Service Type: Sunday

Bible Text: Mark 8: 37-38 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes

Juliet famously said, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet.” She said this as she realized that her Capulet love for a Montague would never be acceptable in the eyes of her family or Romeo’s for that matter. However, I often wonder if people who change their name feel this way. What is in a name? Did you know that Pablo Picasso’s full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso? And yet most of us know his signature as simply Picasso. Sometimes people use pseudonyms to protect their actual identity, Benjamin Franklin used 9 different pen names including Martha Careful, Alice Addertongue and Anthony Afterwit. When CS Lewis wrote “A Grief Observed” he felt that it was so raw and personal that he chose to use the pseudonym N.W. Clerk. He was forced to reveal his authorship after most of his friends recommended the book to him as a way to cope with his grief. Sometimes people change their names to pursue a career in the arts. Dino Paul Crocetti began a career crooning in illegal casinos and called himself Dino Martini after the Met opera singer Nino Martini, his name changed again to Dean Martin as his career took off. When Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta walked into the recording studio of Rob Fusari he told her that her name just wouldn’t work in the music industry. A few days later he meant to text her, Radio Gaga, as a note about the song by Queen, but thanks to auto-correct the word radio came up as Lady. Stefani looked at the text and said, “That’s it. Don’t ever call me Stefani again” and Lady Gaga was born. So, what is in a name? Is it true that, that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet?

Well Jesus has a similar question. The issue in a name is that identity with which it is tied. Even the names we use for Jesus are different from those his own parents used and we call him by those various names according to the theology we want to project. Emmanuel literally means in Hebrew, God with us. The word Jesus is a transliteration of the Hebrew name Joshua or Yeshua, which means Jehovah Saves or God is salvation. In Greek the term Christ means anointed and is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. But not only do we have various pseudonyms for Jesus, the crowd who followed Jesus also had various names and expectations associated with those names of who Jesus was and even what to call him when. It is this challenge that faces our passage today.

The first verse in Mark’s Gospel begins, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” But for the first eight chapters the disciples constantly confuse Jesus for other things and people. Jesus is not only a story teller and healer but in the end of chapter four they ask, “who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” In chapter six they mistake Jesus for a ghost as he approaches them on the sea. We as readers have the pretext that Jesus is the Son of God but it takes the disciples a great many tries before they get it right.

In our section we discover that the disciples are not alone in their confusion because people are claiming that Jesus might be John the Baptist reborn (an impossible notion since John and Jesus were alive at the same time) or maybe Elijah, the great prophet who did not die but was taken up in a cloud or maybe Jesus is one of those other prophets. But when Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” The response from Peter is short, “You are the Messiah.” After eight long chapters it would appear that the disciples finally understand who Jesus is and the gap between reader and disciple is closed.

Except just as this gap is closed a new rift opens wide. Because, what is in a name? What is in a title? What does it mean that Jesus is the Messiah? While the Hebrew word means anointed, it also carries with it the idea that a Messiah would be a liberator, would be a deliverer, would most likely be a solider who won a great battle over the oppressor. For the Jews of that time period they figured a Messiah would do battle on the Roman Empire and break the hold that the Romans had upon them, that a Messiah would be victorious in a great rebellion. So this lanky, pour, son of a carpenter Nazarene does not quite fit those expectations. He does not fit the expected associations with the name Messiah. Jesus certainly does not fit it when he begins to say that instead of winning a great battle he will have to suffer and die, essentially be defeated. This is not the kind of Messiah that was promised to the Hebrew people in the Torah. So while Peter vocalizes who he believes Jesus to be Peter was also making some of those assumptions about what the Messiah would do and therefore Peter can be forgiven for rebuking Jesus when Jesus says he will be defeated.

Then Jesus turns to the crowd, and loses that sense of secrecy he had built up over the previous verses. He calls out to all who are present that this walk is not his alone to take but that those who want to follow him must also take up their cross. Jesus is not going to suffer for sufferings sake but rather because what he does, how he lives, is in stark contrast to the cultural norms, political set ups and religious practices of his day. By reaching out and serving the marginalized, by questioning the religious authority and traditions, by living among the unclean, Jesus is going to anger quite a few people and when people in power get angry they turn to suppression. They want to overcome this rebellious talk.

This is the take away for us. Theologian Micah Kiel says, “Mark profiles a deeper dynamic that spans the ages: how are human knowledge and expectations in tension with the aims of God? We know the way things are, how they are supposed to go. If we believe God is active and that Jesus is aline in the world, then the question posed to us is not whether we confess Jesus as the Messiah. That is the easy part. We know what the title is. The question becomes how do we misunderstand what the title means?” What is in a name?

What does it mean to call ourselves Christians? What does it mean to call ourselves a church? The Session of CVPC has been studying a document by the World Council of Churches called “Together Towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes. This week one of the passages said, “The church exists by mission, just as fire exists by burning. If it does not engage in mission, it ceases to be church. In this perspective it is not the church that has a mission but rather the mission that has a church. Mission is not a project of expanding churches but of the church embodying God’s salvation in this world.” What does it mean to come to Comox Valley Presbyterian Church? Instead of answering that question for you I know you will think about what that question means to you. Jesus’ clarity in the kind of Messiah that he is, lends itself to a certain kind of discipleship. Perhaps we are not like Peter in a way because we are informed by the death and resurrection of Jesus. But we also commit to follow someone who we know and understand only in part. For it is only as we walk with Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, Emmanuel, that we come to know what is in his name. And it is in his name that we pray. Amen

Bible Text: Mark 7:1-23 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes

Many years ago Margaret Visser, who calls herself an anthropologist of everyday life, wrote a book entitled “The Way We Are” in which she wrote short essays on certain Western Hemisphere eccentricities. One essay, is on how and why we greet one another. She explains that kissing someone upon meeting them was viewed as unacceptable in Great Britain since about the early Victorian era because kissing someone in public was viewed as a “continental” extravagance. She also explains that in the medieval period, men were expected to kneel on two knees to God and on one knee to a superior. Women were expected to always kneel on both knees for God and others. This kind of kneeling was called a “curtsy” which comes from the word courtesy which originally meant behaviour refined enough to be practised by courtiers. It explains why we still are expected to curtsy when royalty walk in the room. When kissing was no longer acceptable and a curtsy was reserved for royalty, hand-shaking became the predominant way to greet one another. Hand-shaking had always been a symbol of forming a contract and shaking with the right-hand was a symbol of peace, as tying up your right hand with another meant you could not draw your sword. Of course there was a time when we gave up even hand-shaking for that elbow nudge during the H1N1 situation but it seems that most of us predominantly greet one another with a handshake and I like that it means both peace and a contract. Greeting one another, regardless of how, is a human tradition that is appropriate as it displays hospitality and warmth. But there are often other traditions that are strange or at least certainly have strange roots. In fact, most of the time we don’t know where our traditions come from.

Jesus speaks to tradition and the difference between laws and traditions in our passage, and appropriately enough, he speaks predominantly to the Pharisees and scribes followed by the always present crowd, and his disciples. The word Pharisee in Hebrew means, “set apart” or “to be separated” and they viewed themselves as not only scholars but set apart to be the primary interpreters of the Torah and authority on Mosaic law. A very important distinction of the Pharisees is that they believed that along with the written Torah there was also an oral tradition consisting of subsequent laws and traditions. In modern Judaism many of those extra laws can be found in the Talmud. In case your wondering, Sadducees believed only in the written Torah and followed the priestly tradition found within that text. That’s the predominant difference between those two groups. This distinction about the Pharisees is important to our text because Mark says that the Pharisees ask, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders?” meaning the oral tradition not the laws and statutes found within the written Torah, our Old Testament.

The conflict Jesus has with these Pharisees starts with a comment about ritual purity. It appears that some of the disciples have chosen to eat without washing their hands. While, culturally this is actually kind of gross, according to the oral tradition of Mosaic law it is also forbidden. The Pharisees are attempting to accuse Jesus of not abiding by very important laws, not just appropriate social behaviours. They are accusing Jesus with the charge that Jesus is not only not following the law but is acting above the law.

Jesus is pretty clever because he responds using words from Isaiah, a prophet whom the Pharisees honour. He then accuses them of being hypocrites because here they are stating that they are followers of the law given to Moses by God when in fact they have rejected God’s law in order to keep their own traditions. While they accused Jesus of not abiding by these very important laws Jesus accuses them of distorting the laws to fit their own human desires. This is not just a critique on empty worship traditions but a pretty big accusation and rebuke. Jesus then follows it up with a concrete example. Korban was initially the act of offering a kosher animal as a burnt offering at the Temple. In Hebrew the word means “to be close to someone” and it implies that to offer a burnt offering brings one closer to God. However, the Pharisees are allowing family’s to bring the assets of their elderly parents to the Temple as a form of Korban instead of honouring their father and mother. Basically they are taking away the support needed for ageing parents. This act is not going to do anyone any favours and certainly not bring anyone closer to God.

Jesus then turns to the crowd and his disciples and states that the issue is not ritual purity but the purity of the heart. He shifts the conversation from traditions to heartfelt actions. All these laws and traditions, while they help us in our expression and worship of God and give us discipline to follow God’s will, they are not by themselves what prepares us for God’s kingdom, rather it is what we feel and do in our heart. Within the Hebrew tradition the heart was not the emotional centre- emotions where believed to be felt in the gut. The heart was where our thoughts came from, for example when Mary ponders all those things in her heart, it means she is thinking very hard about what is happening. The heart was the centre of human will and rational thought. It was the place where intent arises. Jesus is stating that the intent of the heart is full of evil and this evil comes not from external things but from within ourselves.

Jesus is making it clear that the importance is not in the outward condition but the inward condition of a believer. This is a challenge for us because human traditions are deeply rooted within the human spirit and most of the time we don’t even realized that they are traditions of human constructs. This is also a difficult passage because human law is outside but divine law is within and divine law expresses itself in the life of the believer. While things like theft, murder and adultery, might be pretty easy for some of us to avoid. Avarice, wickedness, deceit and licentiousness are a little more difficult and to be honest not a day goes by when envy, slander, certainly pride and definitely folly creep into my thoughts, words, and even actions. So, what do we do?

We seek relief in some of those laws that have a foundation in Jesus Christ. Because what this story tells us is that God has a concern for our relationship with God. This is an invitation by Jesus to open ourselves to God and to each other in new ways- which can only lead us to new ways of being a church- with strength, compassion, hope and joy. Jesus’ words, while intimidating and concerning actually provide for a transformation. Jesus does not say that the heart is totally a lost cause, while evil intentions may come from the heart, so do good ones. And if that traditional Sunday School song taught me anything it is that I’ve got Joy, peace that passes understanding, and I’m so happy, so very happy, because I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart. Amen

Bible Text: John 6:60-71 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes

In the early western church when the only western church was the Roman Catholic church the entire service was shared in Latin. This is in part because as the church expanded under the Roman Empire and subsequent colonization, the Latin missionaries wanted to have one uniform language for the church, so that no matter where you went or how far you travelled, you could always find a church that spoke the same language. They wanted the church to have a universal language, and what better language than a romantic language. The problem, of course, was that many of those worldwide communities did not speak Latin and soon enough the only modern day place you could hear Latin was in church. This is not a criticism on the Roman Catholic church because we have to remember that it is as much part of our history as it is for that denomination, a sister church in our faith. The issue, however, is that for a long time people attended worship services that were shared in a language they did not speak or read or understand. Perhaps it was a true Pentecost moment that people continued to come to church and worshipped God regardless the language barrier- meaning that the Spirit was truly amongst them, interpreting these Latin words into words that spoke to their heart. Nevertheless, there was a lot of misunderstanding as well. For example, during the liturgy of the Eucharist, each Sunday as the priest would lift the bread he would say, “Hoc est corpus meum,” meaning, “this is my body” and those observing the Mass understood that something magical had transformed the bread into the body of Christ. What they heard was hoc est corpus and then magic happened, do you hear it? Hoc est corpus-hocus pocus. And thus those two magic words were born out of a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the sacrament of the Lord’s supper.
Even once the services were provided in the local language and regardless of whether it was a reformed church or an orthodox church or the Roman Catholic church, there has always been some, confusion or concern, certainly debate, about the Eucharist. It is in fact, the biggest thing that separates denominations despite that we learned last week that it really doesn’t matter how we do it, or what we believe happens, or even whether we ask for it or not. Unfortunately this week we discover that things were no different for Jesus, because after his lengthy discussion still the disciples are confused, find his words difficult, and people choose to leave him over this issue. Sometimes following Jesus is hard- so hard we may want to walk away, so hard we just don’t understand.
In this closing section of John 6 (and I know some of you who have been here week after week and are ready to move on) the disciples finally speak up. The disciples say what everyone else is thinking, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” We have to remember that while Jesus’ words about flesh and blood, are easily understood by us as a reference to the Lord’s Supper, the disciples have yet to have that experience. They are still stuck on a literal interpretation and find it rather uncomfortable. Most scholars agree that John’s Gospel was written in the 1st century common era, about 95 AD, meaning it could have been written about 70 years after the crucifixion. As a result, the author is really trying to press upon us a foreshadowing of events, such as the Lord’s Supper, as well as the disciples confusion and inability to truly understand what Jesus is saying. John is giving us a foretaste of the fear and confusion that will overwhelm the disciples following the crucifixion. If they think the teaching is hard- just wait until they have to experience it.
John describes the disciples’ reaction, they complained or rather they grumbled. It is actually a reflection of the complaining the Israelites had in the wilderness when they grumbled against Moses. It reflects again that story of Manna during the Exodus and how Jesus is trying to get them to look not into the past but look at the present. Like the Israelites they have experienced an amazing miracle that came directly from God- in which they need to trust that God will provide- but the crowd, as with the Israelites, are unable to trust that God will continue to provide for them in their wilderness wanderings.
Jesus’ response to their grumbling is direct, “Does this offend you? There are still some among you who don’t believe?” While our translation says “offend” the actual word in Greek is skandalizo the word in which we get scandalize. Jesus says, “Does this scandalize you?” What Jesus is saying is causing a scandal. It is causing outrage. Jesus’ words hit a few people hard and they walk away. We often sentimentalize Jesus, with pictures of Jesus with children on his knee, or a lamp upon his shoulders, or even a with a big heart vibrating from his chest, but in this passage we do not see that gentle Jesus. Instead we find a Jesus who is tired, vulnerable, and ready to walk along a painful path. But in order for him to do that he needs to have disciples who trust and believe him and therefore he has to turn those who are not yet ready- away.
Jesus says, “some of you do not believe.” The Greek word that John uses is pisteuo and it is often found throughout this Gospel. While it is usually translated as “believe” a more accurate meaning is “to trust” or “to rely upon someone”. What Jesus is struggling with is not just the cognitive act of believing but the lack of trust that these disciples have. Throughout this entire chapter what Jesus has been trying to say, “Just trust me.” Because in that trust they have the potential to abide, to dwell, to be present with Jesus in their relationship with Jesus, which comes by faith given by God.
Thankfully, twelve disciples remain, although Jesus knows one of them has not and will not buy into or trust what he is saying. However, these twelve recognize that if they listen, really hear, Jesus’ life giving words, they will find the abiding Spirit, they will dwell in the presence of God, they will know Jesus as friend.
Sometimes the Bible is full of passages and stories, words and commitments that we don’t like. Sometimes they are confusing, sometimes they are hard, sometimes we are just not in a place where we want to hear them. Sometimes being a church together is hard work. Sometimes we know something needs to change but we don’t want to put out the effort. Sometimes we are tired. But for those who remain, for those who are willing to stick it out, for those who do not walk away but rather turn to trust, there is great reward. We need to find the strength and commitment to stay the course. Because if Jesus had given up, if Jesus had said this is too hard and walked away, we wouldn’t be here today. Come, even when its hard to understand, and hear Jesus’ words, trust them, and abide in them. Amen

Bible Text: 1 Kings 3:3-14, John 6:52-59 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes

What would you do if you had three wishes? Honestly, what would you do? Perhaps one wish would be for something like world peace, or a cure for cancer, but I bet the other two might be a bit more personal, like perhaps money or long life, or maybe it would be a wish concerning a friend? Of course, I would do the smart thing and wish for a thousand more wishes. There is something within our culture that makes us wish. In 1940 Leigh Harline and Ned Washington wrote a song about wishing that became the theme song for the largest diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. “When you wish upon a star”…..If I sing anymore I could be sued for copyright by this large multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate so I have to stop there. The song was written for the 1940 Disney film Pinnochio. It was Disney’s first song to win an oscar for best original song, and of course has come to symbolize that Disney Resorts is where wishes come true. An ideology I would debate. But we must admit it is fun to dream about what we would wish for if we were granted a wish or two or three or a thousand.

Solomon was offered the chance to make a wish. God appears to Solomon in a dream and offers to give him whatever he asks. Solomon is in good company when it comes to God appearing in dream. While we remember the stories of God speaking through dreams, they don’t happen all that often, which is perhaps why they are so memorable. This is unique, however, because most of the time that God speaks in dreams it is to teach a lesson or to warn the dreamer of upcoming events, like Joseph and his multi-coloured coat or Joseph in the New Testament and the warnings about his son or the apocalyptic literature in Daniel. But in this instance it is unclear why God appears, other than to reveal just how wise and great a leader Solomon is.

We see this wisdom and leadership in the very request that Solomon makes. Solomon does not ask for money or long life, he doesn’t even ask for prosperity, but rather an understanding mind to govern God’s people and the ability to discern between good and evil. Solomon’s wish is to simply be a good leader and serve the people as best he can. Solomon opts to focus on relationships rather than things. As we begin the longest election campaign in Canadian history, I can’t help but wonder if the candidates ever wish to be wise, with understanding minds and the ability to discern between good and evil. If they do, I don’t see too many of those wishes being granted. To be fair not many of us opt to focus more on relationships than things.

God is so pleased with Solomon’s request- so impressed that he did not ask for long life or riches or to defeat all his enemies, that God doubly blesses Solomon by not only granting his request but also giving him riches and honour so long as Solomon does the smartest thing he can possibly do, which is to keep God’s statutes and commandments and walk-in relationship- with God. Garrett Galvin, an Old Testament professor, says, “Since Solomon desires the interior and profound rather than the superficial, Solomon becomes the hero of this story. Today we are more challenged than ever to overcome the superficial materialistic consumerism for the profundity of relationships and the personal growth they offer. This is true wisdom whether it be in Solomon’s time or our own.”

It is in fact a relationship that Jesus is also seeking to have with the crowd as he continues to talk about the bread which he provides, the nourishment that a relationship with Jesus can give. It recently occurred to me that while Jesus seems to be explaining his analogies and parables in this section he is actually not really explaining very well but rather making a promise. It was pointed out to me that if this is a discussion on communion it occurs after the people have been fed. It may seem like weeks ago to us, but the feeding of the five thousand happened less then 24 hrs ago for this crowd. Jesus did not give them a catechism class before they could consume his miracle. Jesus didn’t even prepare them with a long lecture or sermon. Instead, Jesus shared this miracle, fed their bodies and then began to unpack what it all means. You might not think this is relevant but it actually puts a few of our church traditions on their head. We have done away with the necessity for people to be members to receive communion- and that’s a good thing. But we still expect that people have a basic knowledge of who Jesus is and what communion really means. If we were to actually follow Jesus’ example, than those things aren’t really necessary. The only thing would be of import is that we have a curiousity about who Jesus is.

Its actually a good thing that Jesus begins to unpack the miracle after it happens, because in reality if before he had begun to share this bread and fish by saying to people you have to consume my flesh and blood, I don’t know if that would have appealed to the crowd. It sounds a bit cannibalistic. Of course, this is another caution not to take things too literal, because what Jesus really means is that his flesh will be placed on the cross and his blood will be spilled- it is the moment in which Jesus’ whole self will be given for the life of the world. But it is our task to consume this wisdom.

We find ourselves back in an understanding that wisdom leads to relationship. The actions on the cross don’t actually require an understanding or an explanation because a relationship with God is not something that requires knowledge but it does require the wisdom to trust in the relationship. Professor Satterlee says, “Eternal life does not come through understanding correctly or believing the right things. Eternal life is being in close communion with Jesus. Eternal life is to remain in Jesus and to have Jesus remain in us.” While this might worry some of us, it really should bring relief.

What it means is that every time I tell you, you have to follow in a certain way, or you have to abide by certain rules, I’m wrong. What it does mean, is that we must seek a relationship- not things, not even wishes- just simply a relationship with the one who loved us so much that he was willing to place his flesh and blood upon a cross for each one of us. And that is more than we could ever wish for. Amen

Bible Text: John 6:41-51 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes

Did you know that the smell of fresh baked bread can trigger a happier, more optimistic mood and therefore makes us kinder to strangers. It is apparently, scientifically true, I read it on the internet. Published in a 2012 journal of social psychology, researchers at the University of South Brittany in France discovered that the smell of baked bread triggers a more positive mood, “which leads to a great degree of altruism in strangers.” In fact, good deeds also apparently rise when fresh bread is in the air. Perhaps it is something in our DNA because the baking of bread goes back to at least 30,000 years ago. Archaeologists believe that unleavened bread was consumed as early as the Paleolithic period during the time of early Homo sapiens who were predominantly hunters and gatherers. Bread became a staple during the Neolithic period, about 10, 000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent which includes modern day Israel and Palestine. Bethlehem in Hebrew means, house of bread. Bread in some form is the only food that is a staple in diets around the world.

Jesus’ dialogue last week, this week and next week will be entirely based on bread. Just as the miracle three weeks ago was the story of the loaves and fishes. I’m sorry to say that this is not a gluten free series. This is actually a challenge for preaching because we cannot live on bread alone and you don’t want me preaching on bread alone. It can, quite frankly, get very stale. However, while these passages are interconnected and all come from the 6th chapter in John, each section has a separate theme and development. I believe it is for this reason that the World Council of Churches breaks up the lectionary in such a way. If we tried to unpack all of John 6 in one Sunday it would be one very long sermon. And You know, I don’t like long sermons. As a result we will carefully seek to draw out the differences within the readings. Last week was a prologue and it introduced us to Jesus’ analogy. Jesus was attempting to explain that he is the gift from God for the world- just as bread nurtures the body so Jesus nurtures the soul. This week we begin to see that Jesus nurtures the soul by drawing us into God. But as Jesus tries to explain this concept the crowd struggles to see past a few things and struggles to understand what Jesus is saying.

Immediately in our section the crowd cannot move past that Jesus said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Two things catch them and they just seem unable to move beyond it. First, they are taking Jesus’ words literally and that literally does not work. Jesus communicates predominantly through parables and stories and analogies in an attempt to make all this difficult theology understandable but it seems to have certainly failed in this instance in part because the crowd is taking it too literal. When we take certain passages in the Bible literally instead of understanding God’s wisdom we get caught up in those words. The Bible is full of history, emotion, story, parable, culture, and mostly it is about people trying to navigate their relationship with God. The greatest divisions throughout the Christian church is because we refuse to be open to the God breathed allegorical beauty of Scriptures. The passage for next week will continue this concern and highlight the dangers of thinking that Jesus is literally bread.

The crowd also complains about Jesus’ message because they have a presumed knowledge about Jesus. When Jesus says he comes from the Father, from God, the crowd looks at each other and says- “but don’t we know his parents? Isn’t his father the carpenter up the road? We know his parents and therefore we can’t possibly believe a word this yokel local says.” The crowd decides that he can’t possibly come from Heaven because they know his parents. Familiarity breeds contempt. Due to their presumed knowledge they are not open to understanding what Jesus is trying to say.

New Testament scholar Brian Petersen calls this “theological irony” because the crowd professes to know Jesus’ father and mother but that only reveals a total ignorance of the Father who sent Jesus. The truth is not found in knowing the human parents but rather the truth is found in knowing that Jesus has come from the Father in Heaven. The crowds self-assured “knowledge” blocks their ability to know the truth. I would argue that we, certainly me, have this problem also. We have difficulty seeing beyond what we “know” to be true and therefore we are unable to see the divine truth amongst us. A trivial example, I KNOW I put my keys down on the counter and therefore can not move beyond looking for them on the counter….only to discover that they are actually on the table. The crowd knows who Jesus’ parents are and therefore they cannot move beyond his earthliness- if only they could look beyond to discover that they are actually experiencing the divinity God- right in front of them.

Jesus doesn’t loose patience- at least not yet- because he explains that the only way to be drawn into faith is by the Father. The truth can only be revealed by God. Basically it is a two way relationship. We do not sit idly by waiting for God to open our eyes but God also doesn’t wait for us to finally see the truth through our own merit. This is challenging for us to understand because, as Petersen puts it, there is paradoxical tension in this text between the call to faith and the declaration that faith can only come from God. But this is also not a paradox that is to be unwound, it is simply the mystery of faith. Jesus’ words are to be heard and believed so that we may be drawn in by God and have faith. This bread from heaven not only nurtures our souls but also reveals our hearts to new possibilities and with God those possibilities are endless.

We can be fed by the Word, meaning that if we consume this bread, make it a staple of our diet, without the pretence of what it is supposed to taste like, what it is supposed to smell like, what it is supposed to feel like and instead just allow this bread to become part of our bodies then our eyes will be opened and we will be welcomed by God. But this means leaving some of our predetermined bias at the door. It basically means acting as if baked bread is in the air, all the time, as we remain positive and are kind to strangers and leave our selfish knowledge behind. It means being open to the allegorical wisdom of God and it means giving up our fallible knowledge for the truth found in God. Because there is going to be a greater theological irony and a tougher paradox found in faith when the bread from Heaven gives life to the word by dying for it. Amen

 

Bible Text: John 6:24-35 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes

As I’ve mentioned before I enjoy Old Time Radio, especially comedy shows and routines. Well, one does not get far in the Old Time Radio comedy repertoire without one very famous act. In fact in 1999 Time magazine named this particular routine as the Best Comedy Sketch of the Twentieth Century. It actually started as a Vaudeville sketch in which plays on words and names were often used. I think it is most memorable within the American psyche because it deals with a very American tradition. Any guesses what I’m talking about? It is Abbot and Costello’s Who’s on First Routine. We don’t have time for the entire routine but it goes something like this…

Misunderstanding and miscommunication can happen just as easily and sometimes it isn’t as funny. Sometimes we ask the wrong questions and therefore have the wrong answers and sometimes even when we are prompted to ask the right questions we are not willing to let go of our former ideas. That seems to be quite the theme in our passage this morning. For the next couple of weeks we will work through John 6 and the imagery of Jesus as the bread of life or the bread from heaven or the everlasting bread and it will take the whole chapter to get the crowd to understand and even then, most walk away in confusion and misunderstanding.

Last week we began this chapter by reading the story of the feed of the 5,000. It is a miracle story that opens up this chapter with a concrete example. Jesus shares real bread, with real people, and really satisfies their hunger. The rest of the chapter is essentially spent unpacking the real meaning of that event and we discover that we end up on in an ever unwinding “who’s on first” scenario. In part this is because it would appear that the crowd missed the meaning behind this incredible miracle. That they failed to grasp the glory of what just happened. Instead of seeing the signs of God all around them they just want free food. Let’s be honest, I like free samples not because I get to test a new product but because it is free. So I understand where this crowd is coming from.

It becomes clear that sometimes it is about asking the right question, sometimes it is about listening, really listening, to the answer. This is a common theme throughout the Gospel of John. John often stands out because it rarely connects with the other three Gospels- what we call the Synoptic Gospels. The conversation that happens in this chapter is a fine example of that. As we heard last week the feeding of the 5,000 appears in all four gospels but John’s gospel is the only one to unpack it in such a way.

Jesus refuses to answer the question that the crowd asks, “When did you get here?” and instead redirects the conversation to more important issues. They have focused on the wrong bread- they want bread that will satisfy their physical hunger- Jesus wants to offer them bread that will endure. The word endure or meno in Greek is found throughout the Gospel of John as it means both endure and abide. It is often used to describe the relationship between Jesus and those who follow Jesus- those who believe in Jesus. Passages like abide in me as I abide in you. But in this story the bread which endures is not the relationship itself, but that which is made possible by Jesus. The bread which endures is Jesus- not just a relationship with Jesus.

Yet, again, however, the crowd is confused and I don’t blame them. Imagine trying to understand all that Jesus is saying about bread on an empty stomach. As far as we can tell the last meal they had was a day ago. They have gone at least an entire evening, night and morning without food. It is just one example of how easily we can be distracted by needs or desires, even physical ones, and as a result are unable to hear what Jesus is really trying to say. The crowd fails to hear about this wonderful gift and instead begins to focus on work. “Ok Jesus, what do we have to do to get some of that bread?” The crowd is now concerned about what they could, should, or must do rather than what God is doing right now- right in front of them.

This is another mark of misunderstanding because they begin to compare Jesus to Moses. They begin to say, Moses managed to have bread rain down from heaven, what are you going to do for us? They are looking for a sign that harkens back to “the good ol’ days of the exodus”. Talk about looking back through rose coloured glasses! They have not only wrongly associated Jesus with Moses but they are so busy reflecting on the past that they miss that God is right in front of them. We can also be distracted by what seemed like the good ol’ days of the past when faith was easy, when it was expected people attended church, when we didn’t have to work hard at making our church grow. We run the risk of being like the crowd- looking to the past, thinking it was better than it is today, and failing to see what God is doing right in front of us. Jesus explains this, even using the passage from Exodus about manna, the true giver was not Moses, but God, and the true giving was not in the past, but is in the present, the true bread is not manna, but it is bread of God that has now come down from Heaven. Jesus stands in front of the crowd trying to be subtle- gently pointing to himself and eventually it becomes this big waving of hands. “THE BREAD OF HEAVEN IS ME! I Am the bread of life.”

Finally the crowd seems to understand, if only for a moment, because they finally say the right thing. “Give us this bread always.” No matter how much they misunderstand the miracle, no matter how much they are distracted by their own desires, no matter how many times they reflect on the past rather than the present, Jesus continues to work with them until they understand. Until they finally say the right thing. Give this bread to us. For the coming weeks Jesus will begin to answer this request and so we join the crowd and ask, “give us this bread.” Amen

Excerpt from “Who’s On First?”

Abbott: Well, let’s see, we have on the bags, Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know is on third…

Costello: That’s what I want to find out.

Abbott: I say Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know’s on third.

Costello: Are you the manager?

Abbott: Yes.

Costello: You gonna be the coach too?

Abbott: Yes.

Costello: And you don’t know the fellows’ names?

Abbott: Well I should.

Costello: Well then who’s on first?

Abbott: Yes.

Costello: I mean the fellow’s name.

Abbott: Who.

Costello: The guy on first.

Abbott: Who.

Costello: The first baseman.

Abbott: Who.

Costello: The guy playing…

Abbott: Who is on first!

Costello: I’m asking YOU who’s on first.

Abbott: That’s the man’s name.

Costello: That’s who’s name?

Abbott: Yes.

Costello: Well go ahead and tell me.

Abbott: That’s it.

Costello: That’s who?

Abbott: Yes.

PAUSE

Costello: Look, you gotta first baseman?

Abbott: Certainly.

Costello: Who’s playing first?

Abbott: That’s right.

Bible Text: John 6:1-15 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes

Some of you might be familiar with Stuart Maclean and the Vinyl Cafe. Just this past week the Vinyl Cafe was listed on buzzfeed.com as one of the “storytelling podcasts that you need to be listening to”. Most often this CBC radio program includes stories about a family Dave, Morely, Stephanie, Sam and their neighbours in Toronto and Stuart began telling these stories in 1994 and so for people like me, I have grown up with this family. For a few years now Stuart has also included in his program once a year a segment called “The Arthur Awards.” These awards are named after, Dave’s dog, Arthur. Because like a dog their are modest and unassuming. These awards are given to people who show ordinary kindness but often have an extraordinary impact. They are to recognize small acts that often go unnoticed. Former winners have included people who found lost luggage and tracked down the owners, or stay at home mothers, or someone who each year strings up lights across a town intersection. Basically it celebrates those people that do little things that often go unthanked. Usually there is no prize but the opportunity to get a call from Stuart which is later aired on his radio show. One year the Arthur award went to a student at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Jamie Hawkins. Jamie as a mature student had incurred a huge student debt of over $45, 000 and one day he found $10,000 in bag in the student union building. Instead of taking the money and putting it toward his costs he took it to campus security and they eventually found the owner, a security guard had misplaced it. Jamie received the Arthur award for being his best self, returning something that was lost despite the fact that it could have improved his situation. As I mentioned normally there is no prize in winning an Arthur award. However, Stuart decided that this was different and he wanted to help Jamie out. Well, actually he wanted all kinds of people to help Jamie out. So as he toured across Canada with his travelling story telling show he would put out an empty paint can in the theatre lobbies and asked people if they had a little spare change left over to leave a loonie or a twoonie in the bucket. Basically collecting donations from whatever change was in peoples pockets. On his Christmas show that year Stuart contacted Jamie and told him that Canadians had put in buckets of twoonies, loonies and change and that over those few months of collecting change, $15, 079. 21 had been collected. People across Canada simply put their spare change into a bucket but as these small amounts were collected a great amount was obtained. It is a modern day version of the loaves and fishes…although, while he tells great stories, I don’t think Stuart MacLean is Jesus.

As I mentioned the story of the feeding of the 5,000 comes up in all four Gospels and as a result it is one of Jesus’ best known miracle stories. In John’s version however, Jesus is the one who asks the question, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”, in all the other versions, it is the disciples who begin to panic when they see all the hungry, angry, or hangry people. As a result I want to attempt to focus less on the miracle story and instead study the dialogue between Jesus, Philip and Andrew. John claims that Jesus is the one asking the questions as a form of test to Philip. There are a few comparisons that we can make especially as we think of the collective history of the Hebrew people. During the exodus Moses, via God’s instruction and gifts, fed the Israelites with bread from heaven. But God was also testing the Israelites and their own trust in God. So as Jesus asks, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” to Philip, as part of a test, it reflects that story in the Old Testament of when God rained bread from heaven and each day the people were to gather only enough for that day, in this way God tested them, to see whether they trusted that God would provide for them the next day. In our Gospel story Philip answers that it would take an enormous amount of money to buy bread to feed all these people. Even two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for everyone to receive even a little sample. Two hundred denarii being about a year’s salary for the average worker. Money the disciples do not have. Philip relates it to cost and thus establishes the mind-set of scarcity. It would cost way too much to feed these people! It would appear that Philip is trying to subtly say, its going to cost too much and therefore we shouldn’t even try.

Andrew pipes in mentioning that a boy has brought with him a small supply of food but that such a small amount is worthless among so many people. If Jesus is testing Philip and Andrew, well, they seem to have failed the test. Failed to realize that with Jesus it shouldn’t be only about the cost and with Jesus a small meal can change lives. I can’t help but think it is those excuses that often hold us back. We don’t have the funds so we might as well not even try to do something different. We don’t have the energy so we might as well not even try to seek volunteers. We have such a shortage on resources that it won’t even be enough for one person. We have so few young families that we might as well not even try to provide programs.

And then, I see the opposite of that, I see the way that over the Lenten season funds came in to support the Cedar Tree Ministries, a church and mission that up until that point weren’t even sure they would be able to pay their rent. I see the way that the Children’s and Baby supplies are being collected and know that those simple items will make a difference in those young families’ lives. I know, that you know, that we can accomplish a lot with very little when we work together. But sometimes the work is intimidating, so intimidating we don’t want to even try.

Yes, the numbers can be overwhelming, yes, it may seem like we don’t have enough money, or energy or resources, or expertise. But what are we and what is the world hungry for? God cares about our hunger and our desires, God knows what it is we hope for and what we want more of and if it is improving God’s kingdom- God’s will, will be done! In this story not only are the people fed and satisfied with those limited resources but then there are leftovers. No matter what we are hoping for, Jesus’ resources are without limit, and he can meet our needs and more.

We are often more like Philip in our response to Jesus, we measure the need, quantify our inadequate resources and resign to hopelessness. We make excuses. As a friend of mine once said, “the truth is we have closets packed with thousands of excuses.” But then Jesus is standing on the shore amongst all of that need and hunger, with nothing but a few loaves of bread and a couple small fish, demonstrating that when we work with God, we have to expect the unexpected and trust that it will work out. Trust that we will have enough. Trust that small acts will show big results. Trust that just a little bit of change can change everything. Amen

Bible Text: Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes

Along with Archaeology I have an undergraduate degree in a discipline which at the time was called Religion in Culture. It all started when I took two electives one called “love and it’s myths” and the other called “evil and it’s symbols.” In this program, would you believe that I took an entire course on the Church of Elvis? And another course just on crime shows as the new confessional box? I even took a course on the religious experience of a sports fan. It was education at its best. I have to admit that I enjoyed not only the comparative religion aspect of things but also comparing the experiences embedded in North American culture with religious experiences. There was often talk about how media, celebrity, and fandom were at a very basic level superficial replacements for church and faith practice. I particularly enjoyed the study of celebrity culture and this was before we had reality tv celebrities who are famous just for being infamous. It is generally believed that the first movie star was Florence Lawrence. She appeared in over 300 films just over a ten year period from 1910 to the mid-1920s. Interestingly enough Florence was born in that great, Hollywood of the North city of Hamilton, Ontario. However, as has been the case for many celebrities she died tragically at the age of 48 and was buried in an unmarked grave until 1991 when an anonymous donor paid for her name to be placed on the marker. Scholars often believe that celebrity culture started in Europe with print media and famous opera singers but that it has grown since the beginning of film media in North America and the creation of talk shows. However, it is clear from our Gospel reading that celebrity culture has always existed in some form or another. The variations of term celebrity, used to be restricted for royalty and or religious leaders. In fact the word comes from the Latin word, celebritas which means honoured. The problem of course with most celebrity culture is that they never get a break. They have to be “on” all the time. Even the disciples are challenged by this reality in our Scripture reading

We have two passages this week that at first don’t seem all that related but both share a common message. Both passages develop Mark’s central theme of the coming of the kingdom of God through Jesus and help us define Jesus’ identity but also these passages demonstrate the nature of that kingdom and our role as disciples within it. While these two Gospel passages book end miracle and healing stories it is these short lessons that teach us about Jesus’ and our identity within the community of God.

Last week the disciples were sent off to perform their own miracles, ministry and preaching. They have returned to Jesus to tell him all about their adventures but Jesus also notices that they are in need of a break. In fact, some of them have been so busy that they haven’t even found time to have a meal. They are in need of a respite and so Jesus invites them to come away to a deserted place and be by themselves and find rest. After all the kingdom of God is a place where people may rest the weary souls. In our first Gospel section, however, as they approach what they expect to be a quiet shore they find it crowded by people wanting to catch a glimpse. As they cross the Sea they do not find the rest that Jesus prescribes but rather find many people who not only recognize but hurry toward them as they approach.

Seeing this crowd rushing towards them Jesus has compassion and Mark says it was compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd. This author describes the crowd with a familiar expression, portraying the people as vulnerable, at risk in a desolate environment and needing sustenance and direction. The passage clearly implies that Jesus functions as this crowd’s shepherd, symbolizing the care and leadership he promises, by extension, to us. The image of Jesus as the Shepherd is familiar to us and would have been familiar for the Hebrew people as God is often referred to as the Great Shepherd but also because God often appoints people to be leaders as a shepherd leads a flock of sheep. When Jesus is called a shepherd it is not only demonstrating that he can serve as a leader to the community but that like God, he has the divine gifts to be a shepherd to those who are lost. The author of Mark uses this image to expose Jesus’ identity but also to describe the Kingdom. That the Kingdom of God is a place where those who are lost are found, those who are wandering find a destination, those who are scattered are brought together in one place and all of them are lead by the divine shepherd, Jesus. While the disciples are in need of rest, the crowds are in need of salvation. Theologian Elizabeth Webb says, “The crowds that follow and gather around Jesus, the healings and casting out of demons, the miraculous feedings are all signs that the Son of God is shepherding the people into God’s kingdom.”

For Jesus- through his gifts he is able to pay attention to the needs of the people. It doesn’t say the disciples began to teach and heal, but we all know from last week that they have been given the authority to do so. But this is important, when we are unable to find the energy, the words, the time, turn to Jesus, because it is through him that those things are made possible and our energy is restored, our words are given wisdom, and our time is given objectives.

The second section, like the first, demonstrates much about Jesus’ identity and the kingdom of God. Elizabeth Webb calls it the Kingdom Economy. Like our first reading Jesus and his disciples show up on a shore to discover that people are there and recognize them at once. In our translation it says “that wherever he went, into the villages or cities or farms they laid the sick in the marketplaces.” The Greek word for marketplace is agora and it really refers to a public space in which legal hearings, elections and debates took place, as well as the expected buying and selling of goods. The marketplace was understood as the political and commercial centre of the city- perhaps a better translation for us would be that people were brought downtown to see Jesus or people were placed in the city square, or people came to the edge of town surrounded by all the big box stores. The point being that Jesus healed, preached and taught in central locations- accessible to all.

But also, Webb continues “by doing this healing to the most vulnerable in the most public space, Jesus is subverting the economy of this world through the very inauguration of God’s kingdom economy.” Basically while the marketplace of the world is based on the rich, on that one percent, the Kingdom of God is occupied by the least, by the vulnerable, by those in need of healing. It is those people who inhabit the kingdom that not only Christ serves but the church should serve. This passage reminds us of a world so in need of God’s help that it cannot afford to give Jesus a day off.

I would argue that one of the reasons why there is so much brokenness is because we are so distracted by a superficial celebrity culture. But let us re-appropriate that word that it is those who deserve honour who are called celebrities. The overarching gospel message insists that Jesus meets our greatest need by authentically identifying with our human brokenness- there is no better person that deserves honour and it that regard no one deserves celebrity status more then Jesus Christ. Amen

 

Bible Text: Mark 6:6b-13 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes

In late 1940, almost a year after the debut comic, DC comics was concerned about Batman’s sales. The creators, Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson realized that the average age of comic book readers found Batman to be a bit too dark and difficult to understand. They realized that if the series was going to continue it needed something to attract younger readers. As they brainstormed ideas they began to discuss what had been their favourite boyhood stories and Jerry Robinson noted that his favourites were The Adventures of Robin Hood as illustrated by N.C. Wyeth. Robinson then began to sketch a character based on Robin Hood’s outfit with the signature green and yellow. This is how Batman’s faithful sidekick was born. Adding Robin was such a success that sales doubled and Robin made regular appearances in the comic from 1940 to the early 1980s. As a side note I was fascinated to find out that Robin’s original identity was named Dick Grayson and his back story included being the youngest in a family of acrobats known as the “Flying Graysons”. I was never much of a comic book reader but I have vivid memories of rushing home after school to watch the Adam West and Burt Ward version of Batman and Robin on TV. Of course, it was in syndicate by the time I was watching it. I remember that Robin always had a clever little tag line like, “Holy Titanic Batman! We’re going down for the last time!”

Bill Finger said of Robin that, ” Batman was a combination of Douglas Fairbanks and Sherlock Holmes. Holmes had his Watson. The thing that bothered me was that Batman didn’t have anyone to talk to, and it got a little tiresome always having him thinking. I found that as I went along Batman needed a Watson to talk to. That’s how Robin came to be. Bob called me over and said he was going to put a boy in the strip to identify with Batman. I thought it was a great idea.” Even with his utility belt, kung fu training, and quick mind ,Batman needed a Robin to talk to, support him, save the comic book series and complete his dynamic duo. Don’t we all need a Robin sometimes.

Just before our Gospel story Jesus encounters rejection from the people who are apparently closest to him. Jesus comes to his hometown with his disciples and despite speaking with authority about God in the Synagogue the people are astounded and begin to say, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? He can’t possibly know what his talking about after all, what does a simple carpenter know about God!? Just who does he think he is?!” Those hearing Jesus speak dismiss the possibility that God might be supplying Jesus with wisdom and power.

While the previous verses are filled with despair and failure our reading contrasts this experience with hope and mission. The two passages work together on some level because it demonstrates the stark difference between the outsiders of the previous episode and the insiders Jesus has chosen to participate in ministry. That’s the first amazing part of this story of partnership- Jesus chooses his partners. Jesus chooses us to be his disciples. Jesus calls followers to himself for a purpose and in giving them this purpose he also gives them authority. We begin as Jesus’ partner and then once equipped with the confidence, authority, and gifts required we are sent out into the world as a community- as partners in Christ’s name. In our passage Jesus sends the disciples out, two by two, to partake in his ministry in the world. Their ministry begins to explicitly mirror that of Jesus’ ministry. They perform with the same divine authority, the healing and revealing ministry that Jesus shared.

But before that can happen Jesus gives them strict orders and these orders reveal more about ministry then we might originally think. First, by sending them out in twosomes, it reflects a witness in membership in a wider community and confirms the reliability of the message. It is likely this passage that has given some of our fringe religious brothers and sisters the inspiration to go door to door in twos. It’s safe, supportive, and means no one is left alone. While we may not travel together in pairs, door to door, it is still a model for ministry. In all we do for the body of Christ in the world we should not feel that we are doing it alone. In all we experience in our faith the church should be there to act as a partner in that journey. Now while the church is the body of Christ it is also made up of humans who struggle to say the right words when we are in pain, humans who have their own worries and concerns that distract, and can be tired or weary in our work, so sometimes instead of feeling like we are safe and supported we feel rejected and ignored. It is important that if and likely when that happens that we speak up because more often then not it is not intentional. As I often have said in pre-marital counselling, communication is key. Holy hard work Batman!

The Second revelation about ministry is that the instructions Jesus gives limits what these pairs may bring on the journey. I don’t know if I could do it! When I pack for a trip I want to be prepared for any occasion or any circumstance and as a result I always pack far too much. Later on in the chapter the disciples are perplexed by the magnitude of human need compared to their paltry resources. But here is the catch- with Jesus’ blessing, it is amazing how much can be accomplished and overcome with so little. It does not take a big church to have a big impact in the community. It also says a lot about trust, trust in God. In giving up most things except for the barest of necessities these disciples are demonstrating to others that they are fully dependant upon God in their work. In that regard God is their partner. Holy amazing grace Batman!

This passage paints a picture of a ministry that is entirely derived from Christ and totally reliant upon him for its success. While we do not meet Jesus face to face in the literal sense, we are a post-pentecostal church, we believe that we are equipped with that authority and those gifts through the Holy Spirit. And while we are a church that does not encounter exorcisms or miraculous healings of Biblical proportions. This passage directs us as partners toward concrete service that delivers people from various types of oppression and promotes wholeness of all kinds. God is the source for all of our ministries. God is the source for all our ministries-meaning that we are in one amazingly divine partnership, that is guided by God, empowered by the Holy Spirit and a mirror of Jesus’ ministry. Holy honour is found in the dynamic duo of the church and the trinity. Amen

Bible Text: Matthew 6:1-15 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes

Every year at the Vancouver Island Presbyterian Women’s Retreat the Saturday night event is basically a skit night. On the Saturday afternoon scripts are put out and people are invited to get into groups and choose a skit. Now, this might surprise you, but this is usually my least favourite part of the retreat. I don’t know what it is, but maybe the slap dash- pre-scripted skits just don’t really grab me. And so when Sharon Scott said she would like the four CVPC women to do a skit I rolled my eyes, and told her I would endure it just for her and I made her pick the shortest skit. As the evening unfolded it turned out that there was one script left and it required 8 people and it was the longest. As I sat back and tried to watch as they haphazardly tried to get people to participate my impatience grew and I just grab the skit, assigned people parts and told them I would fill in any blanks. So, instead of just participating in the shortest skit, I was now participating in two skits and had a lot of dialogue. Interestingly enough both skits were about prayer and the lengthy skit had various people engaging in prayer-mostly in the worst way possible. Either it was a teenage girl praying that her crush will notice her, or the Father in the family praying using big words that no one understood, or a boy asking if God can make sure his parents let him use the car on Saturday night. One of my characters’ prayer went something like this:

“Ok. Guys. Tonight’s the big game so let’s pray together as a team…..God, this is a really big game. Brother Andrew’s team is a better team and a bigger team. I mean, look at those guys. It’s David and Goliath all over again. We know that you are often on the side of the underdog; well, “Underdogs R Us! So God, you must be on our side! Let’s face it; we always lose to them, so we figure it’s our turn. That’s only fair, you know. So help us wipe them out. Help us smash them to oblivion! Help us annihilate them! In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

What us CVPC women didn’t know is we would be following this skit with our own. And it was of a very different flavour. It was a moving skit about the Lord’s prayer. It went something like this (SKIT).

Prayer. Prayer is actually often harder to define then we originally think and yet Jesus reminds us that it is supposed to be a simple task. Kierkegaard said, “Prayer does not change God but changes him who prays.” Poet Novalis said, “Prayer is to religion what thinking is to philosophy.” Artist and writer Linda E. Knight said, “Through prayer…God quenches our thirsty souls, revives our parched hearts, and leads us to a higher place where peace, and joy and love will be ours forever.” When the disciples turn to Jesus and ask him to teach them how to pray, Jesus responds with both a how to and what to do. Eugene Peterson’s the Message describes it this way, “When you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat? Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace. The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and He knows better than you want you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.”

It’s important to catch something that Jesus’ says. Jesus is stating that the very act of prayer demonstrates a trust in the nearness and readiness of God. Prayer is how we often come into God’s presence. But when Jesus teaches the disciples this famous prayer he is also pointing out that the Lord’s Prayer makes it clear that it does not preclude our need to ask, directly and pointedly, that God’s will be done on earth. While God may know what we need better than we know ourselves it is still part of the prayer process to acknowledge that need. I suppose in that way prayer is also therapeutic.

Scholar’s find that Matthew’s Gospel is governed by the Lord’s Prayer. Albeit that it is a short prayer it has incredible power in any context and it has the possibility of transcendence. It is supposed to remove us from the routine, from what is normal and help us experience communion with God. It is actually for that reason why I have switched it up this morning and throughout the summer. Instead of singing the familiar words as we normally do each Sunday. We are going to take the time to read the words. Adjust our usual routine in the hopes that something new will enlighten us despite the familiarity. This is after all the Lord’s prayer. It is a prayer that although it is for each one of us it is also a prayer for the entire kingdom of God. Later on in this chapter Jesus says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” This prayer is prayed each Sunday because if we genuinely mean it, it is prayer asking for God’s kingdom to be a reality on earth, just as it is in heaven. We should be praying this prayer all the time because God’s will has not been done. The world is far from heavenly most of the time.

This morning I have also chosen to return to words that you may be familiar with from your childhood. There is often debate on whether we should be trespassers, debtors or sinners. Many traditions say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” while others say, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” and then a more modern version is “Forgive us our sin as we forgive those who sin against us.”The short answer is that all are correct because the point is not what we call ourselves or others but rather that we ask for forgiveness and seek to forgive others. Part of the challenge is of course that Matthew isn’t the only Gospel that records the Lord’s Prayer. Luke also writes a version and there are differences. Historically, however, the first English translation of the Bible by John Wycliffe in 1395 uses the term debts, actually he uses an old English word dettis. William Tyndale’s English translation in 1526 uses trespasses and it is Tyndale’s translation that the first Book of Common Prayer used when it was writing the Anglican liturgy. Luke’s version of this prayer actually uses an Aramaic word, ḥôbâ which can be translated as either debts or sin. Hence why we have various versions. While I grew up being a trespasser, I certainly appreciate the more modern use of the term sin, as it is something we can understand a bit better. However, according to the original Greek, the most accurate word is debtor. Matthew uses the term ofeilhmata, which means “those things that are owed.” For Jesus there was a recognition of real debt for the Jewish people as they owed all of their livelihood to the Romans. And as I think about the situation in Greece this week we are literally swimming in a world full of debt.

Perhaps it is for that reason why this prayer is so important today, perhaps even more important than when Jesus first taught it to his disciples. Imagine what it would be like if God’s will was done on earth, where no one lived in debt, no one had want for daily bread, no one would be afraid, and all who have a sense of God’s presence among them. O God in heaven, reveal to us your holiness and majesty, and set the world right. Do what is best so that above and below are in harmony. Just as you nurture us with the bread of Heaven, nurture us each day. We carry many burdens, we trespass on land that is not ours, we sin against those who we call friends, and we are in debt. Forgive us and help us to in turn forgive others. Keep us safe from ourselves and from that which is evil in our world. Because you are the one in charge. You are ablaze in beauty and wonder. May it be so.