Youth co-preach!

Every once in a while, our children and youth do a take-over in worship. Liturgy in true form! It's wonderful.
Yesterday was one of those days. I got to co-preach with an eloquent, articulate, prayerful and faithful youth. Here's what we preached on Matthew 17.1-9.

LM+:               The Gospel this morning is filled with wonder and mystery and excitement. It's another one of the passages that invites us to celebrate the mystery and majesty of God here on earth - for anyone and everyone to see. And, best yet, it invites us all to participate in that celebration.

So, the setting is pretty spectacular: Jesus and three friends are on a mountaintop, presumably to pray, when Jesus' appearance changes, he shines brighter than the sun, his clothes are dazzling, and then there are 2 other people standing there. These folks are so recognisable, form generations of history and theology, that immediately the disciples recognise them to be Moses and Elijah - two heroes of the bible, champions of the faith, just appear, chatting with Jesus.

WOW. Is it any wonder then, that Peter in his excitement blurts out that he wants to make that moment last forever? Wouldn't we all do everything we could to make that perfect moment last?

But, of course, it can't last as it is... just like every perfect moment, we know we can't stay there forever - life has to go on.

And God - the voice of God - makes this very clear to Peter and James and John. He says the famous words: "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased!"

                        Sound familiar? Where else do we hear that?

(youth):           In Matthew 3. 13-17 it states “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went

up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”

LM+:               Exactly. So then - God then says to the disciples: "Listen to him." And what do they hear?

(youth):           "Get up - and do not be afraid."

LM+:               And that's exactly what the disciples do: they get up, and realise that their lives are changed. They have heard the literal voice of God. They have seen the glory of Jesus. They have been inspired to live their lives as a celebration of faith, as an on-going opportunity for ministry.

And this is why we celebrate the transfiguration - because even now, some 2000 years later, we are still being invited to get up, and not be afraid, and to think of our own baptismal vows when we live out our lives as followers of Jesus.

So let's think about those now, and how knowing Jesus is reflected in the vows we have all taken:

LM+:               We have promised to continue in teaching, and Eucharist, and prayer.

(youth):           An example of how I have promised to continue teaching the Eucharist and prayer is by praying at home and attending chapel at school. Going to a Christian school has provided me the prefect place to expand my learning and teaching while interacting with others who share the same passions as me.

LM+:               We have promised to resist evil and repent and return to the Lord.

(youth):           A way that I do this is forgiving others when they make mistakes and asking for forgiveness from the person that I have hurt and the lord.     

LM+:               We have promised to share in word and action God's good news.

(youth):           An example of how I do this is by talking with others about my faith and exploring new thoughts with my friends and family. Another way that I share God’s good news in word is by talking about my day with my family so that I can share all of the great things that have happened, and learn about the things that God did in other people’s days.

LM+:               We have promised to see God's face in everyone, and love one another.

(youth):           A way that I do this is by not judging a book by its cover. While I sometimes do this literally in my school library I also do this figuratively at school. On the first day of school this year my friend Courtney introduced me to one of her friends. Even thought I am shy and not exactly comfortable with new people I made sure that she was comfortable and knew where to go for all of her classes. This one example greatly changed my life because now she is a great of friend of mine and has made my school year even more enjoyable.   

LM+:               We have promised to do things for justice and peace in the world, and respect the dignity of everyone.

(youth):           A way that I do this in my life is by volunteering my time at Jordan Arena and being a program assistant. I help to teach and assist young kids who are just learning how to skate and doing simple tasks to help the children and coaches. Another way that I can do this is by donating to community care.   

LM+:               We have promised the take care of God's creation.

(youth):           A way that I do this is by taking care of the environment. In grade 7-8 we had different roles that we all had, one of these roles was the eco-team. On this team we helped collect the recycling and make sure everything was sorted correctly. Being on this team helped me to do my part to protect the environment that God created.

LM+:               So that shows just one example of someone who is changed by seeing the presence of God in her life. For all of us, this change is there. Howe we see the world is different when we choose to see Jesus in it. How we act in the world is different because we are reacting to the presence of the Christ around us. And other people will see a difference too - in us - the light of Jesus shining from who we are, and whose we are - and how we live that reality.

So let us all embrace this love and light of Christ in our lives.  Let us all be  changed by having seen Jesus; let us be fearless to celebrate that reality in our lives; let's get up, and go - for the love of God.

Sermon on Matthew 5.38-48

        Most of you know that I don't have cable - so aside from DVDs and my Winnipeg Jets hockey games, I tend to be out of the loop with regards to television. (It's even worse with movies - trust me, I am NOT the height of pop culture knowledge.)

        That being said, a few years ago a friend turned me on to the BBC's modernisation of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective: it's called “Sherlock” - I became a fast fan. Re-watching the DVDs, there’s one scene that made me giggle. Sherlock and Watson have just had – well, not their finest moment together. Sherlock’s been an insensitive twerp, Watson’s (rightly) angry, and they end up fighting it out – literally. Sherlock has instigated a fight, thinking he just needs a black eye to complete his costume, but John Watson gets right into it. So as they're rolling in the street and Watson is strangling Sherlock, the conversation goes something like this:

   Sherlock: I think we're done now, John!

   Watson: You don't remember, Sherlock, I was a soldier! I killed people!

   Sherlock: You were a doctor!

   Watson: I had bad days!

It’s amusing. Without ruining the plot, Watson does NOT kill Sherlock, they solve the crime, and on they go to the next mystery.

        My point is this: we’ve all been there. Not literally, I hope, with our hands wrapped around our best friends’ throat. But at the point where we’re ready to cry out “I had bad days!” Where the frustration level is so high that our emotions get the better of us. Where we start acting a bit out of character because – well – it’s a bad day.

        We’ve all been there, because we’re all human. We all have emotions, we all have pressure points, we all have triggers. There’s only so much we’re willing and able to tolerate at any given time – and those factors can change. We're less patient when we're overtired, or feeling ill, or when something else is going on in our lives. On good days we can ignore bad behaviours or cruel comments; on bad days - well, that's when we don't cope so well.

        And bad days happen. We’ve all had bad days. We do have bad days. We will have bad days. How, then, are we to hear the closing sentence from this morning’s Gospel, with any integrity? “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”? 

        This is NOT easy. It can make the Gospel - God's Good News - feel almost DIScouraging, rather than ENcouraging. That's not really helpful when we're in the midst of one of those bad days – we’re already feeling blah and ick and grrr, and now have been told we’re not measuring up.

        Yet, when we delve deeper into the scriptures, we discover that the message is a bit different. The Greek word that gets translated as 'perfect' is TELEIOS. This doesn’t fully capture it… especially in our modern understanding of perfect.

        Perfect is today defined as: without blemish, without mistake, as good as it gets.

        Teleios, however, had a more nuanced meaning: it meant mature, fully grown, having arrived at an objective.

        Not so much as “faultless” but rather as “absolute” or “complete”. So, re-hearing the scriptures: “Be spiritually mature, therefore, as your heavenly Father is mature.”

        Well now – that sounds an awful lot more do-able, doesn’t it? It sounds possible and inspiring, not harshly judgemental. It’s become inclusive, not exclusive. It sounds more like the Gospels SHOULD sound.

        Maturity suggests a journey, an on-going work. It’s not something that happens immediately, but something that has been given care and effort in an attempt to reach its absolute state.

        Like us. Like us on our good days, like us on our bad days.

        Being mature invites us to consider where we are on our journey: are we there yet? No, not yet.  And that's not a BAD thing, it just means that there’s still some work to be done.

        And THAT is the message Jesus leaves us with. He's saying: ‘You are a work in progress, but I don’t want you to give up. I want to see you persevering, every day, knowing that it’s not over. Be patient with yourself, put the past behind you, learn to move beyond your comfort zone, to do better than you’ve done before.’

        Now THAT is quite the message, quite the challenge, quite the learning opportunity.  Jesus knows that bad days happen – and that’s okay – so long as we do our best to respond in mature, caring ways, instead of lashing out... So long as we acknowledge the possibilities in front of us with love and compassion instead of criticism and negativity... So long as we live each day as a today instead of as an extension of the past.

        Earlier in this passage, Jesus has been saying to us “you have heard it said” with some harsh statements from the Old Testament – an eye for an eye; forced to go a mile; hate your enemy: and he challenges us to see these from a different perspective. He invites us into non-violent response in ways that show the high road, the loving nature, the Christian way.

        The old ways are just that – old, incomplete, immature ways. Those are the yesterdays. The responses are NOT going to be easy – turn the other cheek so I can be hit again? Give my cloak after my coat has been taken? Walk even further away from home and security than I’ve been forced to go? Eek. Sounds indeed like a bad day to me.  But that’s where we’ve been called to.

        It is there that we will grow, mature, move towards completeness.

        Maybe in turning the other cheek rather than hitting back, we will learn to overcome a fear and stand up for what is right. And we'll be reminded that turning the other cheek simply allowed the other person the chance to disgrace themselves.

        Maybe in giving cloak and coat, we will see that there is desperation and need fuelling the actions of those who are taking something from us, unjustly. And acknowledging another's need allows us to show compassion and justice to someone who needs it most.

        Maybe by going the second mile, we will meet a new friend on the road and enjoy a conversation that you might otherwise have missed. And, we'll also be further away from the problems of the past.

        Maybe in loving our enemies – not just our friends – we will recognize that at some point, someone loved us first, whether we deserved it or not. It will remind us that our enemies must feel love-less sometimes, and that everyone needs to be loved, and prayed for, no matter what their actions.

        Maybe these prayers will remind us that everyone has a bad day – and that some people deal with it better than others. Maybe these prayers will remind us that loving our families and friends is easy, but loving our enemies and praying for our persecutors is part of the journey towards that spiritual maturity that we're craving.

        Loving one another - especially when it seems that some 'others' don't want to love us - takes effort, and practice, and perseverance. But it is worth it, so long as we do it for the love of God. Because that love IS perfect - and teleios - and ought to be celebrated. So let us too aim towards that love, that maturity, that perfection – just as our heavenly Father is perfect.