Sermon for October 17th 2010 - World Food Sunday

As part of marking World Food Day, both Eugenia United Church and St John's United Church were encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item for the local food bank ... prior to the start of St John's service, Ms H and another young woman stacked the gathered food items from both churches into a creative rendering of the city of Toronto (as pictured above).

For the children's story, we shared a reflection on the the tale of Stone Soup and the ability to do amazing things like feed a WHOLE VILLAGE by everyone getting involved and sharing a little bit of what they have ...

Then I shared the following sermon.

I Belong to God:

We live in an era filled with anxiety ... news stories fill our screens and our papers and magazines with disturbing images and stories that chronicle the horrible things humanity is able to do to itself over and over ... a visit to the local pharmacy or drug store will reveal shelves and shelves of items and substances intended to help us relax and find serenity ... almost every store has a display featuring music cds with carefully orchestrated collections that will give an air of serenity and peace ... the self help industry is huge with cds, dvds, books, workshops and countless other products intended to counter the stress and anxiety of our modern era ... perhaps this is the very thing we are being warned against in our Epistle reading - perhaps these quick fixes are the things people chose to pursue over the grounding in the Truth ...

As a culture we find ourselves in a rather bewildering place ... our world is full of conflict and strife and it in turn creates in us fear and anxiety, and in turn we have hundreds of thousands of possible solutions to address these feelings ... yet for some strange reason The Church – that’s you and I – has chosen to step back from this opportunity and join in the rat race instead ...

Think about many of the conversations we may have day to day ... we focus on the negative – the stress inducing events that leave us shaking our heads. We’ll talk readily about the events half a world away that shock and titilate us; our news broadcasts are in many respects an unrelenting cacophany of bad news items with the occasional happy human interest story thrown in ... perhaps this form of voyeurism has an element of relief operating within it – we’re glad and relieved it’s someone else experiencing such terrible happenings rather than us ...

Fortunately though ... despite our best efforts to the contary, Good News stories break through from time to time.

This week the world sat mesmerized by the rescue of 33 miners in a remote corner of Chile. Over and over people marvelled at the out come of the 69 days spent hundreds of metres below ground ... more than one commentator noted that the appeal of this story was the happy outcome after a year full of disaster after disaster ... we wanted and got a happy ending for a change ...

But more than just a warm pink fuzzy story with a happy ending, the story of the Chilean miners speaks to us about faith on a profound level. Yesterday one of the miners spoke out and said that even though he wasn’t a believer he knew God was with them ... he didn’t speak about having a conversion experience, but about finding something within that was meaningful ... he found a sense of connectedness, a sense of community, an understanding of his place in the world ...

More locally this week the Owen Sound paper carried a letter from the family of the man named Brian who wanders up and down the highways of this area ... it told some of the background of who he is, where he came from and perhaps what it is that lies behind his long beard and hair, and his sunburned face ... the simple letter to the editor told the story of this man and a portion of why he lives the life he lives ... it offered US a sense of understanding about his place in the world ...

Ultimately, that’s what all of this (...) is about ... the stories, the songs, the prayers, the traditions ... our life and worship is about defining our place in cosmos and our understanding of our place in the world. I would like to think – and I would even dare to suggest – that we should understand and appreciate the turkey supper held a couple of weeks ago from that understanding.

The dinner and the concert were NOT about raising money for ourselves – they were about raising money for a very real need in our community – hunger and poverty ... but more than that, the dinner was about extending the boundaries of community and affirming that EVERYONE has a place here at the table of fellowship that is the very heart of our faith.

The dinner and concert were about including and caring for everyone by affirming the simple idea that WE BELONG TO GOD without conditions or restrictions ...

We can define things like traditions, worship services, membership and the other trappings of life in community from a negative – with an ‘us and them’ mentality, that draws lines and divisions between people based on any number of criteria. Criteria that excludes some and includes others.

Or we can define these things – our place in the world, our sense of community and connectedness – from a positive ... The reading from Jeremiah offers such an understanding ... the new covenant – the new understanding – the heart of our faith shall be written upon our hearts ... rather than consulting a lengthy list of rules of regulations, consulting a library of theology and religious reflections we shall define ourselves by the simple understanding that we are a child of God, beloved by God and belonging to God. All of our thoughts and actions should strive to reflect that understanding, and should seek to enhance and expand the compassion, the care and the experience offered by being in such a community ...

It’s very simple really ... but too often in the Church we make it political and we make it complex ... It hearkens back to the rabbinic story of Hillel who said the heart of the Torah – the very Law of the People handed down from God on Sinai is simply this – “that which is hurtful to another you do not do.”

In a time of anxiety and stress the tendancy is to seek simple answers and to draw firm dark boundaries around ourselves, around our community, and around our understandings so that we have a clear delineation – a black and white definition of the world and our place in it ... but the world is far more than simple black and white boundaries that include some and exclude others ... our world is a montage of grey hues that give depth and breadth to perspectives and understandings – and it is all prefaced on the simple notion of belonging to God ...

I belong to God is what our faith is all about ... I belong to God and so do you, and if we both belong to God we should act and think accordingly ... rather than excluding and marginalizing others, we should form bonds of community that seek first and foremost to care for each other ... to ensure that our community includes everyone, not just those we like and are comfortable with ...

In times of anxiety and stress we tend to build walls and boundaries and we engage a process of exclusion, when what we are called to is a process of inclusion.

I am a child of God.
You are a child of God.

ALL of us are children of God ... the Good News proclaimed by the prophets from Jeremiah through to Micah is about remembering the Covenant with God that celebrates and affirms that understanding ... the Good News carried by Jesus and his disciples, and that undergirds The Church is about sharing that understanding of our place in the cosmos with everyone ... we don’t need a degree in theology, or a library full of books and texts – all we need is to listen to the whisper in our hearts that tells us over and over and over – I belong to God ...

If I belong to God ... and if you belong to God ... what COULD happen if we begin to live our lives affirming that ... rather than saying “I belong to God ... but you can only belong to God if ...” What if we left the exclusion and judgement in the hands of God instead, and we simply opened our hearts, our minds, our spirits, and most importantly OUR community to include everyone? What would happen? What could happen?

If we begin from a positive that confronts anxiety and fear with the understanding that all of us belong to God without exception – what kind of a difference could we make in the world?

If we truly take seriously the idea that we belong to God and live our lives by seeking to celebrate and affirm that in ALL things, how different could our world become?

If I belong to God and you belong to God, and the homeless man on the corner belongs to God could we simply walk by and not see him?

If I belong to God and you belong to God, and the beligerent jerk that cut us off yesterday on the highway belongs to God can we swear at him and flip him a rude gesture?

If I belong to God and you belong to God, and ALL of the men, women and children around us belong to God can we still draw boundaries and divisions within the human family and define some as in and others as out?

If I belong to God, and you belong to God and ALL of humanity belongs to God, can we – or better yet – SHOULD we, continue to divide people one from another, or should be be about seeking the radical inclusion that lies at the very heart of the Good News – the inclusion that calls EVERYONE to a place of belonging within the Kingdom of God that we are called to be and to create ??

If ALL of us belong to God how can we shrug our shoulders when confronted with poverty, hunger, war, violence and anything else that destroys the human spirit and disrupts human life?

If all of us belong to God we need to be about living out that understanding rather than investing inordinate amounts of time and energy protecting our dogmas and defining our communities ...

Today in the face of anxiety and fear, we are called by our Covenant with God to affirm our place in the world as the beloved Children of God, and to reach out to others and celebrate and affirm their status as beloved Children of God too ...

I belong to God ... and so do you !!

May it be so, thanks be to God, let us pray ...