Sermon for 26 Aug

1 Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43 

Psalm 84

Ephesians 6:10-20  

John 6:56-69

We all have things in our lives that are important to us, and how we treat those things demonstrates it.  For our physical things, we tend to carry them with us to keep them close; our identification, some jewellery, etc.  For our emotional things, we have physical things that symbolise this importance; like photos of loved ones, significant gifts – and again, we keep those things close. We tend to keep these things in good repair, we keep them near us so we can enjoy the constant reminder, we tend to show off these things to other people.  We show the world what is important to us by literally showing what we value to the world.

So what about our faith?  Where does God fit into our priorities?  If we are putting God first, then shouldn’t it show to the world?  So how do we do just that?   There are many different ways that we are encouraged to celebrate God’s presence in our lives.  Ways that we are invited to consider carrying God with us through our daily journeys, ever with us and on display.  For some, it’s wearing a cross necklace; for others it is opening meetings in prayer.  Some people may carry their bible with them or put a framed scripture passage on their desk.  Others may not have anything on immediately visible.  Whatever we do – and however we do it – there are always ways we can improve – and today’s scriptures give us some ideas and precedent as to how we can do just that.

 First we have Solomon and the elders and tribal heads, all gathered together with the ark of the covenant.  An earthly box holding a sacred agreement between the people and God.  And we see that the power of God cannot be contained within an earthly vessel; nor can it be restricted to only one people.  We see that despite the physical presence of the ark, that Solomon declares that God cannot be contained – on earth nor in heaven.  And the people are encouraged to share their faith, their expressions of good news, their stories as far and wide as possible.  And they are called upon to do this “so that all the peoples of the earth may know [God’s] (sic) name and fear [God].”  The people are encouraged to respect the ark but to celebrate their faith, carrying it out beyond boundaries without fear.

The psalm praises that God is not dwelling in just one human-chosen place.  It is a celebration of the vastness and greatness of God’s dwelling, open to all of creation, who have faith.  Yet while God’s household is a place of delight, it is also a place for the strong in faith.  The psalmist hints that getting into God’s house I not done by chance but instead by making earthly choices – as the soul and flesh and heart long and faint for the house of the Lord, the psalmist will make the appropriate choices in order to get there.  And the world will see it, in the prayers, in the longing, in the humility.

Paul then gives great detail about the armour of God. Ironic, since Paul tended to be someone who opposed military service, that he would use the analogy of combat dress.  Yet he adapted his message in such a way that it would be best heard by the people; Paul is both using an example that they can relate to and he is suggesting a new way to consider their militant ways.  The message itself did not change – take the power of Christ with you wherever you go.  Cover yourself in faith as you would with clothing; let people know that you are following Christ by your thoughts and words and deeds; let people know that you are following Christ by your prayers and your message and your strength.  He’s telling the Ephesians that they are identified by their attire as soldiers; they should be as easily and readily identifiable as Christians.

And Jesus again reminds us of the beauty of the Eucharist.  We are invited to share in the divine essence of the bread and the wine; we are told that when we choose to live in Christ that Christ will also live in us.  This is incredibly important – it reminds us that our expression of faith is not a one-way journey, but a reciprocal experience.  When we choose to be with God, God also chooses to be with us.  It’s just one way in which we know and celebrate and delight in the truth that in faith, we are never alone.  And through this Jesus shares, once again, the promise of eternal life for those who believe.  And I really believe that it is that delight, that joy, that bliss of the journey with Christ that shows the world where our priority lies.  When we have a love for the Lord within us, there’s no way we can keep it a secret.

So we’re invited today to think about how we take God with us into our daily lives.  How we let God move through us no matter where we go and what we do.  How we embrace the life-filled spirit that is dwelling within us.

With messages such as these, is it any wonder that not everyone in Capernaum was able to receive this good news? We have people every day who want to believe, but who struggle; people who want to live in the joy of the Lord yet who are unable to carry that delight with them.  We have people today who would say, as the disciples did, that “This teaching is difficult.” 

Of course it is.  Because true faith was never meant to be easy.  True faith takes a lifetime to build and grow and carry, because it is what we choose to build and grow and carry with us through our lives, every day.  And making the choice to grow in faith is not a once-made decision, rather it’s a choice that we must make over and over again.  In this way our faith is like our muscles – we must exercise it regularly if we are to keep it strong.  And so we incorporate our faith into our lives.  It is difficult, but we know that with our faith, all things are possible; God will help us and guide us and surprise us. 

Faith is not easy – but the reward is great.  And the choice is always ours.  So I invite you to spend some time this week reflecting on your faith – how it has grown in the past, how you want it to grow in the future.  Reflect on what influences your faith, and imagine ways to allow for new impacts upon it.  I invite us all to consider how we make our faith a priority in our lives, and how we show that faith to the world.  And I invite us to continue to strengthen our faith; at every opportunity, so that when meet Christ face to face we too will declare "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

Sermon (19 August)

1 Kings 2.10-12; 3.3-14

Ephesians 5.15-20

John 6.51-58

About 15 years ago I was traveling through Europe with some friends. We had spent a day in some Turkish baths in Budapest – lovely – and decided to go see some more of the city in the afternoon, hiking up the Gellert mountain.  Being somewhat intelligent and terribly frugal, we stopped at the little girls’ room before leaving the baths. Even the bathrooms were lovely – mosaics in the tiled walls, fountain sink, very private stalls with floor to ceiling coverage. Quite dignified and classy.

So, we went and did what we were there to do. And then came the hitch in our plans for the day. The stall that I was in had decided it liked me – the latch on the door malfunctioned and became stuck. So there I was – trapped – in a small room with a toilet. Now, in our normal North American public washroom set up, one could just crawl under the stall wall. However, floor to ceiling tiled walls… proper door with handle… I was trapped in a 2.4x4foot box, in 30 degree temperatures. If I hadn’t been claustrophobic before, I certainly was afterwards!

My friends and I tried everything to get me out of there – kicking the door from both sides (fail), dismantling the lock mechanism (fail), my friends went as far as dismantling another stall’s lock to try and see how it worked (also pointless). So they went out to get help. Well, language was a bit of a problem, and with gender boundaries were still very heavily guarded, especially with tourists in a Turkish bath, the maintenance people were more than a bit hesitant to come into the ladies’. Finally, however, one of my friends literally dragged one maintenance guy into the room enough that he understood both the problem of the locked door, and the desperation of the person trapped within the stall.  Long story short, 20 minutes later the door was opened and I was freed, thanks to 7 Hungarians and a crow bar. 

The experience of being trapped is NOT a good one. While my being trapped was temporary, I was in no immediate danger, etc., it’s the type of thing that stays with you long after you’ve been freed – to this day I check for an escape route every time I need to use the facilities.  It does seem a little comical, but there is no way I want to experience that again.

Being trapped is something that can happen to anyone at any time – there were three stalls in that bathroom; I just happened to get into the stall with the latch that had been functioning fine until that use.  It was just a fluke; it could have happened to any of my friends or any of the other folks there. Being trapped is also something that we may not realise until we’re well into the situation – I had been trapped in the stall with no concerns until I wanted to leave.  Being trapped sometimes means denying the obvious –there was a moment of blissful ignorance of jiggling that door handle when I was sure that I had just forgotten how to open a door, and so I kept jiggling the knob and turning the lock over and over again – it seems silly, but that thought was a preferable to being trapped.  And then, of course, there’s the feeling of panic and helplessness – I was trapped and there was nothing I could do about it. All I could do was sit down and wait, and try to remain calm.

Being trapped is not fun. It’s not something anyone would ever WAT to do. And yet, people get trapped all the time.

Being trapped doesn’t have to be just a physical thing – for my example today I’ve used that stall.  But the trap that we can all get into is the trap of earthly understanding.  And the readings today are reminding us that we do get trapped, and challenging us to break free.  Earthly understanding will not bring us true freedom; it can change and bend and adapt and even be wrong.  It is the understanding of God that will truly set us free.

So let’s consider this earthly understanding – it can happen to anyone, at any time.  We’re all encouraged to be caught up in the goings-on of world around us, to engage with the ever-changing fashion, to fit in and be popular. We sometimes don’t even realise that we are trapped in those earthly concerns until it’s too late to do anything about it – we see people all the time get caught up in buying things they don’t need because of an enticing advertisement, or doing things that contradict their faith because of peer pressure.  We also find new and exciting ways to deny that what we are doing is a trapping – we seek out the loopholes and grant ourselves arbitrary permission so that we don’t have to really consider our behaviour as something negative, so that we justify what we are doing as righteous.  I recently heard one person say that the book they were reading (some 50 Shades of smutty) was just to know how to counter the evil in the world... right.  And sometimes, when we spend some time reflecting and praying, we will recognise that we have become trapped. We are caught in earthly ways and the earthly thinking, based only on how we understand the earthly reality around us, and there is nothing we can do by ourselves to get out of that trap. Because there is nothing that we have been doing that glorifies God. There is nothing that we have been doing that transcends our very limited earthly trap.  And the more we think on it, the smaller and smaller that trap seems.

I know I’ve been there.  I’m willing to suggest that we’ve all been there.  And I do so because this is not something new – if it were, we wouldn’t be receiving guidance from the scriptures on this very topic.

Solomon today shows us that when we focus on God, we will be rewarded. He demonstrates that when we put our desire into serving God, that we will be enabled and empowered to complete that service within the context of the world, without becoming trapped.  Solomon knows that governing the people is a difficult task.  He knows that riches and treasurers could make things seem easier – foreign trade, economic growth, negotiations, etc. But instead of these things, Solomon asks God for wisdom and understanding. He knows that for his governance to be effective and faithful it must look beyond those trappings.  And so God grants him his request, and also grants him some riches and treasures so that the earthly practicalities of his Godly-understood governance will be easier for him.

Paul reminds the community at Ephesus of the same benefit of focus.  “Be careful how you live.” He says.  Don’t be foolish and easily distracted by shiny objects and temporary amusements.  Be wise, make the most of your time here on earth to focus on God and to help others focus on God. 

Jesus too is trying to remind his community that they are trapped into earthly thinking, into spiritual ruts that are not celebrating true life in and through the power of God.  These people, his own home community from his youth, are trapped.  They are taking things literally and out of context.  When Jesus speaks, he is offering them eternal life through the living bread of heaven; the people, however, are hearing him offer them earthly things which are unpalatable and will spoil.  They do not hear the promise of salvation given through the metaphor; they are trapped into hearing an earthly meal plan. These are the people that Jesus has come to save, and he finds them trapped.  He finds them unaware that they are trapped – they are Jews, following the written law without giving it much consideration.  They go so far as to deny their trapping, by denying Jesus.  It’s as though they are saying “We’re doing what was written down, what more do we need? Your words are confusing us Jesus, in a way that the written law is seeming more clear than ever. It’s easier for us to just follow the written law – it’s what everyone else is doing, after all!”  And so Jesus sees this trap – he recognises that his own people are stuck in earthly ways.

Jesus’ words spoke to his people then, and they speak to us - his people – now.

Jesus’ words are a promise to all that will hear them, all that will believe them.  He is promising the gift of true freedom whenever they, WE, wish to receive it. He is promising that we can receive the very essence of his divine nature, the assuredness of the eternal life that he is offering to us, whenever we are wanting to receive it.  He is foretelling his own sacrifice, his own death and resurrection, into that promise. “Break free from your earthly trapping” he invites us. “Come and take what I am willing to give to you and for you – come and receive a love so perfect that nothing on this earth can hold it back – even earthly life itself.” Jesus is telling his people, then and now, that he will give up everything he has - including his life – that we might live outside the traps that the earth sets up for us.  Some people choose to stay within their traps, believing it better to maintain the life they have rather than face change.  But even a comfortable trap is still a trap.

And so we are encouraged to recognise when we are trapped, To move past our ignorance and cultural expectations and earthly thinking.  We are encouraged to ask for help and understanding.  And Jesus is promising to give us the strength that we need to avoid being helpless within those traps; he is giving us the hope that we need to break free from them and live in faith. And that freedom is greater than anything the earth has to offer.