SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

It was a busy intense week

time-wise and emotionally.

Grateful for those looking out for us and them we love.

Flying standby can be stressful.

Air travel is costly, even if it's relatively cheep.

Skyscrapers and landmarks - the world away was familiar.

So much more, but happy for what was.

A wicked detour and off to Carolina in the morning.

Surprisingly low key and non-musical at first.

But soon, the five elements were everywhere.

Building relationships and houses.

And music from so much talent.

Spirit, opened my heart!

MUST BE NICE

As I sit at the Calgary Airport, waiting to head to the US for a week of study leave, I am conscious of what a privilege it is to be able to do what I do. The other day, I was mentioning to some people I know outside of church circles that I had this study time coming up. The response was: "must be nice!" It is. I am grateful to serve a vocation that values life long learning; that believes in rejuvenation and rest as part of the learning process.

I know that I can become a better minister as I take advantage of opportunities to challenge my heart, mind and soul.

Thanks be to God. Now it's time to board!

TRYING TO KEEP IT ALL UP

Sometimes, there aren't enough hours in the day,

or enough dextrose in the tank.

SERMON ADDENDUM

On Sunday, I preached about the over-arching love of God:

http://stdavidsleduc.blogspot.com/2010/05/changing-times.html.

The text was the passage in John 13:31-35: Love one another, as I have loved you. I keyed in on the unconditional nature of this love. I further proposed that the prominent orthodoxy that says that we must see God's love as "conditional" on our need to have Jesus absolve our basic sinful nature was hard to reconcile with what I hear John's gospel saying.



It was a Communion Sunday; there were ten minutes of announcements, so I know that I couldn't say everything I wanted to say. Thank God for blogs.



Even though I believe in a God who love unconditionally and I believe in a world and creation that is "good" (cf. genesis 1:31), I also believe in "sin" and I think it is a major issue for people and for the church. I like the way sin is addressed in the United Church's A Song of Faith: A Statement of Faith of the United Church of Canada.

Made in the image of God,
we yearn for the fulfillment that is life in God.
Yet we choose to turn away from God.
We surrender ourselves to sin,
a disposition revealed in selfishness, cowardice, or apathy.
Becoming bound and complacent
in a web of false desires and wrong choices,
we bring harm to ourselves and others.
This brokenness in human life and community
is an outcome of sin.
Sin is not only personal
but accumulates
to become habitual and systemic forms
of injustice, violence, and hatred.
We are all touched by this brokenness:
the rise of selfish individualism
that erodes human solidarity;
the concentration of wealth and power
without regard for the needs of all;
the toxins of religious and ethnic bigotry;
the degradation of the blessedness of human bodies
and human passions through sexual exploitation;
the delusion of unchecked progress and limitless growth
that threatens our home, the earth;
the covert despair that lulls many into numb complicity
with empires and systems of domination.
We sing lament and repentance.



John quotes Jesus: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."



To not love what Jesus loves could be called "sin". To not love the world, as God so loves the world could be called "sin". "Sin" is a choice to be guided by selfishness or hatred or indifference and not by the love that is the heart of the universe. And sin deserves our attention, individually and corporately.



Where I have problems with the orthodoxy is the theology that God chooses not to love us because of sin. I hope and pray that in our sinfulness, God loves us that much more. That's "grace". As A Song of Faith puts it:

Yet evil does not—cannot—
undermine or overcome the love of God.
God forgives,
and calls all of us to confess our fears and failings
with honesty and humility.
God reconciles,
and calls us to repent the part we have played
in damaging our world, ourselves, and each other.
God transforms,
and calls us to protect the vulnerable,
to pray for deliverance from evil,
to work with God for the healing of the world,
that all might have abundant life.We sing of grace.



In the end, we should all be able to agree with Jesus: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another".

GET TO KNOW MEMORIAL UNITED CHURCH

On June 10th, 2010, The United Church of Canada will be 85 years old. In 1925, the Methodist Church in Canada, the Congregationalist Church of Canada and two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Canada formally joined together to become The United Church of Canada. The rest is history (still being written).

Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us.

In celebration of this momentous occasion, each United Church congregation has been “paired”. People from the churches are encouraged to be in touch with each other. The hope is that people will be talking about their churches and getting to know each other.

St. David’s United Church in Leduc, Alberta is twinned with Memorial United Church in Murray River, PEI. Drop them a letter (electronic or traditional), if you like:
PO Box 1,
Murray River PE
C0A 1W0
memorialunited@live.ca.

If you are travelling to the Maritimes this year, perhaps you can visit your sibling church.

Check out their website http://www.memorialunitedchurch.ca/.

WHY ARE WE BEING PUNSIHED?

I have heard the same sentiment expressed in different places and times. I heard it on the news again this morning: why are we being punished? Today it was an Icelandic farmer whose fields were covered in volcanic ash. I don't get why some people still quickly gravitate to seeing natural events as a direct conscious act of the Divine, bent on retribution. I don't get it.

I get it when we're talking about an ancient society with little knowledge of the science of the earth. When one's world view is small and local, the big picture of moving tectonic plates is not the first thing that comes to mind.

The volcano on Eyjafjallajökull sits right over the tenuous boundary between two plates of the Earth's crust. It is an active volcano zone. This mountain has a relatively recent history of similar eruptions. Erupting is what volcanoes do. It is natural. It is normal. It just happens.

So are earthquakes and tsunamis and rains and droughts. It is part of the life of this planet.

None of this dismisses the anguish and hardship and death that often comes to people living in these areas. They deserve all of our compassion and help. The deserve our prayers. But they are not served by an outdated theology that blames them for these hardships.

Natural disasters are not the result of an angry or vengeful god. And it is a lengthy stretch of providence to say that since it was God who set the universe in motion that these resent natural events were part a master plan to reward or punish people based on their faithfulness.

I believe in a God who actively loves and supports and cares. I just don't believe that God dictates that volcanic ash will fall on a particular field because of what anyone does or believes.

Can I get an "Amen"?

THE CHAOS OF PRAISE

As I was preparing to preach last week, I was reading Psalm 150, one of the suggested Lectionary readings for the 2nd Sunday of Easter:
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
Praise him according to his surpassing greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with clanging cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord! (NRSV)

I found myself thinking of a new phrase that I think I may have actually coined (I'll take credit for it for a while anyway): The Chaos of Praise.

Some people in more charismatic churches might know this better than others. The idea that a noise filled room of such diverse expressings of faith can be a form of deep praise.

For all of us there should be excitement and value experienced when the diversity and variety of God's people becomes obvious. It should not scare us or bother us, but exite us. We are no more or less than others just because they are different than us.

Thank God for opportunities to join in the Chaos of Praise.