Journey to the Heart of God - All about Relationships!

Passage: Luke 5:1-11 & Philippians 2:1-5    

  Description: In the Christian Church Calendar, this is really like New Year’s Eve. It’s the last Sunday in the Church year, which means next Sunday is Advent and we begin the new year anticipating the Birth of Jesus. But that would mean getting ahead of ourselves. For today, let’s stay with the Christian Church’s equivalent of New Year’s Eve, called the Reign of Christ Sunday. I usually find New Year’s Eve a little bewildering. It seems to be a lot of out with the old and in with the new. Or, a listing of all the things we’re going to do differently with our best intentions attached. Or maybe some reflection and introspection on the year that has passed. And of course, there’s noise makers, confetti, food, libations, and most importantly the traditions of bringing in the new year with our loved ones and friends. It’s that last part about being with loved ones and friends that I think really connects with Paul’s reflections from today’s reading according to his letter to the Philippians. He had in mind, the Philippian church as a gathering of loved ones and friends—journeying together to the heart of God. Paul deeply loved his Christian communities. His letters were always encouraging and loving (except the Galatians who were nothing but a source of frustration for him—they were Celts, what can you do). But that being the distraction that it is, and hopefully a spark of humour, Paul always found ways to encourage, support, and love even in the face of other distractions, challenges or disruptions. Always. And yes, even the Galatians. Paul writes, “If then there is any encouragement in Christ, and consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, and compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind…. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interest of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” (Phil.2: 1-2, 4-5) It’s a great New Year’s Eve letter. It offers a reset as we move into the New Year and the coming weeks of Advent. What a beautiful intention that we set ourselves about the practices of encouragement, love, compassion, sympathy and joy—that we not hunker down into our own self-interests but look upon the interests of others—that we be of one mind, and have the mind of Christ in us—which really is about journeying together to the heart of God. We are on the cusp of the New Christian Year and Paul reminds us about the kind of headspace and heart-space we need to be in as we contemplate the reign of Christ. This takes practice… of course. But I am convinced that it is more relevant and necessary than ever.

Passage: 2 Timothy 1:1-14    

  Description: Linnea Good, musician and storyteller, shares a story about the healing of Bartimaeus and also talks about how God is in the story. A wonderful listen.

Passage: John 3:1-17 & 1 John 4:7-19    

  Description: God is Love… these words glowed in the dark from a little wooden plaque that hung on the wall next to my bed when I was about 9 years old. My church gave me this plaque as a gift from our Sunday School. Next to the words were two little blue birds framed by a heart. So simple. Since then, and all these years later, I’ve pondered that little plaque, it’s words and especially how they glowed after I turned out the light. God is Love, even through the night. Following our walk around the 6 roots of attachment as outlined by Dr. Gordon Neufeld, the fifth root of attachment is love. At or around 4 years old, our hearts become awakened to love. Four-year-old’s give their heart away to their caring adults. It’s why four-year-old’s want to marry their mom or dad. They want to marry their sister or brother. They want to marry their teacher. Four-year-old’s draw hearts and colour them and give them away. Four-year-old’s love valentines’ day! At the tender age of around 4 we learn about love for the first time and what it means to give our love to someone else. We take this first experience of love into the rest of our lives. A four-year-old’s love is innocent. It is unconditional. It is child-like of course. On the one hand it emerges on its own as part of our human development. On the other hand, it is evoked because the child is in the care of loving adults. It is a deep root and when the conditions are right, there is room for the child to learn about, feel, and express love. Hearts everywhere! That’s why my bedroom plaque was so comforting. God is love, glowing in the dark reminded me that I could exist in the presence of God and experience unconditional love. I knew that God loved me first. And in return, I gave my heart to God. As we reflect on the words about God’s love in 1 John today, we hear the mystery that, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” (1 Jn 4:16b) These words are written specifically for the Christian Community. John’s understanding of love is grounded in the mystery of God’s love at work in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Passage: Luke 17:11-19 & 1 Thessalonians 5:16-23    

  Description: Rev. Susan & Rev. David have a conversation about gratitude. As followers of Jesus, we are called to practice gratitude - which goes far beyond feeling thankful. It is a choice of a way of life that involves looking for what we have to be grateful for in all circumstances. In a society where there is so much hate-filled speech, so many death threats and sexual assault threats leveled at those in any sort of leadership position, it is more important than ever that we practice gratitude to counter this.

Passage: Genesis 1:27 & 1 Corinthians 12:1-12    

  Description: I was too young to remember, but there’s a story told about me when I was 2-3 years old. One can be pretty convincing at that age and apparently, my mom had to sew patches on the knees of my perfectly good pants so that I could look like my dad. Sameness. It’s the instinctual desire to be like and a primary point of connection that helps us form relationships. If you ever watch two people meet for the first time, you will hear their conversation search for something in common. “Oh, I saw Downton Abbey, too!” “Oh yes, Maggie Smith is my favourite actor, too”. “I can’t believe we both grew up in Inglewood! My goodness isn’t that amazing”. Now… As a pre-schooler I could look like my dad and go to work just like him. Sameness. I watch sameness work its magic after church, as we seek to establish relationship with one another. We talk about hobbies we have in common. We find common connections around where we’re from… “Hey, I grew up in Saskatchewan, too. What’s the name of your hometown?” I hear conversations around favourite kinds of tea, favourite gardening tips, and least favourite books of the Bible. We find sameness with people in our generation—any Carpenters fans here? Theologically, we find sameness as people of God. We are created in the image and likeness of God. Even though we have different abilities and skills, we find sameness in the body of Christ. There is oneness in our sameness. As ones created in the image of God and linked together as members of the body of Christ, we find comfort. We find a welcome. We feel connection. We honour the human need to be together. Sameness is the primary glue that bonds relationships generally, and for Christians in particular it helps form community. We celebrate sameness through our love of eating together, praying together, studying together, and holding a set of values together such as practicing compassion and unconditional love, growing community and extending the table of hospitality, as well as seeking a just, sensitive and inclusive community that chooses to embrace diversity despite differences. Theologically, these are principles and practices that we hold in common that help us settle into relationships where these values are generally the same. We gather around each other knowing that our expression of sameness is grounded in our image and likeness of God and our life together as members of the Body of Christ. Sameness. Sameness helps us begin relationships. And that’s a key understanding where the operative words are: “helps us begin”. Sameness is a rather shallow expression of relationship. Its roots are not very deep. And while it works to help us enter into relationship, by itself it doesn’t lead us very far. There’s an inherent murkiness to sameness if we remain stuck there. It is a point of connection, an entry point that provides opportunity for relationship but, it’s shallow and has a shadow side.