A Year (a life) In Review

Scripture Focus, Matthew 11:2-11
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2011:2-11;&version=31;

We may be at the beginning of the Christian year (it started at the beginning of December, Advent is the start of the Christian calendar) but we are at the end of the calendar year. List after list is being published along the lines of, “The top 10 (insert topic here) of the year.” TIME magazine will soon let us know who is the “person of the year.” Life magazine will give us a year in pictures. Many of us will look over our own lives this past year, highlights and low points. It is a natural process, this review. Often people facing crisis or illness will do this as well. Just think of the phrase, “my whole life flashed before my eyes.”

The reading from Matthew is, in the words of a friend of mine, poignant. Here’s a man, John the Baptist, who is in prison who knows that he is likely going to die reviewing his life and wondering…

He is trying to figure out if it has all been worth it.

The passage reads,
“When John heard in prison
what the Messiah was doing,
he sent word by his disciples
and said to Jesus,
"Are you the one who is to come,
or are we to wait for another?"

Keep in mind that John has been watching Jesus for some time. John baptised Jesus. John saw Jesus heal people.
John heard the reports of what he was doing. And yet he still worried, he still has questions.

So he sends his followers to Jesus
“Are you the one?”
“Did I finish my work?”
“Was I right to put my faith in you?”

Jesus answered them,
"Go and tell John what you hear and see:
the blind receive their sight,
the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear,
the dead are raised,
and the poor have good news brought to them.
And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

Jesus says
“Look at what is happening. Believe your eyes, believe your ears, and believe your hearts.”

John was someone who thought that society was too corrupt, too lost, and/or too hopeless to save. He, and his community, cut themselves off from the rest of the country. They retreated to the desert.

But Jesus explicitly rejects this. He showed a new way. He deliberately walks among diseased people. He deliberately engages rude people. He eats and drinks with people who are outcasts. Jesus didn’t just come for the last, the lost and the least. He ate with them, he laughed with them, he loved them. Jesus was not a motivational speaker who simply inspired crowds. Jesus showed us God. God talks to us. But God also acts in our lives.

Jesus talked to people. But he mostly just acted among people. As followers in the way of Jesus we are told to do likewise,

"Let your light shine before people,
so that they may see your good works
and give glory to your Father in heaven" (5:11)

Every day as people of faith we have to think like John the Baptist, “Are we doing the right thing? Is Jesus the one?”
Questioning faith isn’t, to use a church word, sinful.
Accepting without question is the problem.
Blindly following, not learning, and studying, and growing, is the problem.

We know of many people of faith who question.
It is those times of questioning, those reviews, that allow us to see things, to know things, that we didn’t know before.

When all else fails we continue. Even continue with our questions to follow God. During this time of reviews when we are looking back over the last year we may learn new things, see things in a new way because we have taken this time to look and question what happened.

But we keep going, the calendar doesn’t stop.

I visited a Jewish synagogue as part of a course I took and the Rabbi there explained that many rules and prayers are proscribed, not to show belief (because ultimately it is irrelevant, God is God, whatever we believe) but because acting in these ways reminds us of God and maybe we will learn something new about God by doing these things.

Action is the key.

We know now that Mother Theresa, a woman who lived out her faith working with the poor and praying every day, started her work as a result of a profound experience of God. However, there were long times when she felt disconnected and separated from God and kept acting anyway.

Jesus answer to us is the same as it was for John the Baptist. Jesus says, “look at what is happening: believe your eyes, believe your ears, and believe your hearts.

People began to follow Jesus because Jesus healed people,
forgave people, and just loved them.

There is a story of a woman forgiven by Jesus. We don’t really know what she did but we know a little of what happened after.

It started when Jesus was eating lunch.
Can you imagine the scene?….
A group of men are lying in a room sharing a meal
(people usually lay down to eat
heads together so they could talk easily
feet to the outside)
servants keep coming in with food and drink
all of a sudden this woman enters
a woman who had lived a sinful life
she brought an alabaster jar of perfume,
and hesitates
looking at Jesus
waiting for her chance
she opens the jar
the musky sweet scent of perfume
begins to mingle with the smells of the food
the woman still waits
standing at his feet weeping,
and then
she begins to wet his feet with her tears.
she wipes them with her hair,
kisses them and poured perfume on them.

And this doesn’t go unnoticed.
How could it?

“When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.’

Jesus answered him, ‘Simon, I have something to tell you.’
‘Tell me, teacher,’ he said.

‘Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he cancelled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?’

Simon replied, ‘I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled.’
‘You have judged correctly,’ Jesus said.

Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.’

Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’

The other guests began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’

Jesus said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’

Jesus came for the least and the last and the lost and he didn’t just talk to them, he healed them, he loved them, and
he brought such joy into their lives that all they could do was cry.

Jesus comes for each of us too. He comes to bring us joy. We feel that joy in many ways. Christmas is a time when we talk about joy, but we know that joy is actually a very difficult thing. Joy is deeper than happiness, it can be overwhelming, and can make us cry. We can’t speak properly of joy. We can only know when we have experienced it.

So let us go and act in joy. Let us be led by our eyes and our ears and our hearts to God, who inspires in us joy so that we know where and how to go and spread that joy.

Let us bring all our questions to God, and learn from the answers. Let us bring all that we have to God, so that we can act in joy. It is wonderful that our children’s program is called JOY. JOY stands for Jesus Others You. It implies relationship, action, and celebration. I can’t think of a better description of faith.

We are at the end of the calendar year, as a church we are approaching our annual meeting. It is time to look back. It is time to question. It is time to listen to the still small voice of God that sometimes gets lost in the noise of our lives. It is time to look for God, in others, in our world, and in ourselves. It is time to feel the beating of our own hearts, and experience the deep and profound joy that Christ brings. And it is time to act as Jesus did. Eating with and drinking with all. Loving all of humanity. Loving ourselves. Loving God.

Amen

We've been thrown a torch!

Remembrance Day Message
Scripture Focus: Matthew 18:21-35
Before I gave my reflection, the youth retold the story in a drama called,
"The Unfair Student."

The question is, How many times should we forgive?

Jesus tells this story about a king who forgives a huge debt.
A debt that the servant who owes it -
would never be able to pay off.

In the retelling that we just watched,
about a teacher who decides to help a failing student,
we see the same kind of forgiveness and understanding.
We see the mercy of the king
or the teacher.

Jesus tells this story to teach his followers about the nature of God.

God offers us grace.
Grace means we get welcomed
even when we don’t deserve it.
Grace means we get forgiven
even when we can’t pay back for what we have done.

God offers us grace.

But we have trouble with that.
So we do like the servant in the story,
we take the grace that God has offered
and then attack each other.
In our play, Sally the student, took the grace the teacher offered
and turned around to attack another student

Jesus was trying to shake his disciples (and us) up
To show how this kind of thing can damage us,
and our relationship with God.
He told a story that showed how God forgives
and we don’t.

The king forgives the equivalent of
say “a million bazillion dollars!”
An unimaginable amount of money.
The teacher extended help and love to Susie.
But…

We can be like Susie in the story we just watched,
we can take nice things,
and then turn around and are mean in return.

What about when people start out by being mean and unreasonable to us?
What do we do?.
What do we do when a bully is actually hitting you?

What is the Christian thing to do?
Well,
I know a kid who got into an argument at recess with some other kids -
over some snow balls.
It ended up with this kid on the ground
being sat on by other kids
and this child could barely breathe.
Should they fight back?
Will they get into trouble?
What about zero tolerance?
What about breathing?
What do we do as a nation when someone is threatening us?

This is especially important when we think about war,
peace
and Remembrance today.

I want to share a few thoughts from Captain Nichola Goddard and her family.
Captain Goddard was killed in action last year in Afghanistan.

I didn’t know Nichola
I know her parents a little
and I admire them greatly.
Sally (Nichola’s Mum) is a fabulous, gentle woman (with an iron will!)
one of the things she does
is working with women to help them turn their lives around.
Tim (her Dad) is an educator
a professor of education
– active in post conflict zones -
helping communities turn around.
I have met two of their daughters.
A wonderful family, amazing people,
each with their own unique gifts.
Nichola was a funny, strong and vibrant woman.
A cross country skier.
A leader of her men.
A new wife.
(I remember my in laws rounding up beds
to lend to the Goddard family for visitors when she got married.)

Within this family an argument happened that is happening all over Canada
It was an argument over the meaning of conflict and war.
I want to read a short segment from Nichola Goddard’s eulogy,
given by her father.

“Nichola was an articulate and passionate individual. At Christmas last year we discussed the role of the military in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur. She supported the view put forward by Michael Ignatieff in his book, Empire Lite, that military force is required in order to permit the reconstruction of civil society. I disagreed, arguing that education is the key to development for the minority and marginalized peoples of this world, for the poor and the oppressed and those in greatest peril, and that by working with teachers and other community workers we could help them develop the strategies that would be right for their context and would help them achieve their own emancipation. We ought to seek democracy and civil society through Paulo Friere’s notions of a pedagogy of the oppressed.

Quick as a flash she punctured my professorial balloon. “You can’t do that when the bad guys run things, dad”, she said, “they just shoot you. You have to have peace and good government in order for the rest to happen. I do what I do so you can do what you do.”

As always, she was right. But through her death in combat, killed by people who were apparently hiding in or near a school, perhaps we can bring these two elements together, and make some meaningful tribute to her life and death.”

We know that we are called to be peacemakers.
But we struggle over how to do that.

And God knows it.

That’s where grace comes in

Jesus says many difficult things
- like this story of the king
and his unforgiving servant.

The disciples, the ones closest to him
The ones who knew him best
were confused and worried

After hearing about this king
and how someone who is forgiven acts
the disciple knew that this is how regular people behave
not just characters in a story.
We can take advantage
We can return kindness with trouble
We can return trouble with even bigger trouble, even hate

So the disciples threw up their hands and asked
"Who then can be saved?"
Then Jesus looked at them and said,
"With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

With God all things are possible
Even Grace
Even Forgiveness

And we can choose to respond to that Grace
We can choose to forgive
We can choose to try and find a way for Peace
And Peace doesn’t mean
not fighting
or giving in

Peace means
justice
equality
food
education

Listen to Nichola’s words from a letter written a few days before her death

Dear Mum and Dad,
The days seem to move along at their own pace. Some days fly by, and others creep along. We are officially at the half-way point now, though. I can’t believe that I’ve been here for 3 months. In some ways, it feels like I’ve been here forever. In others, as if I just got here. I am sort of getting used to things, I guess. I try to remind myself to appreciate every experience – even the ones I don’t really enjoy :)
I have been thinking a lot about fate lately. It was such an accident of birth that we ended up where we did when we did. That we are where we are now, with the choices that we have available to us. It seems to me that we have such a burden of responsibility to make the world a better place for those who were born into far worse circumstances. It is more than donating money to charities – it is taking action and trying to make things better. You have both shown me that throughout my life – but here, I realize it more than ever before.
My current job and role in Afghanistan is part of that – but it is more the non-governmental organizations that come later. They are the ones that really make the difference. I like to think that my being here means they will be able to come that much sooner, and operate more freely. I will be looking for more opportunities to volunteer in Wainwright and to really try to make a difference. It is very humbling to be here, part of something so much bigger than myself.
Love always, Nichola
We are made to be peacemakers.
Even the warriors.

In WWI people went to war,
so that it would never happen again.
Many of them died
but many returned home
and made new homes
and raised families
and tried to work so that it would never happen again.
But there wasn’t real peace and justice
and the door opened again for conflict and violence.

In WWII people again went to war
so that people could be free.
Many more people died:
soldiers and civilians.

Then the war ended.
Again people came home
or made new homes
and worked to repair the damage of the war:
physical
mental
and international.
Peacekeeping was invented.

Since that time Canadians have been part of other wars,
other peacekeeping efforts
so that all people can have dignity and hope

And now in Afghanistan,
soldiers like Nichola are fighting, and dying,
so that peace and justice can be brought there.

But it is not ultimately the fighting that leads to peace.
As Nichola wrote, it is the work that comes after.

Soldiers like her do what they do
so we all can do what needs to be done.

Burying the anger and resentment
Building peace
We can choose to respond to Grace
We can choose to forgive
We can choose to try and find a way for Peace

So let us, as the poem in Flander’s Fields urges
pick up the torch
and use it to spread light in our world
The light of economic justice
The light of food security
The light of education for all
The light of good medical care
or maybe a light for a first aid station in Papua New Guinea
like the children and youth are working to provide the money for….

This is the torch we have been thrown
This is how we can remember and honour
those who died
and those who survived.
This is the light of hope and peace
real peace.

With God’s help
All things are possible.

What is the good of suffering?

Reflection on Matthew 5:1-11

Is anyone into cooking?
How about eating?
Maybe both?

Myself, I love curries.
Good cooks know that one of the secrets of the trade
(especially the curry trade but other foods too)
is toasting the spices.

You get your pan, add a little oil or butter,
heat it a little.
then you toss in your cumin, cinnamon, turmeric or whatever,
and in a couple of seconds the aroma from the spices fills the kitchen.
Love it.

Then you quickly take the pan off the heat and add your other ingredients
before the spices burn.
Burnt spices are no good.
I hate that smell.
Of course I only know I hate it - cuz I’ve done it - but nevermind.
The point is – toasting the spices releases their flavour,
improves the dish

We know that’s a little true of people too.
A little heat can help us perform better.

Really?

We know that suffering is in our world
and when bad things happen
especially to good people
we want to know why!

Maybe we’re all philosophers, asking why all the time.

But in this passage Jesus doesn’t help the philosophers.
He is talking to people about practicalities.
Something has happened, is happening,
what next?

Well, if you are sad – you will be comforted.
It isn’t forever
If you are merciful – you will be shown mercy.
Practical stuff .

The last one is interesting though,
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you,
persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
because great is your reward in heaven,
for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Good News!
Really?

Maybe when we read this passage in a comfortable church
safely in Canada
with the only real religious persecution we generally face is
slight unfriendliness or indifference,
(no Merry Christmas at the shops)
it’s hard to really resonate with that idea.

It loses something in translation
becomes soft and fuzzy.
A nice thing to say, easy.

But persecution is not easy.

Let’s go back and think how Jesus followers lived.
Let’s think about who Jesus is speaking to.
Who are Jesus followers?

Many of them had left their families to follow Jesus.
Essentially abandoning their families.
A big problem for ageing parents,
who had no social services to rely on,
who couldn’t possibly hope for a reliable nursing home when they became infirm.
I’ll bet their families weren’t happy with them.
In a rigid and violent society like the one Jesus lived in
where you could be sentenced to death for such disrespect
that’s a big deal.

What about how the authorities see these followers.
Some of the traditional Jewish authorities
are none too happy with Jesus’ followers.
First they perceive Jesus as a threat.
People can get mean and defensive when threatened.
Second, Jesus is saying stuff they don’t agree with,
and you have to agree with the religious authorities
or you will be punished severely.
The Roman authorities aren’t happy with Jesus followers.
They don’t like troublemakers.
They don’t like alternative visions.
They are not into compassion or kindness
or much of what Jesus talked about
and encouraged in his followers.

So these followers are the targets of at least 3 groups.
They face possible death or severe punishment from all three,
- depending on who catches them first.

And Jesus is trying to let them know that this is as it has always been.
Prophets are almost never well received.

Keep in mind that a prophet is not someone who tells your fortune
but a person who calls people back into right relationship with God
by speaking truth about what people are doing,
and what God wants people to be doing.

That is not always the same thing.

The people listening to Jesus know the stories of some of the prophets.
They know the truth of what Jesus says.

People who spoke truth or demanded change have never been that welcome.

The prophet Jeremiah, was a threat to the authorities of his time and here’s what happened to him.
When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the LORD's temple.

The prophet Ezekiel was exiled from Israel

Moses, the greatest prophet of ancient Israel
was ignored and betrayed by his people,
including his own brother.

It is not easy to speak truth.

And even though I downplayed the idea of facing persecution in Canada,
It does happen.
We know that there are good people
Who stand up for what is right and good
And pay a penalty for it.

Perhaps they are eventually proved correct.
But before then
they are ridiculed,
ostracised,
threatened,
and,
well,
persecuted.

In other places in the world many people
Christians and others
face exactly the kind of threats that faced Jesus disciples.


But usually, the kind of persecution we face in Canada
is a feeling of not making a difference.
We experience some kind of paralysis.
A persecution of “what can I do?”
Noam Chomsky, a well known activist and academic,
wrote, (and I am paraphrasing a bit)
“You know I give talks all over America,
and afterwards people come up to me and ask what can I do.
I never hear that from people in Turkey or Central America,
where people are facing real danger.
There they just tell you what they’re doing”

Victor Frankl talked about the idea of transformative suffering.
Whatever terrible things we are experiencing are a learning opportunity,
a chance to learn and grow.
Frankl wrote his first book on the topic
while he was in a camp for displaced persons after WWII.
He was Jewish, and had just come from the death camps.
He knew about suffering,
and had experienced transformation.

All of this musing about persecution comes with a little warning
Sometimes I wonder if some ways Christians
(those who live in safe places, like Canada)
don't try to become martyrs.
We want to try this out.
We want to be righteous too.
So maybe we invent strange ways that we are persecuted.

Or maybe we convince ourselves that we are being persecuted
when we’re just wrong.
Think of David Koresh,
holed up with his group of followers,
convinced –
or at least convincing those that believed in him –
that the authorities are out to get him.

But the fact is that persecution
suffering
trials
tribulations
difficulties
obstacles
make us better people.

It doesn’t sound like it should be right
but we know,
somewhere deep down,
that it is true.

And if we are really honest
we don’t have to invent suffering.
It’s there.
Health, family problems, environment, social justice.
There are lots of opportunities for us to learn and grow.

Of course all of this comes with the proviso that too much suffering
can destroy us.
Like the spices,
perfect toasting – good flavour
too much – burnt.

Jesus knows this truth as well
and is trying to remind people of it.

But he is saying so much more.
Because beyond suffering there is the healing presence of God.

"When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain;
and after he sat down,
his disciples came to him.
Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Even when you are sad and depressed
God is with you.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
Even when you are caught in the midst of grief,
God is with you.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
Even when you have nothing, you are important to God
God is with you

"‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."
Even when you are treated unjustly,
God is with you

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy."
When you treat others with mercy and compassion
God is with you.

"‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."
When you are looking for God you will find God,
God is with you.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
When you work for true peace, people will know that you are with God and
God is with you.‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
When you are persecuted,
God is with you.

It all sounds very simple but it speaks to a profound truth,
which is the first line of our United Church creed.

We are not alone, we live in God’s world.

We are not alone

When we stand up for our beliefs
for justice
for mercy
for peace
for others
we are not alone.

The old maxim,
safety in numbers
is based on that idea that you are better off with others.

Well, we are not alone.
The God of mercy stands with us when we offer mercy or compassion.
The God of justice is with us when we call for what is right.
The God of peace is there when we strive to make peace.
We are not alone.
We are blessed.

We are blessed.

In the recent movie,
Evan Almighty,
the character God catches up with another character
and offers some profound advice,

“When people pray for courage
I give them opportunities to be courageous.
When people pray for family unity
I give them opportunities to know what it means to be a family.”

But what the movie character God does not say
is that the real God
is there
helping us be courageous.

The other night I watched one of the most amazing documentary moments
I have ever seen.
The documentary was about the sub prime mortgage crisis.
There is a lot of evidence that this kind of mortgage
was given out mainly to people of colour,
Hispanic or black.
Rich or poor – this group is way
way
over represented in the sub prime mortgage market.
And the effect of this crisis is felt much more in some already besieged communities.
Racism, poverty and now bankruptcy and homelessness.

But
there is still hope.

The footage I saw was of a church in a community
that has been devastated by this crisis.
Yet
They were dancing and singing praise to God.
Because they know that they are not alone.
They know that even in destitution,
homelessness,
and seeming hopelessness
there is hope
And they knew what they were doing to change it too.
Lawyers, community activist told the documentary makers what they were doing.
No paralyis
Action
Transformation
God alive in hearts and minds.

God is there.
They are not alone.

So
Seek truth
speak truth
be brave
be strong
God is with you
You are not alone.

EXTREME Makeover - God's Restoration Project

So I’m a transplanted westerner.
When I first moved to Ontario from Calgary, Alberta,
all I could think was
"where’s the sky?" (too many trees).
Maybe some of you are thinking
"what is she talking about"
but
when I meet someone else from the prairies and say this,
they just look back at me,
nod sadly,
and say
"yeah."
The colours of nature are different too.
Instead of gold, ochre red, bright sky blue
there are greens of every shade imaginable,
fire red sumac leaves,
mysterious grey skies,
even hidden by fog skies.
At night the stars are in slightly different places.

But, I have put down some roots.
I am learning my way around
I am learning about the plant life here.
Many of you are teaching me about Minesing and it’s people
I have come to appreciate
Even love
the gently rolling landscape of Ontario.
And the fall?
I miss the golden glow of prairie poplar,
But I love the variety and brilliance of the fall colours here.
I finally understand why everyone goes on about them.
I am building a new connection with the land.
I am building new connections with the folks at Minesing United Church.

Connect with a strange place
– this is the advice that Jeremiah is giving in Chapter 29:1-7.
"I know this land is not yours,"
Jeremiah writes.
"The earth smells different,
the songs of the local birds are strange,
the buildings are the wrong shape.
The sky has changed,
the stars have moved.
But get used to it.
You’re going to be here a while."

This letter of Jeremiah’s is addressed to forcibly evicted exiles from Jerusalem.
Refugees and hostages.
People in an internment camp.
The Old Testament,
just like the New,
is a mix of history and metaphor,
experience of people
and experience of the divine
So we have to know a little bit about the real
physical experience
that Jeremiah is talking about
in order to understand his spiritual message to us.
So a quick history lesson.
Don’t worry you don’t need to take notes.
Basically as soon as people began having kingdoms
they began having wars over where the boundaries of these things were
and who gets to be the king inside those boundaries.
If you happen to be a small, insignificant kingdom
caught between mighty empires
then things get pretty difficult.
Maybe you try to make deals,
occasionally you get invaded
and sometimes you just throw caution to the wind
and attempt to rid yourselves of the shackles of foreign domination.
Rebellion.
Sometimes that works, sometimes that doesn’t.
So these people that Jeremiah is talking to
have been taken to the capital of Babylon
because
they were rulers and leaders in the ancient
tiny
kingdom of Judah
and they had the audacity to rebel against the domination of
the EMPIRE
of Babylon.
The Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, isn’t having any of it.
He orders all political, religious and community leaders who oppose him
(or who might cause trouble later)
be removed from Israel and brought to Babylon.
Basically hostages to the good behaviour of the regime left behind.
Actually this was pretty merciful behaviour at the time,
they were allowed to live.
But that’s not the end of the story.

Back in Judah there is a growing patriotic movement that wants to rebel again.
And this exile community in Babylon is supporting mutiny.
Ok
The people are reluctant to get comfortable
sure that they will be marching back to the Promised Land soon.
Many of them are thinking,
"We’re going home soon.
God promised us our land.
The revolution is brewing
- it looks good.
We will be back in time for dinner."
And then the prophet speaks
Jeremiah dashes all their hopes in his letter.
"I know this land is not yours,"
"The earth smells different,
the songs of the local birds are strange,
the buildings are the wrong shape.
The sky has changed, the stars have moved.
Get used to it.
You’re going to be here a while.

The text we just heard is only part of the letter Jeremiah was writing.
He is trying to respond to the promises of these agitators
The ones who say that there will be a revolt and Israel will be restored soon.
He is concerned that the people in exile think their time will be short
because God has given him a different message.
he continues.
This is what the LORD says:
"When seventy years are completed for Babylon,"
wait a minute
did this guy just say Seventy years?
That’s a lifetime.
It won’t be soon, only when God is ready.
God’s time – not theirs.
God’s plan – not theirs.
"I know this land is not yours,
but you’re going to be here a long, long while."
This isn’t a real popular message.

It’s not a popular message for us.
It’s not a popular message in our culture
I want
what I want
when I want it
and I want it now.
God’s time is not ours.
Christmas is coming.
Is anyone tempted to push the boundaries of credit card debt on presents?
Who needs a Wii now?
(Besides me, those things are fun.)
Think of the mortgage crisis in the US
People buying houses they couldn’t afford
Because they wanted it now
And someone was willing to agitate on their behalf
Rebelling against good sense
To invent the sub prime mortgage.
The famous
(Perhaps infamous)
psychology department at Stanford ran an experiment once…
It involved children and marshmallows.
A great combination
Basically a child (Susie) sat down at a table with an adult.
The grown up would say, "Susie I have this marshmallow"
(and then put a marshmallow in front of the child)
Then the grown up would say
"I have to go for a minute.
If you leave the marshmallow right there…
I will give you two when I come back"
Some kids couldn’t wait
– they ate it the second the grown up was out of sight.
Some hesitated a little and then ate it.
Some waited – squirming and impatient
but still waiting
and got two marshmallows
Some were little angels,
bless their hearts
and just sat patiently waiting
some of them for 20 minutes
(think how long 20 minutes is to a four year old)
for their due reward.
They of course got their two marshmallows.
The astounding thing about this experiment was..
...the kids who waited did better in life later on.

We think we know and can control timelines and everything.
But we don’t.
How many of us have made five-year plans, ten-year plans?
How well do those work out?
I went to college wanting to be a geneticist,
I am a big David Suzuki fan. What happened?
Well, in my case I heard a call to do something else.
And so here I am.
It’s not just about careers.
What about family life?
Paul Simon sings "A man walks down the street, He says why am I short of attention, Got a short little span of attention, And why are my nights so long Where’s my wife and family, What if I die here"
What are your plans?
They may be good ones.
What changes in plan have you been forced to make?
We set our goals.
Make our shopping lists.
We make our plans.
We set up our timelines.
Churches do it too.
We want to grow our Sunday school by 10 %.
The budget will be 15% more in the next three years.

But what happens when we make these plans?
What is behind them?
Are we just wanting to go back to the way things were?
Are we stuck in a nostalgia moment?
Or maybe we’re just plain stuck.

Think about our environment.
The earth groans under the tyranny of industrial pollution.
The air stinks with toxic chemicals and waste.
The birds and animals are disappearing.
Our buildings are making us sick.
The sky has changed, the stars are barely visible.
What’s happening to our plans for a better, cleaner, more prosperous world?
It’s not wrong to have a plan.
But what do we do when it’s not working?
What do we do when we are forced by circumstances to change our plans?
Do we just take what we can?
Grab the marshmallow and run?
Is that all there is?
What about our world?
Where is the "Kingdom of God" Jesus promised us?
When will we be restored?
We see the one marshmallow.
When will God give us the second one?

The exiles in Babylon planned to go home soon.
They thought, "Babylon is unstable,
the rebellion will throw off the wretched yoke of Nebuchadnezzar.
God will see how well Israel behaves and send us home.
He will aid us in our revolt.
God will send us home soon."
Jeremiah says "No!"
Those plans are not God’s.
That time is not God’s time.
But
God is still working for Israel.
God is nurturing you even in exile
and God will restore you, on God’s schedule.
Jeremiah gives the exiles God’s plan for them,
"I will come to you and fulfil my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,
"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future."
God has not forgotten the exiles.
God will restore them.
God is restoring them even in exile
if they will only recognise it.
Thus says the LORD through Jeremiah.
"I know this land is not yours.
The earth smells different,
the songs of the local birds are strange,
the buildings are the wrong shape.
The sky has changed,
the stars have moved.
Get used to it. You’re going to be here a while.
Build your houses.
It’s going to be a while.
Plant your crops.
It’s going to be a while.
Get married, have children.
It’s going to be a long, long while.
But….as the city where you are in exile prospers
so will you prosper, even in exile."
God is restoring you.
God will fulfil God’s promises.
God is fulfilling God’s promises.
"Then you will call upon me
and come and pray to me,
and I will listen to you.
You will seek me
and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
I will be found by you," declares the LORD ,
"and will bring you back from captivity.
I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,"
declares the LORD ,
"and will bring you back to the place
from which I carried you into exile."

God restores God’s people.
Their community will survive.
They will plant good crops and reap the benefits from them.
Their children will be able to marry and have children of their own.
The community will grow.
They will become prosperous physically,
financially
and spiritually
because God is restoring them even in exile.

Jeremiah’s message to the exiles is for us too.
The earth groans under the tyranny of industrial pollution.
The air stinks with toxic chemicals and waste.
The birds and animals are disappearing.
Our buildings are making us sick.
The sky has changed, the stars are barely visible.
Get used to it. You’re going to be here a while.
Build your houses. Plant your crops.
It’s going to be a while.
Get married, have children.
It’s going to be a long, long while.
But…as you prosper the kingdom of God prospers.

God will restore us too.
God is restoring us.
It is painfully slow but we continue to build our homes.
More energy efficient than ever,
More healthy than ever.
God is restoring us.
We continue to plant our crops.
More bountiful than ever
Throughout the world more food is being produced than ever before.
Famine relief can, and does, happen world-wide
in spite of the difficulties we hear about.
God is restoring us.

New drugs alleviate suffering and cure disease all over the world.
There are ever more effective treatments for AIDS, malaria.
Immunisations protect children all over the world.
God is restoring us.

There is a commitment to clean up the environment world-wide.
It is happening even now.
Hydrogen Cell buses are running in Thailand
reducing the level of toxic chemicals in the air.
God is restoring us.

We can be part of that restoration project.
We can make our homes more energy efficient.
We can support politicians who want to cancel third world debt.
We can support justice for First Nations in Canada.
We can be part of the world-wide ecumenical community
and restore relations between people of faith the world over.
We can work in God’s restoration project.
God is restoring God’s kingdom.

As we prosper, the kingdom of God prospers.
"I will come to you
and fulfil my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,
"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future."
These words are for us today.
God has plans to give us hope and a future.
In our individual lives
When we face a time of crisis
God comes to us
Where we are
And restores us.
When we make our plans
When we make them from where we are
With God’s word in our mind
Facing forward
Facing towards God
Working with God
God prospers us.
The US civil rights movement in the 1960s sang
Keep your eyes on the prize
Hold on
Keep your eyes on the prize
Hold on
A people freed from chattel slavery
Were still held by shackles and chains of racial hatred
They kept their eyes on the prize
Waited patiently on their bus seats
Eyes on the prize
Waited patiently in white only restaurant chairs
Hold on
eyes on the prize
And they prospered
They are still waiting
Their eyes are still on the prize
Exile is not over
Hold on
But God is restoring them
Hold on
God is restoring us.
Eyes on the prize
We are not alone.
Hold on.
We live in God’s world.
AMEN