Rev. David L.S. Robertson

Passage: Luke 10:25-37    

  Description: Jesus always found a way to twist and turn a phrase in order to help his followers learn. This is what parables do best and why I think Jesus used them a lot. The parable of the good Samaritan is a great example of Jesus’ teaching tactics. Honestly, the lawyer answers well. He knows the law and he knows that the heart of the law is to, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and your neighbour as yourself.” The whole transaction would have sufficed right there if the lawyer hadn’t fallen into his need to be clever. But Jesus entertains the lawyer’s coy approach and digs in. He goes after the definition of neighbour and advances it. I’m not sure it was the answer that the lawyer expected. He would have expected: love the neighbours that you know, that bring casseroles when you’re sick, that look like you, that make the same amount of money, that are members of the firm. I think the parable about the Samaritan would have surprised the lawyer quite a bit, because the most respected ones in this parable are the least effective and least helpful. The one who showed mercy is the one least trusted and the furthest away from being liked. Strangers and neighbours, respected ones and disrespected ones are all mixed up in this story. I imagine the lawyer having to reconfigure his thinking as he walks away from this exchange with Jesus. It is a very human thing to distrust differences and fear what we don’t know or understand. In the early stages of our development as humans, these traits served human survival. Embedded in our human DNA like all creatures, is a cautionary gene that serves up distrust and fear in the presence of danger or the unknown. This gene is normal and is designed to move us to caution so that we stay safe. Makes sense. This gene helps us navigate the dangers of life whether that be cross walks, grizzly bears, dark alleys, and lightning storms. It helps us be cautionary and reduce the risk of danger. It’s a good thing. It helps us survive and evolve. The shadow side of this cautionary gene is that it spawns fear between humans. The worst expression of this fear leads to genocide and war. It still does. However, now we are globalized and never before have humans had so much capacity to move around the planet bringing with them culinary, dietary, cultural, social and spiritual practices. This also creates numerous fears around immigration and economics that give rise to racism and populist politics. It seems we can’t help ourselves. The cautionary gene is powerful.

Passage: Luke 6:27-38    

  Description: Well, I think it means that sometimes we believe our Christian life is separate from our work life, our retired life, our parenting life, even our worship life--that sometimes we think we can be a different person in each of those places. My church life is Sunday morning. My retired life is what I choose to do. My work life is who I am at work. My parenting life is who I am with my children. Do you see how we can compartmentalize parts of ourselves into mini-me’s depending on where we are and what we are doing? I think we do this a lot and don’t really know that we are doing it. However when we do this to ourselves, it severely limits our capacity to be fully who we are because we end up defining ourselves by the box we happen to be in in the moment and not by who our faith in God calls us to be

Passage: Mark 1:9-12    

  Description: In the tradition of the early Celtic church, when the child is baptized they are taken by the pastor and given to a member of the congregation. The child is introduced to the congregation and eventually, the child is given back to the parents. The meaning behind this tradition is extraordinarily meaning filled. You see, the Celtic Christians understand that every child born is a child of God and born into a community—a family of faith. Baptism celebrates the wonder and holy nature of birth by recognizing the mystery that we are born as sons and daughters of God into a community of faith. After the child has been given to a member of the congregation, formal words of welcome are said and that person places the child back into the arms of the parents. As the child is placed back into the arms of the parents, it’s like the community of faith is saying we trust you, we support you, and we love you as you take care of and raise our child in your home. The community of faith participates at a deeply spiritual place within the child’s family life. They hear the child’s name. They lay hands upon the child. They bless the child and together with the child’s parents they reaffirm their commitment to following the wisdom and way of Jesus. It’s not uncommon to notice that the lights seem brighter, or that there are more voices in the room than there are people as the ancient words of faith are spoken. It’s like the heavens open and the thin veil is pulled back that separates us from who we are and all the saints who have gone before us. We have the sense that we are together with the whole family of God. Baptism should give us pause. It should evoke within us profound comfort that comes from resting clearly in our identity as ones born of God. This is the way our tradition names who we are. This is the way that the tradition sets before us the statutes and ordinances that guide us with answers to the question of “how then, shall we live?” For me, this is both mysterious and cosmic.

Passage: Matthew 6:5-13    

  Description: Here’s a question. On a scale of one to ten where one is not likely, and 10 is very likely, how likely are you to pray about serious problem in your life? Ponder this for just a moment. Maybe you locate yourself on the scale of least to most likely rather quickly. Maybe the question is a surprise because prayer is not something you have ever done. Let me continue with a rather blunt statement. We all need to pray. We need to pray for ourselves, we need to pray for each other, we need to pray for our church, we need to pray for our world. If there’s one thing we need to do as a Christian community, it is pray. Not because it is merely the right or good thing to do, but more importantly because I believe our tradition invites it—not in a forceful way, but in a way that summons prayer to be a constant and dedicated part of our lives. The scriptures are chock a block full of references to prayer. Pray without ceasing, pray in the spirit at all times, fast and pray, pray for peace, keep aware and pray, stay awake and pray, … And there are countless more references. Not withstanding Jesus’ instructions on prayer in today’s reading from the gospel of Matthew. When Brian McLaren takes a closer look at Jesus’ instructions on prayer and the Lord’s Prayer in particular, he sees an invitation to wake up, tune up, ask and re-enter. These words have stayed with me. I felt especially drawn to the actions of waking and tuning and asking.

Passage: Micah 6:6-8    

  Description: “I told him”, said my friend, “that he needs to think less about himself and more about the people around him who love him”. “I told him”, said my friend, “that he needs to consider the impact of his decision on those closest to him—that his actions have to be less about him and more about others”. In that gentle, yet clear transaction, my friend prevented a suicide. He saved a life and kept a whole community of loving people away from unimaginable trauma and loss. I’m still thinking about that conversation—a conversation offered in a very quiet and unassuming way. And I thought, this is what faith looks like. As Lillian Daniel makes so very clear, “Faith is not all about us”. It’s much wider, deeper and higher than any one of us, or all of us together. Faith invites us to service within a purpose much greater than ourselves. Many of us may pray at meal time something like these well known words: “Bless O Lord this food to our use, and us in thy service and, keep us ever mindful of the needs of others. Amen”. This grace before meals has stayed with me through the years. It has engrained within me a sense of mindfulness that helps me remember to keep the needs of others close to me, lest I get seduced into thinking that life, the universe and everything is all about me.