There was no room for Jesus at the inn. We all know how the story unfolds from years of reading the Christmas story and singing carols. And we know all about the donkey and shepherds.
This year I’ve been thinking a lot about there being no room at the inn. Our tradition here at St. Andrew's is to have Suzanne preach at the one service on Christmas Day after the rector has taken the 3 services on Christmas eve. So, through my reflection as I listened to the sermon on Christmas Day last year, it occurred to me that the whole philosophy of "no room in the inn," from our economy of scarcity, sometimes fail to capture the real message of that aspect of the nativity narrative.
I think there was room in the right place for Jesus to enter our world. The inn room: whether we speak in terms of 5 star hotel rooms with king-size beds, or guest rooms in the home of family relatives, was not the right place for Him to be born. Only a manger was, and that with a reason.
The lesson and the question we may need to ponder from time to time, not only during this season may well be this: what is the suitable place for me/us at any point in my/our journey? Yes, there are times we deserve relaxation in cosy rooms and large beds. At times though, we need to find and be in our mangers - with the poor and the needy, the homeless, the oppressed and the voiceless, the prisoner and those marginalized...
In my ministry I spend a lot of time in other people’s homes and it always feels good to be made welcome. Giving and receiving hospitality is one of the ways that we show we value each other.
Each Christmas we celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus and, in a sense, we make space in our hearts for the coming of the Christ child.
This Christmas is an opportunity again for all of us to begin life afresh and to look to a future filled with hope and renewal. May part of it be for us to find our mangers. To find ways in which through us and in us, "every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken" (Isaiah 40:4-5).
Make a place in your life for Jesus this Christmas and let God lead you to his hope filled future.
May your Christmas be Merry!
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Of New Beginnings!
Jennifer and I just returned from a visit to Nigeria were we attended the burial ceremony of my father Cyril. It was indeed a glorious celebration of life. At 90, my father lived a full life (if there is anything like that). And so his funeral was occasion for a joyful Anglican Church service, attended by a congregation of more than 700, followed by a post burial fanfare of cultural dances.
Gone is this great man who gave me life. Watching his shinny-golden casket brought a flash of memories and images of the wonderful father he was to me. Gosh! Could I but be a fraction of what he was to me to my sons! Like I could hear him celebrating in the words of Paul to his 'son' Timothy-"...the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fit. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me a crown of righteousness..." (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
That is my message here. The sweet paradox of death in the Christian faith is that it opens the doors of new beginnings. For my father, your loved ones and all the faithful s who die in The Lord, the door of endless life in eternity with Christ is opened. Survivors on their part are faced with new realities- gaps to be filled, new responsibilities, readjustments in family dynamics, and so on.
We realize that we deny ourselves the benefits of the opportunities presented by these new beginnings when we hang unto and fail to let go of what is passing. The season of advent not only marks the beginning of the church year, it's message of Hope, Joy, Love and Peace remind us of the promise of a new Messianic order.
As a generation, we live in an era of massive institutional and corporate failings and disappointment. Though painful, our challenges are fresh opportunities of grace. They underscore the beauty of our faith. Christ incorporated us heirs of His kingdom through His atoning death and glorious resurrection. Through His death, we have hope of new and everlasting life with Him-hope of a new beginning. Lo,He Comes
Gone is this great man who gave me life. Watching his shinny-golden casket brought a flash of memories and images of the wonderful father he was to me. Gosh! Could I but be a fraction of what he was to me to my sons! Like I could hear him celebrating in the words of Paul to his 'son' Timothy-"...the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fit. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me a crown of righteousness..." (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
That is my message here. The sweet paradox of death in the Christian faith is that it opens the doors of new beginnings. For my father, your loved ones and all the faithful s who die in The Lord, the door of endless life in eternity with Christ is opened. Survivors on their part are faced with new realities- gaps to be filled, new responsibilities, readjustments in family dynamics, and so on.
We realize that we deny ourselves the benefits of the opportunities presented by these new beginnings when we hang unto and fail to let go of what is passing. The season of advent not only marks the beginning of the church year, it's message of Hope, Joy, Love and Peace remind us of the promise of a new Messianic order.
As a generation, we live in an era of massive institutional and corporate failings and disappointment. Though painful, our challenges are fresh opportunities of grace. They underscore the beauty of our faith. Christ incorporated us heirs of His kingdom through His atoning death and glorious resurrection. Through His death, we have hope of new and everlasting life with Him-hope of a new beginning. Lo,He Comes
Friday, May 4, 2012
Molly’s Arthritis
Last Sunday at the church, we were all moved by the beautiful sermon Suzanne preached. I'm sure I was. So, without diminishing the overall effect of the words broken from the pulpit, I’d love here to speak about a part of it which brought the whole sermon together for me. I was touched by the simple but deeply rich parable she shared about Molly(?). Remember Molly’s Arthritis? Amazing how some of these simple stories of live drive home the whole message. Here’s the story:
Molly (a little old lady) was making her usual visit to her local post office one afternoon. Unfortunately, there was a long queue of customers waiting to do business that day. Wanting to be helpful, someone pointed Molly’s attention to the stamp machine, since her reason for waiting in that long line was presumably just in order to get some stamps. “Thank you, but no,” said Molly, and as if she wanted to pass a polite joke Molly added what is actually a profound reality: “the machine will not ask me about my arthritis.”
What a powerful story this is! Got me thinking about my first ‘encounter’ with arthritis. Growing up, I remember my mother’s swollen knees and ankles, the pain in her face as she laboured to walk in slowed steps and often with a limp. Though my young mind couldn’t quite grasp it all, I felt her pain. Somehow, I also foolishly felt a different kind of pain-disappointment if you like from living through the arthritis experience with my mother.
My grouse came from times when my mother would ask that I massaged her swollen knees and ankles with a local ointment meant to sooth pains. Of course, my young limbs were never idle. For me, such requests always meant a disrupted soccer game, or times away from my favorite television shows and so on.
How like a child I was! Is it not true that mama could have applied the ointment herself if she so wanted? Could there have been more reasons as to why she asked her many children-ten of us in all- to take turns at different times massaging her arthritic knees and ankles? Indeed it may have been more about the joy of human touch and relationship. “Sigh.” What a beautiful community we’ll make together when/where we recognize that the most effective of stamp machines will never ask Molly about her arthritis?
Whose “ARTHRITIS"” might you need to ask about or give a loving touch today?
Molly (a little old lady) was making her usual visit to her local post office one afternoon. Unfortunately, there was a long queue of customers waiting to do business that day. Wanting to be helpful, someone pointed Molly’s attention to the stamp machine, since her reason for waiting in that long line was presumably just in order to get some stamps. “Thank you, but no,” said Molly, and as if she wanted to pass a polite joke Molly added what is actually a profound reality: “the machine will not ask me about my arthritis.”
What a powerful story this is! Got me thinking about my first ‘encounter’ with arthritis. Growing up, I remember my mother’s swollen knees and ankles, the pain in her face as she laboured to walk in slowed steps and often with a limp. Though my young mind couldn’t quite grasp it all, I felt her pain. Somehow, I also foolishly felt a different kind of pain-disappointment if you like from living through the arthritis experience with my mother.
My grouse came from times when my mother would ask that I massaged her swollen knees and ankles with a local ointment meant to sooth pains. Of course, my young limbs were never idle. For me, such requests always meant a disrupted soccer game, or times away from my favorite television shows and so on.
How like a child I was! Is it not true that mama could have applied the ointment herself if she so wanted? Could there have been more reasons as to why she asked her many children-ten of us in all- to take turns at different times massaging her arthritic knees and ankles? Indeed it may have been more about the joy of human touch and relationship. “Sigh.” What a beautiful community we’ll make together when/where we recognize that the most effective of stamp machines will never ask Molly about her arthritis?
Whose “ARTHRITIS"” might you need to ask about or give a loving touch today?
Monday, November 22, 2010
Lo! He Comes
I had a conversation with Tim Cribdon yesterday which tickled my fancy. Tim talked about his time with the youth group (coffee with Christ) during the day and the interesting topic they wrestled through. Of course it was about our preparations for Advent. Thinking of the millions of people in the West that trooped to the theaters during the week to watch the new Harry Porter movie, Tim had the kids wondering what it would look like if Christians created such hype and interest around the coming of Christ.
Sometimes the clouds seem to gather to precipitate same thoughts in us. Therefore Fr. Lorry in a pep talk to the music ministry of our parish later in the day had all of us thinking along those same lines. How is it (he wondered) that Canadians in Montreal this day will fill a ninety thousand capacity stadium in a -19’ temperature, while heated 150-200 capacity Anglican churches will consider themselves lucky to be half full at any of their services?
Being an ardent football (soccer) fan, this is an issue I’ve found myself struggling with for a long time. Watching English Premiership (thanks to television) is my major weekend leisure. If a game is not on television, I follow it up on the internet. Part of the hobby for me is to follow the number of people that fill stadia across England Saturdays and Sundays to watch football games, come rain or shine, come heat or cold. At the same time, churches are getting emptier and emptier and closing down. What is turning people away from the church? Why don’t they come on Sunday morning?
A good way of looking at this problem is for us to play our own kind of game-the blame game. This seems to be the preferred way. “They have lost interest in things of God” or any of the many reasons we adduce. Wake up children of God! Recriminations won’t lead us any further than where we are. It is time to “examine ourselves to see if we are holding to our faith.” (2 Cor. 13: 5). It is time we look at our branding. It is time to look into ways of generating Harry Porter Movie-like interest around the church and create football (real or American) fans level interest around what we do in church on Sunday morning.
Each year the Church invites us to remind ourselves of God’s plan of salvation for us sinners. Each day throughout Advent we are presented with yet another prophet providing further insights into the Messiah who will be sent by God to take away our sins and to restore our friendship with God.
Advent is rightfully called a “new beginning” since God’s plan of salvation is lived out yet anew year after year. Our challenge is to find suitable and appealing ways of offering this now beginning. “Lo He comes with clouds descending.” How can we make it a real new beginning? How can we generate the interest and create the hype?
Sometimes the clouds seem to gather to precipitate same thoughts in us. Therefore Fr. Lorry in a pep talk to the music ministry of our parish later in the day had all of us thinking along those same lines. How is it (he wondered) that Canadians in Montreal this day will fill a ninety thousand capacity stadium in a -19’ temperature, while heated 150-200 capacity Anglican churches will consider themselves lucky to be half full at any of their services?
Being an ardent football (soccer) fan, this is an issue I’ve found myself struggling with for a long time. Watching English Premiership (thanks to television) is my major weekend leisure. If a game is not on television, I follow it up on the internet. Part of the hobby for me is to follow the number of people that fill stadia across England Saturdays and Sundays to watch football games, come rain or shine, come heat or cold. At the same time, churches are getting emptier and emptier and closing down. What is turning people away from the church? Why don’t they come on Sunday morning?
A good way of looking at this problem is for us to play our own kind of game-the blame game. This seems to be the preferred way. “They have lost interest in things of God” or any of the many reasons we adduce. Wake up children of God! Recriminations won’t lead us any further than where we are. It is time to “examine ourselves to see if we are holding to our faith.” (2 Cor. 13: 5). It is time we look at our branding. It is time to look into ways of generating Harry Porter Movie-like interest around the church and create football (real or American) fans level interest around what we do in church on Sunday morning.
Each year the Church invites us to remind ourselves of God’s plan of salvation for us sinners. Each day throughout Advent we are presented with yet another prophet providing further insights into the Messiah who will be sent by God to take away our sins and to restore our friendship with God.
Advent is rightfully called a “new beginning” since God’s plan of salvation is lived out yet anew year after year. Our challenge is to find suitable and appealing ways of offering this now beginning. “Lo He comes with clouds descending.” How can we make it a real new beginning? How can we generate the interest and create the hype?
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Of Peace of Mind and Forgiveness
Bishop James rightly alluded to the various beautiful themes emanating from last Sunday’s readings. From the gospel reading alone, there are many: “Sunday Worship,” “Upper Rooms of Fear,” “Peace,” “The Joy of His Presence,” “Doubting Thomas,” (of course we find something of Thomas in all of us), and so on.
In verses 22 and 23 we meet with the powerful theme of forgiveness. Oh yes! “Receive the Holy Spirit” Jesus said to all of us when he breathed on the disciples. Then He added; “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”
Hold your thoughts there! Let me share this story with you.
Once upon a time, a man, attempting a bank robbery, shot and killed a young woman who was a teller. He was a worthless man, a drug addict, an abuser of women, a cruel, vicious, evil gangster. The young woman's family was Catholic. They hated the man. They could hardly wait for the trial. They sat in the courtroom, their eyes filled with hate throughout the trial. When the jury found him guilty they cheer. When the judge sentenced him to death, they yelled with exaltation and exchanged high fives. They waited impatiently for the day of his execution. They told the media that they would experience "closure" to the tragedy only when they watched the lethal chemicals flow into his body and his face twist in death agony.
They waited years for all the appeals to be exhausted. In prison the man went through a conversion experience and begged for forgiveness. The family refused to grant it. It's a fake they said. He just wants to save his rotten life. He asked for forgiveness from the execution chamber. They spit in his direction. They cheer again when he died. As they were leaving the prison, the dead woman's sister said to her brother, I don't feel closure, do you? No, he said, I don't either.
Why couldn’t they find closure? You and I and the church are in perspective here. It seems to me that on this lies the abundance of PEACE in our lives and relationship or a lack thereof. I came across a saying that “to forgive is not a right to be jealously guarded, but an obligation to be exercised generously.” Why? Is it not simply because we do not earn our own forgiveness by forgiving others? Rather we manifest the generosity and implacability of God's forgiveness of us.
It is only true to conclude that it is impossible to find closure when we fail to forgive. This is true of any relationship. Don’t you think so?
In verses 22 and 23 we meet with the powerful theme of forgiveness. Oh yes! “Receive the Holy Spirit” Jesus said to all of us when he breathed on the disciples. Then He added; “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”
Hold your thoughts there! Let me share this story with you.
Once upon a time, a man, attempting a bank robbery, shot and killed a young woman who was a teller. He was a worthless man, a drug addict, an abuser of women, a cruel, vicious, evil gangster. The young woman's family was Catholic. They hated the man. They could hardly wait for the trial. They sat in the courtroom, their eyes filled with hate throughout the trial. When the jury found him guilty they cheer. When the judge sentenced him to death, they yelled with exaltation and exchanged high fives. They waited impatiently for the day of his execution. They told the media that they would experience "closure" to the tragedy only when they watched the lethal chemicals flow into his body and his face twist in death agony.
They waited years for all the appeals to be exhausted. In prison the man went through a conversion experience and begged for forgiveness. The family refused to grant it. It's a fake they said. He just wants to save his rotten life. He asked for forgiveness from the execution chamber. They spit in his direction. They cheer again when he died. As they were leaving the prison, the dead woman's sister said to her brother, I don't feel closure, do you? No, he said, I don't either.
Why couldn’t they find closure? You and I and the church are in perspective here. It seems to me that on this lies the abundance of PEACE in our lives and relationship or a lack thereof. I came across a saying that “to forgive is not a right to be jealously guarded, but an obligation to be exercised generously.” Why? Is it not simply because we do not earn our own forgiveness by forgiving others? Rather we manifest the generosity and implacability of God's forgiveness of us.
It is only true to conclude that it is impossible to find closure when we fail to forgive. This is true of any relationship. Don’t you think so?
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Lenten Season
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.
-- T. S. Eliot
How can I sit still?
Endure the relentless, internal chatter?
The chatter that says,
"Do more!"
"Achieve more!"
How can I embrace the Mystery...
Or be embraced by the Mystery
When I'm so busy
Running from place to place...
and from myself (and God!)?
Appropriate caring;
Appropriate activity;
Appropriate not caring;
Appropriate stillness;
Balance!
The elusive, dynamic fullness
that comes from emptiness.
Not striving to be so
Full of stuff, so
Full of self.
Another Lent -- a few days to
Repent.
Reflect.
Reorient.
Return.
While I've been busy.
God's been waiting to teach me
To care.
To not care.
To sit still.
Forty days.
So long.
So short.
I hope I'm ready
To (re)learn my lessons.
Teach us to sit still.
-- T. S. Eliot
How can I sit still?
Endure the relentless, internal chatter?
The chatter that says,
"Do more!"
"Achieve more!"
How can I embrace the Mystery...
Or be embraced by the Mystery
When I'm so busy
Running from place to place...
and from myself (and God!)?
Appropriate caring;
Appropriate activity;
Appropriate not caring;
Appropriate stillness;
Balance!
The elusive, dynamic fullness
that comes from emptiness.
Not striving to be so
Full of stuff, so
Full of self.
Another Lent -- a few days to
Repent.
Reflect.
Reorient.
Return.
While I've been busy.
God's been waiting to teach me
To care.
To not care.
To sit still.
Forty days.
So long.
So short.
I hope I'm ready
To (re)learn my lessons.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Saved to Serve
It’s been a while since I last left any impressions here. (Please don’t count). If you stopped by all that while, thanks for the magnanimity of not confronting me with “why”...Why have you tired out so soon? Why are you not living up to your own promise? Why…?
You know what? I was wondering whether anybody really cared. I was wondering why I got no reactions for four weeks in a row. But I got my wake-up call from the program I use to send out our weekly e-news. They made it possible for me to track and see that folks have indeed been visiting. Thanks for stopping bye.
Problem is, I only send out the e-news to faithful Anglicans, and Anglicans are good, good consumers. As a friend of mine said recently, we Anglicans come to church early to “secure the back seats” so we can relax and watch.
I know it is difficult, but may I encourage you not to do that here. May I encourage you not just to look around but to find ways to engage and be an active participant in our community? Henceforth, I’ll be making the discussions here are user friendly as possible-no theologising or philosophising. We’ll be talking about ourselves in the most honest and simple expressions possible to bring the weekly gospel readings alive among us. Yes! These are stories of events that took place more than two thousand years ago. How do they relate to us in our present realities?
Maybe in telling our stories and recounting our understanding and experiences of the gospel, we could at the same time be relating to what is happening in the life of some other reader somewhere. We could at the same time be quenching the thirst in someone in ways we cannot even think of or know. That is one big plus of this virtual age.
We all experience Christ in different ways daily. If you have had occasion to say “thank you Jesus,” or “thanks be to God,” for any reason in your life, that is a Jesus moment that you need to share for the benefit of others. So is it for what in human language we see as the opposite. Those times when you feel that it only rains on you. When we ask: “Why me, God?” “Why have you allowed this to happen to me?” …and so on. You need to let us know when the gospel message relates to your feelings of sadness or joy.
Do you realize how much people feel and live in isolation, and fear and loneliness in this age? It may well be that your testimony or just some honest random rambling may well speak to their situation and bring them to the knowledge that their experiences are nearly not as isolated as they believed they were.
It is selfless to speak up and discuss where you are in your Christian journey. Talk about how the gospel touches you, what you think, what hurts and what helps as a source of comfort. Don’t ever allow yourself to fall into the pit of what may well be the worst apostasy of this generation that “faith is private.” It is not. Christian Faith gives utterance.
That is LEADERSHIP. In doing that, you are serving others to a large extent in our community. This is one way of making sense of our gospel reading for today: “Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Mark 9: 33-35
Or is it not?
You know what? I was wondering whether anybody really cared. I was wondering why I got no reactions for four weeks in a row. But I got my wake-up call from the program I use to send out our weekly e-news. They made it possible for me to track and see that folks have indeed been visiting. Thanks for stopping bye.
Problem is, I only send out the e-news to faithful Anglicans, and Anglicans are good, good consumers. As a friend of mine said recently, we Anglicans come to church early to “secure the back seats” so we can relax and watch.
I know it is difficult, but may I encourage you not to do that here. May I encourage you not just to look around but to find ways to engage and be an active participant in our community? Henceforth, I’ll be making the discussions here are user friendly as possible-no theologising or philosophising. We’ll be talking about ourselves in the most honest and simple expressions possible to bring the weekly gospel readings alive among us. Yes! These are stories of events that took place more than two thousand years ago. How do they relate to us in our present realities?
Maybe in telling our stories and recounting our understanding and experiences of the gospel, we could at the same time be relating to what is happening in the life of some other reader somewhere. We could at the same time be quenching the thirst in someone in ways we cannot even think of or know. That is one big plus of this virtual age.
We all experience Christ in different ways daily. If you have had occasion to say “thank you Jesus,” or “thanks be to God,” for any reason in your life, that is a Jesus moment that you need to share for the benefit of others. So is it for what in human language we see as the opposite. Those times when you feel that it only rains on you. When we ask: “Why me, God?” “Why have you allowed this to happen to me?” …and so on. You need to let us know when the gospel message relates to your feelings of sadness or joy.
Do you realize how much people feel and live in isolation, and fear and loneliness in this age? It may well be that your testimony or just some honest random rambling may well speak to their situation and bring them to the knowledge that their experiences are nearly not as isolated as they believed they were.
It is selfless to speak up and discuss where you are in your Christian journey. Talk about how the gospel touches you, what you think, what hurts and what helps as a source of comfort. Don’t ever allow yourself to fall into the pit of what may well be the worst apostasy of this generation that “faith is private.” It is not. Christian Faith gives utterance.
That is LEADERSHIP. In doing that, you are serving others to a large extent in our community. This is one way of making sense of our gospel reading for today: “Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Mark 9: 33-35
Or is it not?
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