Author: Jana

Proper 22

Job 1:1, 2:1-10

Psalm 26

Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12

Mark 10:2-16

In the readings this week we seem to be pulled in many different directions. However, there is at least one thing that they all have in common and that is joy. As the dictionary defines it “a feeling of great pleasure and happiness”.

In the reading from the book of Job, Satan argues that Job is happy with God because Job is prospering and happy. So God tells Satan to go ahead and make Job miserable but not to take his life. Job then accepting his Satan given illness goes and sits in the ashes, which was a common practice in those times. His wife seems to argue how can you accept this, and urges Job to forsake God so that he can be well. Often times I think we are like Job’s wife ‘go fix this’, ‘move on’, instead of embracing our current reality without needing to fix it right away. This is finding joy at present.

The reading in Mark has the disciples asking about divorce, which was allowed by Moses. Jesus in his usual way does not give a clear yes or no answer, in part because relationships are rarely black and white. Instead Jesus addresses the reason for the divorce. Is it because a person wants to marry someone else? If so that is unfaithfulness. Otherwise Jesus says nothing more on the subject of divorce. As with most things Jesus does not go to the easy answer, but instead examines the motive of one’s heart. What is Job’s wife’s motive? The fear of outcast and their household being shamed. Job is afterall in no mortal danger. What is Job’s motive? To endure,  to continue to have faith in his creator. This is finding joy in perserverance, or enduring, or looking at the big picture, not a small piece.

The Hebrews reading today talks about human beings “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all, things under their feet.” Part of being the creator we have seen in the Job reading this morning is taking joy in one’s creation. Whether that is a work of art that we have made, or God delighting in us. As the stewards of “all things under our feet”, the earth, plants, animals we too are to find delight in creation, the people and world around us. This is the final joy of creation.

This week as we approach Thanksgiving I invite you to consider the joys of the present, the joys of preserving when there isn’t joy in the present moment, and the joy of creation. Amen.

Readings for Year B Proper 21

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22

Psalm 24

James 5:13-20

Mark 9:38-50

A common thread in this week’s lectionary readings is community. How do we live our lives in community, over individuality? How do we consider our doubts, our fears, our vulnerabilities when we are active in our communities? Queen Esther when asked for her request to the King speaks of her people who have been marginalized. Although some may argue that Queen Esther is no longer a part of the community, as a Queen she hardly seems to be suffering in marginalization. She has not forgotten that she was part of the community. Often today it is easy for us to “move on” and choose ourselves, our individuality, our family, over the greater community. How many times have we left a church, left a social group, or left someone out of our community? Jesus always chooses community over himself. An example, of this is in the gospel reading where we find the disciples concerned about a person who is doing miracles in Jesus’ name. “But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.” Unless one is against the community, why can  they not be a part of it? If one is choosing community in place of self, they are part of the community. The details do not matter.

It reminds us that not only is the community more important than the self, but the choice of helping, of performing “a deed of power” is more important than the perfectly correct details. It is so easy for us to be caught up in the details, the legalities, the traditional roles, but we need to reach past those to the very real people in our community.

Often we emphasize what we do for our community. We sit on boards, we attend meeting and events, we, we, we… Jesus is not so focused on what we are doing, or what the disciples are doing. In this passage he is focused on dialogue, how are the disciples relating to the man performing exorcisms. How  are we relating? Are we open to community? How do we act when we have doubts? Walking away isn’t participating in the community. Do we share our fears, our vulnerabilities? In the Letter of James that we heard today he is addressing our concerns of suffering, cheerfulness, and sickness. James is encouraging the community to reach out to God in prayer or praise, whatever we are feeling. For sickness he advocates reaching out to the elders, in our day our physicians, doctors, ministers… If we do not believe there is help for us, and we do not seek it we will not find it. Therefore it is important to believe that there is help out there, and to seek it so it can be found.

There is a meme that occasionally circles the internet (you may have seen it), it shows two kids watching a sports game. In the first block they are both standing on the ground: one can see, one can not. It reads fairness. In the second block the shorter person who can not see is now standing on a box so that he can see too. This is termed equality. Like in this meme we need to look beyond the abstract to the very real person who is unable participate. More recently there has actually been a third block added in which the fence is removed and a third person in a wheel chair can also watch the game. This is title “justice”. When we move beyond being correct or fair (like the disciples), and we move beyond being equal (our vulnerabilities of being different or perceived as weak in our community), and seek justice, maybe then, but only then, will we find justice.

Recommended Children’s Resources

“Counting on Community” by Innosanto Nagara

“God In Between” by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso

Recently here in Canada we celebrated Thanksgiving, our American brothers and sisters are looking forward to Thanksgiving, and in the Church we have just finished celebrating the Season of Creation, which in many ways is geared towards (take a guess!) thanksgiving.

For me personally I have been struggling with this season of joviality. I am quite a distance from my parents and siblings, and I am still settling into our relatively new town, our new family, and finding my place with my distant in-laws. I do not mean to be ungrateful, I have many blessings including a wonderful partner, children and even a couple of pets. I have a roof over my head, that doesn’t even leak, and there is always food on the table (even if it doesn’t get there until a late dinner hour). As a North American I have many possessions (some which are definitely frivolous), and in the case of my children often annoyingly underfoot. Yet, despite the warmth in my house (as the temperatures drop), food in the cupboard and all the other things around I do not much feel like celebrating.

There is tension within the liturigcal year of the Christian tradition that is often tugging at me. Often as the days get longer in the Season of Lent I am embracing the light and happy, even though it is a more sombre season. Here in the last days of Pentecost and in secular Thanksgiving times I am more aware of the earlier darkening evenings and darker early mornings. The feeling that underneath it all ‘winter is coming’. As I reflect today I am discovering how often for me personally, the seasons of the church year are a counter-balance to the world around us and within us. A way of tempering those ecstatic moments and uplifting those dreary days.

Today we heard the parable with the old woman and the unjust judge. A woman who was determined not to give up, and eventually is given what she demands. For me today, I wonder if it is possible to extend that to those of us who may not feel the way a particular season dictates. I wonder if it is an inspiration for us to keep working towards what would make the world, and my world, a place of joy and Thanksgiving. To be determined like the woman, to not accept these feelings of isolation and indifference, but in my own way be determined to find the things for which to give thanks. Although I may not have a dining room table surrounded with extended family, or laden with a turkey and side dishes; I do have a table and the potential to make friends as I settle in. Although I may not have a long list of things that are exciting in my life, I am alive and have the potential to do exciting things. While life may seem to have settled into a routine, there is a comfort in that, and the possibility to make those usual things sacred. Today, thanks to the woman in the parable I am reminded that I too must seek justice and thanksgiving, when it is not handed to me. To settle for the way things are after all would be to become the unjust judge.

The day of Saint Francis is a time to celebrate the life of one of the more renowned saints. Saint Francis is known as the patron saint of animals (pets) and the environment or natural world. He was canonized in 1228. While Saint Francis has become quite popular in modern times, he did not live a long life, dying at the age of forty-four.

As the patron Saint of animals, Saint Francis’ feast day is often celebrated with animals. In modern times the blessing of pets has become an important part of some church’s celebrations. The blessing of the pets often sees congregants bring their cats, dogs, and other animals to church to be blessed. Our pets, and animals are such an important part of our lives, whether for companionship or safety (I think of working dogs), or for nourishment (Thanksgiving turkey). We often bless food in our house before consumption, however the broader church rarely has the opportunity to make this acknowledgement. As a result, Saint Francis Day brings something to our worship that is of great importance, but is often neglected.

Today there is lots of talk about creation in the church, creation theology, natural theology , the environment. However, despite all the rhetoric there is little worship outside, few church groups that are involved in gathering outside. Often interaction with the natural in the church sense is limited to lawn or garden maintenance around the church. As stewards I feel that there are much larger ways that the church can become involved: nature hikes, gardening, or using the church lawn to create a community garden, raising environmental awareness, pushing for more recycling/composting, etc. There are so many ways that we can become better stewards of our natural world.

Finally, there are ways of incorporating nature into church worship. There are often flowers, or palm fronds on Palm Sunday, but what about other ways we can bring nature in? What about using trees in worship, or water, rocks? There are so many worthy natural symbols that could be brought in. What about during children’s times? Sometimes it is easy for the church to become disconnected with the secular world outside it’s walls, but sometime it is easy to become insulated from the natural world in which we live. As a church, I think it is time that we made more of an effort to integrate all of God’s creatures.

This past weekend I had the rare opportunity to revisit a church that I had been quite involved in, but had been unable to visit for several years. As I sat in the pew I felt welcomed by those who recognized me and smiled as I came in. As I talked to other congregants I felt so affirmed in my current place in life in my current roles as a mother and a wife, in the quest for employment in my field. You would have thought that I had been a member of the church for years instead of a few months one summer.

The church community has always been hospitable, welcoming in friends and strangers alike. It was as I left how much the church was an affirmation of my person hood (whatever and wherever that is). It reminds me that it is possible to have a tremendous impact on a person and the ability to continue to be a part of a person’s life even in such a short period of time. It causes me to question whether I contribute in the same way to the world around me? To the people that I see: do I affirm life around me, and to strive to do better? To build a better life, a better community, a better world? It is so easy to be insular, particularly today in our world of social media where we can hold everyone at a distance and interact with people on our own terms. For me, I need to take a step back and really think about what I alone have to offer, and how I alone and together with others can make things better, and affirm the lives around me. Regardless of how long they may be there, it is after all no less than what God has called us to do: “Love Thy Neighbour”.