath it all carry a big stick. Where Bravado flows through our American cousin’s national character, most Canadians prefer a quieter, softer, gentler approach, lest we be confused with the worst of American stereotypes: “the ugly American.” Continue reading
At the beginning of his latest book, “The Underground Church: Reclaiming the Subversive Jesus”, Robin Meyers quotes Fred Craddock to ask how the church became a nine pound sparrow that is afraid to fly? Questioning the domestication of what was once an underground church, Meyers bemoans the church’s current state of
domestication and sentimentality. I’ve blogged about Meyer’s before and highly recommended his earlier book: “Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus.” I have just re-read both books and I think that they are must-reads for anyone who cares about the future of Christianity. Watch this brief video for a sample of Meyers dreams for the subversive way toward the Reign of God where everyone has enough.
Bishop Spong interviewed in his home on August 17, 2013
Jack speaks about his new book The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic Listen to the extended interview here
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