To be honest, I’m not sure what to offer by way of reflection today ... you as a congregation are marking your 161st Anniversary, and I am a relative johnny come lately to the Grey Highlands area ... while my familial roots run deep in the soil of the areas around Chesley and Desboro here, and Stratford and Shakespeare a little bit farther south, the bulk of my adult life has been spent in far flung corners of Western Canada ... I began my ministry in Southern Ontario then faced my trial by fire in the First Nations Community of Bella Coola followed by a stint in the Lower Mainland, then a small rural community just north of Brandon Manitoba ... along the way I’ve faced more than my share of ups and downs, a few twists and turns and in 2006, a fire that destroyed the 104 year old sanctuary of the Church I was then serving in Minneodsa ... for the last four years, I have been amongst the ever growing number of people who once called the United Church home, and who through a variety of reasons found themselves outside looking in, and yearning to come home ... In the spring of this year I was offered and accepted the call to Flesherton, and have figuratively and literally found my way home ...
So, for me Anniversaries are bitter sweet moments ... they are when we stand and look back and where we’ve come from, while looking forward and wondering about where we’re heading. They are a time full of memories and nostalgia as well as potential, excitement and a bit of apprehension ... I find it interesting that the lectionary offered up the readings we have today ... they celebrate God’s blessings and bounty, while also counselling us to be mindful of things spiritual ...
As one who has been outside looking in, Anniversary Sundays are a good opportunity for those within to pause and actively consider if they are actively promoting the work of the Kingdom by expanding the realm of the Church, or are they simply perpetuating the comfortable status quo by resting on our laurels and enjoying the benefits that have come from the labours of our ancestors ...
The words of Joel offer just such a challenge. They are foremost words of rejoicing and celebrating but then they end with a powerful prophecy that God’s Spirit will be poured out upon the people and our sons and daughters will prophecy, our old men shall dream dreams and our young men will see visions, and all will share in this experience of the Spirit. Couple this reading with the words of encouragement from 2nd Timothy, and the sharp comparision of the Pharisee and the tax collector, and we have a good set of readings for an Anniversary Sunday at ANY church.
The words of Joel set us up to celebrate 161 years of bounty and blessings that this faith community has been to the greater community around it ... how many teas, dinners, bazaars, and social events have accompanied the countless Communions, Worship Services, Special Holy Days, Christmas Pageants, and other liturgical events that have marked the passage of the 16 decades?? How many cups of coffee and tea have been poured and shared? How many sandwiches have been offered? How many prayers have been lifted to God?
The list goes on and on ... it is who we are and what we do ... the things from Sunday School to the Choir on Sunday right through to the cookies and muffins dropped off after a hospital stay or a death ... it is the ministry we offer and embody, and share is the abundant rain and full threshing floors that Joel proclaims so forcefully ... yet, as we stand and look back over ALL of those blessings, we MUST ALSO look forward to the work of the Spirit that is still to be done, and that is still unfolding ... the visions, and dreams – the hopes and aspirations – the things that are new and exciting as well as a bit discomforting and disconcerting ...
Today perhaps like no other time in our history as a Church we stand in a very uncertain and troubling time ... but like the 161 years – the 1932 months – the 8,372 weeks – the 58 805 days – the 1 411 326 HOURS that have come before – we WILL face whatever comes and as we have countless times since the first service was held here in this community, we will continue to be the BODY of Christ to the town of Markdale.
But in the midst of this celebration and rejoicing is where the sharpness of the warning from Jesus comes into play, and we are challenged to heed the call to a mindful and considerate faith stance ... On one hand, we have the Pharisee – a pious and righteous man coming to pray, then on the other hand we have the tax collector – a seemingly not so pious nor righteous man coming to pray ...
Jesus choses well in his contrast ... for the listener, the Pharisee is clearly a man of God, while the Tax Collector is reviled and hated by almost everyone, and you would be hard pressed to find ANYONE who would regard them as a model of virtue ...
Then Jesus delivers the coup de grace – “watch them pray” he likely whispers to his disciples ... The Pharisee stands out in the open where everyone can see him and openly offers his prayers to God KNOWING that they will be heard – KNOWING they will be answered and KNOWING that everyone around will be impressed ...
But look at the tax collector quietly standing in the corner and offering his prayers to God in secret – almost silently ... “lord have mercy on me a sinner,” says the tax collector ...
And with that, Jesus challenges the status quo ... the humble will be made great and the great will be humbled ... the church goers may be surprised ... things are not what they may seem ...
In our comfort and our complacency we may have lost our way ... we may well have become MORE like the Pharisee and less like the tax collector. We may assume that we are humble when in fact we’ve become complacent and self-righteous in our piousness ...
The point of Jesus’ contrast is to ask ourselves constantly which character are we most like ... are we like the Pharisee or are we like the Tax Collector ... after 161 years, it’s possible our comfort has forged us into a Pharisee who sits content in the knowledge that we are righteous and beloved of God ... we’ve lost the edge of humility ...
German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer hit this when he offered the contrast between costly grace and cheap grace ... Cheap grace is the mistaken belief that we’ve earned our salvation by virtue of our family – our history – our heritage ... Cheap Grace is what happens when the Church become nothing more than a social club where like minded people gather to “be the Church” and the emphasis is on maintaining the status quo ... Costly Grace is making sacrifices to appreciate the Grace that has saved us. Costly Grace is about living the words we say so easily – ALL are welcome.
ALL – not just those we’re comfortable with – those we like – those who don’t irritate and annoy us - but ALL ...
Too often we’ve over indulged in cheap grace and we’ve forgotten the true cost of faithfilled Grace ... we’ve taken our salvation for granted and we’re in danger of exchanging our humilty for egoism ...
And that egoism is the very thing we must consciously avoid as we look back on our history and heritage. We need to be – and rightly so – proud of our past – but we can not and must not become so enamored of our past that we foolishly think that we’ve attained our salvation and our status of our own accord ... We are the children of God, loved and redeemed and transformed by GRACE into God into the Kingdom. We have done little to become and to embody the Church that we are ... and we MUST live accordingly.
Ultimately, we are simply the stewards of the many resources around us and our
calling is to share them not just with one another, but with everyone around us ...
Too often in the Church we get hung up on the unimportant things. We focus on the bricks and mortar and we get our knickers in knots over the mundane and the frivilous, when what we are called to be and to do is to embody and share the Kingdom of God in our midst ... as for me there is reserved a crown of righteousness – and not just for me, but for all ... if we are to claim our crown, why would we let the mundane things get in the way.
I’ve been through Church conflict. I’ve seen and experienced first hand what Congregations can do to each other, and to themselves ... I bear the bruises and scars of the nasty things Churches are capable of doing when they forget their calling ... the calling that in its most basic form says: we ARE the Body of Christ called to share the Gospel with the world.
In the days leading up to my ordination in 1993, The Reverend Mervyn Reuber, a then retired EUB preacher took me aside and reminded me that my roots runs deep in the EUB tradition ... the German Methodist Branch of the United Church that joined in 1968.
Reverend Reuber said that the task of the church is not to be a social club. It is not to be a place of warm pink fuzzies that make everyone feel special and comfortable. He said with a smile “the Church is the body of Christ Incarnate and REAL within the world. Our job is to go into the world and share the Gospel. To comfort the afflicted, to afflict the comfortable and in ALL things, share the Truth of the Gospel without shame or fear ...” This is the heart of costly Grace.
Too often in the Church we’ve found a comfortable place and drifted to the realm of social club ... we’ve grown confident and complacent in our faith and we’ve forgotten the transformative power of the Gospel ... we’ve lost the humility that allows us to draw before God to claim the gift of Grace and to experience fully the transformative power of the Gospel ... in addition to partaking in cheap grace, we’ve become the Pharisee who wants everyone to admire them for their piety and thier faith, and we look down upon the tax collector.
At the end of the day, we ARE the tax collector ... we are far from perfect, we are simply the recipients of God’s grace, and we draw before God with a profound sense of awe and humility that God loves even us ... Anniversary Sundays are those moments in our liturgical life when we pause and look back and rather than giving thanks like a good Pharisee overconfident in their piety, and self righteous in their faith, we bow before God and from the depth of our being offer our thanks and praise for the many blessings and bounty that God has so richly poured out upon us ... rather than strutting proudly at what a great job we’ve done, we bow our head before God and accept with humility that kiss that God places upon our head that proclaims us a beloved and cherished child of God !
Happy Anniversary Annesley United Church – may you have many many more as you live and share your faith to the community of Markdale and the people of the Grey Highlands ... you have much to be proud of in your history and heritage, but perhaps what should make you most proud is the gift of Grace you have been given to share ...
Go into the world boldly sharing the love, the mercy, the care and the faith that is embodied in your history and heritage ... you, as a people have earned the crown – wear it proudly !! Share the gift of Grace as you have for the last 161 years, and know that your greatest legacy is the sharing of that boundless and abundant grace ...
May it be so, thanks be to God, let us pray ...
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