You're Welcome

Here is a modified version of a sermon I preached at Kinasao Camp on June 26th. I begin with two scripture readings:

Thus says the Lord:

Maintain justice and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.

Happy is the mortal who does this, the one who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and refrains from doing any evil.

Do not let the foreigner joined to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”;

And do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.”

For thus says the LORD:

To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant – these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

(Isaiah 56:1-7)

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

(Matthew 10:40-42)

To be truly welcomed is a powerful thing. To be fully accepted as part of a group can be transformative for an individual. We know this from experience, our own personal experience. Let me give you one example from my own life.

When I was 12 years old Pastor Dan Berg came to be the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Brooks where I lived. Normally I went to Sylvan Lake Bible Camp in the summers but for some reason that summer the schedule didn’t work out and it looked like I was not going to have a church camp experience that year. The Berg family offered to take me with them when Dan was going to be the resource pastor at Christopher Lake Bible Camp, a commitment he had made while serving Naicam and Spalding congregations prior to taking the call to Brooks. So for a week and a half I became part of the Berg family. I was fully included in all the family activities and even though we were at a camp in northern Saskatchewan (which could just have well been in a foreign country for all I knew about it) I still felt welcomed, safe, secure and cared for. It was a powerful thing, and has created a special bond with that family that lasts to this day.

To be welcomed, to be received into a group is the beginning of meaningful relationships. Jesus was always welcoming people into his group, people that others might well have thought didn’t really belong: common labourers, unpatriotic tax collectors, women, deniers, betrayers… sinners. Some who would have been considered ideal individuals to be part of the group turned away and declined the invitation.

We are called to continue this welcoming process. The great commission at the end of Matthew’s gospel has Jesus commanding his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations”. But that is not always comfortable, it means we need to go and welcome people who are different from us, and that doesn’t always feel right.

Simply put, we like being with people like us. If we came from a Scandinavian heritage we enjoyed being with others who understood our lefse and lutefisk jokes. We weren’t too sure about those people of German heritage, they liked speaking their minds openly and drinking beer and dancing polkas – and that didn’t seem right to us. (I’ll never forget the time I was on a choir tour in Germany and I was surprised, shocked actually, that at the church fair a person could buy beer, in beer steins with the church logo on them!) When I was called to Christ Lutheran Church in Regina, I had to get used to these Germanic folks – it was God’s little joke I think.

The Jewish people were no different in Biblical times. Imagine their shock when Isaiah announces that God was welcoming foreigners and eunuchs, that the worship of these different people was acceptable and pleasing to God. I’m sure there were many who said “I do not like this situation, this does not seem right.” They who in the past were told to avoid or even slaughter foreigners are now told that God says “I will bring them to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

"Foreigners in the temple? That can’t be right, can it? And what about eunuchs? Those people are just weird; I don’t get them at all!" For Jewish people having children was a sign of God’s blessing, having descendants was part of the covenant between God and Abraham and Sarah. The Psalmist proclaims “Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.” (Ps 127:3) Eunuchs are guys who ensure they can never have children by a rather drastic surgical procedure. What kind of people would want to “fix” themselves so they can not enjoy sex. What kind of persons would want to “remove” all possibility of having descendants? That just doesn’t seem right, and now God is saying “I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” (Oops Isaiah, was that a Freudian slip?)

Earlier in the Book of Isaiah the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, the people of the covenant, were chastised because they did not know the LORD, they did not do what the LORD required. Yes they continued to engage in ritual practices, but the LORD said to them “I’ve had enough of burnt offerings… bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me… your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them.” (Isaiah 1:11,14) If the people are worshipping, how then can God say they did not know the Lord? The answer comes a few verses later where they are exhorted to “learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17).

So the religious festival keeping children of the covenant find themselves rejected while the foreigners and eunuchs are welcomed, their sacrifices accepted and their future assured. This could not have been easy for a Jewish audience to hear. We too are faced with similar challenges when we are being asked to welcome all people into our communities of faith. It might be fairly easy to welcome those who are similar to us, but the real challenge comes in welcoming those who are different – and yet that is precisely what we are called to do. Jesus sent us out to all nations, not just those similar to us. Jesus showed us what it means to accept and welcome others through his ministry to those marginalized by his society (often this was much to the surprise and perhaps discomfort of his disciples).

This ministry of welcoming others is powerful, it can literally turn a life around. To sense that you belong to a group of caring, loving folks – that you are accepted for who you are, in spite of differences – this is truly life giving. And it has another side effect. When we fully accept others into our midst we discover that there is a lot more that we have in common than what makes us different. Too often we focus only on makes others different from us, but the truth is we are all humans with many of the same concerns, fears, joys and hopes as everyone else. When we look at what binds us together rather than what makes us different we begin to see one another as the LORD sees us – as beloved children of God.

We have already been welcomed into the family of God, now we are being reminded to be welcoming to one another. May you know the fullness of God’s love and acceptance of you, and may you share that love and acceptance with all you encounter. As the gospel writer reminds us - when we welcome others we welcome God more fully into our lives. May we all discover the power and richness of being welcoming people.

Reflection #4: God Can Speak Louder in Our Quiet

In music theory dynamics are relative. There is so specific decibel level connected with loud or soft, there is only the relation between the two - it is the contrast that counts. I've come to believe that we live at a pretty loud level all the time in our culture - we are constantly surrounded by noise (audible noise, visual noise, information noise). So much noise, but we are not aware of it because we don't have the contrast, we don't have the quiet. I discovered, the hard way, that our spiritual nature requires quiet - but we seldom get that stillness any more, unless we are intentional about doing so.

Being involved in youth ministry for all my 25 as a pastor, I have experienced much loudness - whether that was simply a bunch of youth hanging out talking and laughing loudly, or attending a youth event where the music for worship was played loudly and energetically by a band. This became normal for me.

One day a number of years ago I was at one of these youth events, and it was certainly loud. The worship band was enthusiastic and skillful, the teenagers were fully participating in the music, everyone in the room seemed excited to be worshipping God - but I felt strangely disconnected. Admittedly there were other things going on in my life at that time that added to this feeling, but I remember praying to God while at this youth event for some guidance and direction but feeling like I wasn't being heard. The irony is that I don't think I was hearing - the noise in my life was too loud.

A few days later I went to a retreat centre called Qu'Appelle House of Prayer, a place of intentional peace and quiet. There was a time of worship there as well, but rather than a few thousand young people it was a mere handful of people. After some time in conversation with Glenn Zimmer, a co-director of Qu'Appelle House of Prayer, he mentioned that there would be worship service that I was welcome to attend before I left. Then he added, as if to forewarn me, that there would be a 20 minute time of silence during the worship. I wondered how I would make out with such a length of silence and stillness - that's a lot longer than I would ever be quiet normally (except when reading a book), but not wanting to be rude and reject the invitation to participate in the worship I stayed.

I remember two things very clearly from that simple worship service: one of the scripture readings was from the 1st chapter of 1st Peter, and I became aware of God's comforting presence in a deeply moving manner. The scripture reading seemed to soak right into me, like it was a message spoken personally for me. God's presence seemed to surround me and I began to sense the guidance and direction I was seeking. It was a transformative experience.

So why did I hear God that day, and not a few days earlier? Quite simply because I was drowning out God. I knew that God spoke in a "still, small voice" to the prophet Elijah at the mouth of the cave, but I didn't make the connection with that story and my own life. In that Elijah story we are shown that most often God prefers to speak to us quietly and gently rather than forcefully and loudly. In that story God is not in the noisy and spectacular wind, fire and earthquake (isn't that the cartoon image we have of God talking to humans, a big booming voice coming from the sky?) The passage quite clearly says God was not in the noise, rather God came to Elijah in "a sound of sheer silence" (as the NRSV translation puts it - 1 Kings 19:12).

In reading through the Bible this past year (as part of the Disciple Bible Study Course we are running at our church) it became more clear to me that most often God is revealed in a quiet manner. If God is not to impinge on our free will I think this is the only way God can approach humans. If God were to speak in a loud and spectacular way we would most likely be overwhelmed - there would be little sense of our ability to freely respond. While there are a few famous theophanies in the Bible - complete with smoke and noise, for the most part God's revelation comes in quiet conversations, dreams and silent signs (like fleece being wet or dry: Judges 6:36-40).

Since that first experience at Qu'Appelle House of Prayer I have been more intentional in having quiet time in my life, and making reflective worship experiences available in the church I serve. At first I put together something called Ambient Vespers, and more recently the alternative, meditative and creative worship gathering called Mysterium. These are both attempts at making ourselves more quiet so we can hear God. They are times to "be still and know that God is God" (Psalm 46:10). Based on the comments I have heard from people after these worship experiences, there are many who appreciate that God can be heard more clearly in the quiet.

Click here to be directed to the Mysterium website.

Click here to visit the Qu'Appelle House of Prayer website.

Living Stones

I'm interrupting my series of 25 reflections to share a sermon I preached today. I thought the message is applicable to the whole of the church, thus I am sharing it on my blog.

Scripture readings: Acts 7:55-60 & 1 Peter 2:2-10

Let me take you back to a scene from my childhood... it was shortly after moving into our newly constructed house - Dad was building a retaining wall for the driveway, but he and Mom wanted something a little more fancy than a simple concrete wall. So on a number of occasions we jumped in the station wagon, bringing with us a large sledge hammer and headed out to the countryside. I remember driving slowly down the road looking out the windows of the car to the surrounding prairie flat land for stones, big stones. When a promising one was spotted Dad would get out of the car grab the sledge hammer and walk purposefully up to the stone. After a moment of assessment the heavy hammer would swing high in the air and come down with a mighty crack. Sometimes it would take multiple hits but eventually the stone would split open and we would then gather around to examine the colours and patterns revealed inside the stone. If the colour and pattern was to our liking the stone was hauled over to the car and piled in the back. When we had a load full we drove back home and proceeded to top the concrete wall will this assortment of split stones. Thus began my love of stones.

This love of stones has continued throughout my life. In my days working for the County of Newell as a young man I was thrilled when in the course of working with test gravel pits I came across stones that were almost perfectly round. When I found one it would go in my lunch box and be brought home to add to my collection - I still have some of those stones (see the picture above). Today if you were to look in the garden in front of our house, the one under the large spruce tree, there are a number of stones scattered purposefully about. Each stone coming from somewhere significant to our family history - from Christopher Lake where my in-laws have had a cabin for years, from a farm near Tilley, Alberta where my grandparents lived and worked when I was little, and so forth. To me the stones have meaning - in a sense they ground me in the past, in my heritage and history.

In our scripture readings today we hear of stones twice, and these stones also have meaning. The stones found in our readings today remind us that stones can be used to knock down or to build up.

In the first reading a young man, Stephen, is preaching about Jesus. This is causing frustration and anger amongst some of the religious leaders of that day. When these religious people have heard enough they pick up stones and begin to hurl them at Stephen. This communal execution involved the whole crowd, it was the majority against a minority, a mob against a single unarmed man. It was fear and anger against truth and love. The stones fly at Stephen, their damage is frightfully quick. Sensing his death Stephen prays to God, a prayer much like the one Stephen's Lord prayed from the cross: "Don't hold this sin against them."

Stones can damage, they can knock down, they can kill.

Why then would the writer of First Peter encourage his listeners to be living stones? What did this image suggest to them? What might it mean for us? What are these living stones to be used for? For knocking down? For hurting? For destroying?

Quite the opposite! These living stones are to be used in building up a spiritual house. All who follow Jesus are being called to a special purpose in this passage - one that is life giving rather than death inflicting.

One of the central themes in this passage from First Peter is the idea of being chosen. First this passage notes that Jesus was the living stone who was rejected by humans but was chosen as precious by God. That phrase makes me think of driving around the countryside with my Dad looking for just the right stone for our building project back home. I knew that farmers complained about stones and rocks - they made it difficult to farm the land, they wished all those stones in the fields would disappear. But for our family, those stones in the fields could hold great beauty and strength to enhance our wall back home. So we looked carefully at what many simply rejected or passed by.

A little lesson on ancient middle-eastern construction techniques might help the image make more sense. Houses in that region and era used stone as the main building material. Some wood was used for things like door frames and roof beams, but mostly houses were made with stones. The builder would first find a large strong stone to function as the cornerstone. This foundational item was most important, for everything would be built out from it. If the cornerstone was flawed or cracked this could lead to problems in the future - unwanted shifting or slipping that would weaken the whole structure. So the cornerstone was very important and thus chosen carefully.

After this other stones were chosen to build up the walls. These were not uniform bricks, but stones of various shapes and sizes gathered from the local area. Some stone cutting would have been done, but primarily the builder looked for stones that were the right size and shape to fit in properly with the other stones already in the wall, making a stable and strong structure. Stones were chosen to fit into a specific spot - their value was not in being the same as other stones but rather in their unique size and shape. It took all kinds of stones to build a house. Thus when the writer of First Peter refers to the followers of Jesus as living stones being built into a spiritual house he is implying some noteworthy characteristics.

First - Christians are not all alike, we are different in many ways - but we are all chosen to fit into the spiritual house being built. If the builder has chosen us, then no one can say we don't belong. We each have a calling, we each have a purpose, we each have a place. This is similar to the Apostle Paul's image of the body of Christ being made up of many parts, yet all needing each other.

Second - we are called to build up, not to knock down. Our calling is the exact opposite of the stones thrown at Stephen. As living stones we are called to work together regardless of how we might differ from others, to become a place of safety and shelter for others. The stones do not build the walls for themselves, but for the sake of others who will be sheltered within. To put another way, we are to protect, not condemn; we are to love, not judge; we are to be stones that build up, not stones that knock down.

Third - we are chosen to work together in such a way that we help connect people with God. We are called to become a spiritual house, a temple - a building that in ancient times was the place the people went to be reconciled to God. This connection to the ancient temple is seen in some of the other images in First Peter: "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation". Each of these titles warrants a brief comment.

Chosen people - once again the idea of being chosen is named. It echoes the covenant of God with Abraham and Sarah and their descendants. God chose them to be the beginning of a great nation that would be a blessing for all nations. Christians are now part of that great promise through our cornerstone, Jesus. Through baptism we enter into this covenant relationship with God who chose us - no one can say we don't belong, or that we have no purpose.

Royal priesthood - this title looks back to the Levites, the ancient tribe of priests whose calling was to dedicate themselves to the reconciliation of God and his chosen people. They offered sacrifices and prayers on behalf of the people, they were chosen to serve, both God and the people. Now we too have been given this great privilege, this important task - we too are chosen to serve God and others, we are to help people be reconciled with God through our actions, our words and our prayers.

Holy nation - the word holy literally means set apart. We are a people set apart for a special purpose - God has chosen us to bring the good news to all the nations, news of love and forgiveness, of acceptance, and of justice. As a group of people we are called to live out our baptismal covenant with God - by the way we act and talk we are to be a means of grace to all, to be a blessing for all around us, for all around the world.

First Peter reminds us "Once you were not God's people, but now you are." We have been chosen by a loving God who then calls us to work together to help others know that they too have been chosen, they too have been called. We are to "tell about the excellent qualities of God" which clearly means we are to focus our message on God's love, mercy and grace. This is a message we are given to share not only with words, but with our very being - after all we are called not just to talk about a spiritual house, but to be a living part of that spiritual house, to be an integral part within the structure. We are chosen, unique as we are, to add to the strength and integrity of this spiritual house with all that we are.

What kind of stones have we been to this point? Ones that build up, or ones that knock down? Stones that protect, or stones that hurt? God has chosen us to be part of something wonderful, we have been called to a holy task - to build up and support one another, to be people who help each other connect with God, to provide sanctuary for those who need shelter from a world filled with hatred and injustice. With Christ as our cornerstone, with God as the provider of good materials and with the Holy Spirit as the master builder this image from First Peter will continue to come true - the spiritual house continues to be built, continues to be expanded. God has chosen you and me to be part of this building project - what kind of stones will we choose to be?

Reflection #3: The Bible Continues to Surprise

It is hard for me to estimate how many times I have read the Bible, certainly some portions I have read many, many times - but as for some of those parts that don't show up in the Lectionary or in your typical Bible Studies - even those I have encountered at least a few times because I have intentionally read through the entire Bible (yes, that means every verse) at least a couple of times in the past. So what can I say after all that Bible reading?

The Bible is a collection of ancient writings that produce a wide range of emotion in me. One moment I can be smiling with a deep sense of joy and wonder, then the next moment I can be getting downright angry or frustrated. These ancient writings have the ability to stir up within me a wide diversity of reactions - sort of like people have the ability to do. This shouldn't be too surprising since these books were written by all kinds of people, some of whom I probably wouldn't have enjoyed hanging out with. What is surprising is how these writings from centuries ago continue to reveal new nuggets of truth and beauty, even after a multitude of readings.

I don't like how the Bible has been treated by some Christians - as a document dictated word for word by God to ancient scribes, thus leaving no room for interpretation. Everything is black and white to these people. While the words may be literally black and white on the page, the people who wrote these words were many shaded and complex - so were their writings. While I do understand the desire to have guidelines for our lives set out simply and clearly, the Bible does not give us that simplicity. The only command Jesus gave his followers requires interpretation: How exactly should we love others? What does that look like? What is the most loving thing to do in any circumstance? Interpretation is the hard and sometimes dangerous work of Bible reading.

There is another type of reading that requires interpretation, music reading. I have grown up with the ambiguity that exists within musical interpretation. The composer can have written down notes of certain time values and pitch, but there is still a lot of interpretation required (which notes get emphasized over the others, which notes should be detached from the others, which ones connected, and so forth). In music one always has to consider the bigger picture: "How does this musical bit fit within the work as a whole?" Depending on how one interprets the notes on a page, the musical performance can be dramatically different from other readings. Yet even in this case, each dramatically different musical reading can reveal something of value in the composition.

In a similar fashion, the way I understood certain passages in the Bible when I was a young man, compared with how I understand them now can reveal a difference in interpretation. Yet there was almost always something of value discovered at each stage in this process. Perhaps how I understood a particular passage in my younger years was what I needed to be challenged by or comforted with in those days. Now at a different stage in my life I'm hearing new nuances in the scriptures that come not just from a broader understanding of the Biblical content, but also a larger, more experienced understanding of life.

Last fall we began using the Disciple Bible Study program at Christ Lutheran Church, an intensive course that not only meets for 2 and a half hours weekly, but also requires the participants to read a substantial portion of the Bible throughout the week. The first year of this program is an overview of the Bible and when the participants have finished the 34 week study they will have read about 70% of the entire Bible. When working through this course over the past months I discovered that I was continually being surprised and challenged by what I was reading. The margins of the Bible I am currently using are now filled with comments and questions, much like the Bible I used in my University and Seminary days. (For those who are interested, I am currently using the Lutheran Study Bible - the New Revised Standard Version published by Augsburg Fortress. The Bible I used in my student days was The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha - Revised Standard Version published by Oxford University Press - both are pictured above.) When I compare those comments and questions I have written in the margins I see that some are similar, but most are different. During the Disciple Bible Study this past year seldom did I find myself saying "I know this part well enough already", rather I was amazed by how I was still finding insights and layers of meaning I don't remember noticing before.

As well this past year found me saying at times "Why is this part in here?" and grappling with parts of the Bible that come across as out of touch with the world I know - rules and rituals that seem completely irrelevant, violence and hatred that seems inexcusable, advice and observations that seems out of touch with my experience and the world I live in. These are the parts that make me frustrated and even angry. These are the parts that are often used to justify bigotry and arrogance. For example while I think I understand the reason the Apostle Paul tolerated the system of slavery in his writings, that no longer fits with my understanding of the bigger picture - of God's intentions for our world. When I think of Jesus' command, slavery does not equate with loving others and sometimes I wish Paul had connected those dots.

In the end I can say that reading the Bible has never become boring for me, even after all these years. I certainly don't claim to understand everything I read in that collection of books, but I will claim that I often find something worth pondering. I look forward to further reading in the coming years.

Reflection #2: Music is a Gift that Needs to Be Shared, Not Limited

When I first began my ordained ministry music in worship was almost exclusively organ based. Now our most recent hymnal (Evangelical Lutheran Worship) has music in it that would not sound right on the organ at all, requiring piano or guitar instead. In my first years as a pastor the majority of people would have said that the only truly appropriate music for worship would be hymns and liturgy led by on an organ. Having experienced church camps and youth gatherings in the summers of my youth I knew this to be a falsehood for I had experienced many occasions when I had a sense of deep and meaningful worship at those camps or youth gatherings where the music was led with guitars or piano.

So much has changed in the past 25 years. I witnessed the decade of worship wars, where people who wanted more contemporary music in worship fought with people who wanted to maintain the organ and classically based music as the exclusive style of music for worship. In many situations it was the either/or attitude of both sides that created friction and fighting. I have been grateful to serve in a congregation that has been more open to a variety of music expression in worship, we have been able to use a both/and approach to music.

Personally, I feel I been fortunate to be able to bridge this spectrum, having been a classically trained musician who also developed ability and familiarity with pop, rock and jazz styles. In a sense I embodied the diverse spectrum, and saw the value in all of it. I also saw the problems within each style, in other words I could see the benefits and the difficulties of any one musical approach. So the challenge for me became not which musical style is appropriate, but how to use a certain musical style appropriately within a worship context.

Music, by its very nature, can produce within people a deep emotional reaction. Music has the ability to bring tears to the eyes or a smile to the face. Music triggers memories almost more than any other stimulus, and thus we often associate certain music with meaningful moments in our lives. For example, if one has fond memories of going to worship with the family as a child, then the music of those early worship services will simply 'feel right' to that person. I can't count how many times after we have used the organ for a worship service that people have commented to me "Now that felt like worship!" However a person who grew up in a remote African village, where a cappella singing was the only music of their childhood worship experiences, would probably have a very different reaction to a Sunday morning filled with 18th century hymns led on the organ. Rather for them it would be a rousing a cappella version of "We Are Marching in the Light of God" that could cause them to exclaim "Now that was worship!"

In our current multi-cultural context (and by that I don't mean people who have immigrated from different countries but also the different cultures found from one generation to the next) we will need to be aware that music that will help evoke a meaningful response in people will be quite varied. This does not mean we need to learn to like all kinds of music, but it does mean we need to find ways to accept the music of meaning for others. How we do this in worship will depend on the particular context, but whatever the context we should not dismiss or denigrate the music of meaning for others.

As Luther wrote "I truly desire that all Christians would love and regard as worthy the lovely gift of music, which is a precious, worthy, and costly treasure given to mankind by God." I have been fortunate to be saturated with this gift, and a big part of my ministry has been to use this gift (in a variety of styles) to help express the mysterious, emotional, reflective, challenging, and transformative relationship we have with God through Christ our Lord. Music, like the love of God, is a gift that needs to be shared - not limited!

Reflections on 25 Years of Ordained Ministry in 25 Points

In March of this year I celebrated 25 years of Ordained Ministry, and 25 years of ministry at Christ Lutheran Church in Regina, Saskatchewan. The staff and congregation at Christ Lutheran held some lovely surprise 25th Anniversary celebrations and gifted me with many lovely words of support and gratitude as well as with a Celtic Pectoral Cross (pictured above). 
 

In some ways it is difficult to believe that it has been 25 years since I began my work as a pastor at Christ Lutheran Church, in other ways I certainly recognize the passage of time. It is rare for a pastor to serve in the same place for 25 years, but I have been blessed to be part of a healthy and diverse pastoral team (thank you Orville Kaminski, Bob Leeson, Carla Blakley and Lynn Robertson), while working for a caring, accepting and creative congregation (thank you to the many wonderful members of Christ Lutheran Church). 

One way I thought I would mark this milestone is to write out 25 reflections about ministry - how it has changed, how it remains the same, and what the future might hold. In the coming weeks I will be posting these reflections, one at a time. Here is the first one:

Reflection #1: Change is inevitable, change is needed, change is uncomfortable.

We live in a climate of constant change, primarily in the area of science and technology, but also in terms of culture. By its nature the church resists change, as it looks to hold on to the revealed word of God that is centuries old. However we have often made the mistake of assuming that our particular way of interpreting that ancient revealed gospel is what needs to be maintained. Most of the struggles in the church over the past 25 years (and certainly before that as well) have been based in how we interpret and respond to the message of the scriptures. This remains an on-going challenge and struggle to this day.
 

In reflecting on my own life I would say I began my adult life with a more traditional and somewhat literal interpretation framework. In the intervening years that approach has given way to something more content with mystery and symbolic interpretation. This I don't see as change so much as transformation, I prefer to think that God's Spirit is continually working in lives of people to move us closer to God's will for us. Since the Spirit of God is constantly at work transforming the lives of people, transformation is to be expected, or to put it another way - change is at the very heart of our Christian faith.
 

Sometimes I wish things would stay the same, or even revert back to the way they were at an earlier time. However I would also say at the same time that there are some things that I would not want to ever return to, some changes I am deeply grateful for having taken place. This is the tension that marks the life of the church, even since the earliest decades (when Paul insisted that Gentile Christians be accepted into the family of faith without requiring submission to the Judaic Law - a huge change if there ever was one.)
 

Perhaps it is the sense that change is happening so fast that causes the most discontent these days, but even that is relevant - my guess is that people thought the world was changing rapidly during the Reformation as well. Yes our technological tools seem to be replaced with new stuff every time we turn around - but people are not changing so quickly. Rapid change is somewhat illusionary in this regard.

Change will come, it is inevitable - without change we bog down in stagnation, we slowly die. Change is the very nature of life, and while it is not always comfortable it should not be feared or shunned. The Holy Spirit blows where it wills, the winds of change are ever present just as God is ever present. Our hope then is not in being in control "because we've dealt with this before", but that God's love is able to withstand any change that may come our way. Our confidence then is not in our ability to resist change, but in knowing that God's love will endure forever. Our future is not dependent on our holding on to the present (or past), but in embracing the unseen journey that God calls us to.

Should We Fix Easter?

The celebration of Easter can only happen one day later than it does this year. The latest Easter is celebrated is April 25th - which won't happen until the year 2038.

Why does the date for the celebration of Easter move around?

In the first three centuries Christians followed two traditions of celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus - either:

1) on, or just after, the first day of the Jewish Passover (no matter on which day of the week that Easter Day occurred), or

2) on a Sunday close to or on the first Passover Day.

Both of these methods existed continuously throughout this period..

Passover

Passover of course is based on the Jewish calendar, not Roman. It is celebrated on 14th day of the month of Nisan which is the first month in the Jewish calendar. This very ancient tradition for the timing and manner of celebrating Passover came from instructions found in the Book of Leviticus.

In the first decades of its existence the Christian church was mostly made up of Jewish people who accepted Jesus as their promised Messiah. However by the second century the church had spread throughout the Roman Empire and it was now mostly made up of non-Jewish people.

These Gentile Christians would check with their Jewish neighbours about when the Passover would take place that year and set their celebration of Easter accordingly.

Dissatisfaction

By the end of the 3rd century Christians began to express dissatisfaction with the custom of relying on the Jewish community to determine the date of Easter - the chief complaint being that the Jewish communities sometimes erred in setting Passover to take place before the spring equinox.

Because of this dissatisfaction with reliance on the Jewish calendar, some Christians began to experiment with independent computations. Others, however, felt that the customary practice of consulting Jews should continue, even if the Jewish computations were in error. Apparently throughout the geographically diverse Roman Empire it sometimes happened that Jews in one city might determine Passover differently from Jews in another city.

This controversy between those who advocated independent computations, and those who wished to continue the custom of relying on the Jewish calendar, was causing a sense of disunity in the Church when Constantine came to power in the early 4th Century.

Council of Nicaea

Constantine wanted a united Empire, and after defeating the leader of the Eastern half of the Empire in 324 AD one of the first things Constantine did was to call a council of Christian leaders - the first item on their agenda was to establish a uniform system for the dating of Easter. If Christianity was to help keep the Empire united it had to be uniform within itself, so differences over the dating of Easter had to be sorted out. This meeting is know as the Council of Nicaea and it took place in 325 in the year of our Lord. It of course ended up being about much more than the dating of Easter, and the Nicene Creed, which Christians around the world have used in worship for centuries, had its origins in this council at Nicaea.

The method for the dating of Easter that was agreed upon by that Council in Nicaea is essentially the same method that we still follow today.

The Method for Dating Easter

Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon after the northern hemisphere's spring (or vernal) equinox. According to the early church calculations the equinox is on March 21 - even though, astronomically speaking, the equinox actually occurs on March 20 in most years . The name equinox is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, the night and day have approximately equal length.)

Some of you may know that our Orthodox brothers and sisters sometimes celebrate Easter on a different date than the rest of the church - that is because they base their calculations on the earlier Julian Calendar - whereas the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches use what is known as the Gregorian Calendar which was established in the 16th Century by Pope Gregory the 13th (who used astronomers and mathematicians of his day to create a more accurate calendar calculation.)

Fix the Date

All this sounds so complicated, doesn't it? Wouldn't it be easier to simply fix a date, like was done with Christmas?

I read a news item about this very subject a few weeks ago. Earlier this month Cambridge professor Sir Colin Humphreys published a book called The Mystery of the Last Supper in which he claims the "The Last Supper was on Wednesday, April 1, AD 33, with the crucifixion on Friday, April 3, AD 33." Humphreys believes that his research not only definitively establishes the dates, which have eluded most scholars, but that it resolves an apparent conflict within the Gospel accounts of Jesus' last days.

Sir Humphreys says the discrepancies among the Gospels happened because they used an older calendar than the official Jewish one. Based on his conclusions Humphreys says the case can be made for giving Easter a permanent date as the first Sunday in April.

Well then - should we simply go with that?

I would like to suggest that there are three symbolical reasons to keep Easter as moving date.

God of Surprises

1) A moving Easter reminds us that God is a God of surprises - just as the date of Easter can surprise us from year to year. God has acted in surprising ways throughout history. The Bible is full of surprises: a very elderly couple give birth to a child, a shepherd boy from an insignificant tribe is chosen to be a great king, God comes to Elijah in a still, small voice rather than in grand displays of fire and earthquakes, and of course the greatest surprise of all - an empty tomb on Easter morning!

Hope for All Time

2) The hope of the resurrection is not just for one moment in time, it moves with us throughout all time. Just as death can descend upon us at any time, there also is ever-present hope that rises from the empty tomb. Jesus' resurrection gives hope to all people that death is not the final word!

This hope is for all time, not just a specific day of the year. A recognition of this hope throughout time is seen in the long-held consideration by the church of every Sunday being a mini-celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Once a week we are reminded that Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday. To fix the date of Easter could limit it to simply being a commemoration of a historical event rather than a celebration of an eternal hope.

Forces Beyond Our Control

3) A moving Easter reminds us that we are not ultimately in control, that there are forces beyond ourselves that impact and influence our lives. Of course this should be obvious to us at all times, but our current culture keeps selling us the lie that we are in control of our own lives, that we are masters of our own destiny - and this of course leads us to act like we don't really need God.

One of the reasons I think Easter has not become as commercialized as Christmas is simply because of the moveable date - it is not as easy develop a business plan around a moveable date, so thankfully it remains a celebration mostly tied to the church and not to commerce.

We like to plan out our lives, to schedule things, to be in control! A moveable Easter interrupts our schedules and reminds us that ultimately it is God who is in control and that relying on ourselves alone leads to eventual despair and hopelessness.

Hopefulness

Easter is about the opposite of hopelessness. Easter is about hopeFULness. The good news of the resurrection of Jesus fills us with hope, even in the midst of uncertainty.

• Just as the date of Easter moves from year to year, the hope of Jesus moves with us throughout the days, months and years of our lives - bringing light into the midst of our darkest hours.
• Just as the date for Easter is not a static thing, Jesus is a dynamic force, moving through the world by the power of the Spirit - bringing new life into the midst of believers everywhere.
• Just as the date for Easter is not easy to determine, Jesus is calling us to a mission that goes beyond our pre-determined paths - a mission that is often surprising, filled with challenges, yet in the end more rewarding than we could ever imagine.

So in the future, when you are trying to remember when Easter is being celebrated that year, may you remember that our risen Lord is always with you - regardless of the date... and may that thought renew within you hope, peace and joy for all time!