God’s Shalom and Caring for Creation
presentation by Jerremie Clyde, Little Loaves Farm
Join Jerremie again at Story at the Rectory on Sept 17 and Oct 1
Sept 17, Oct 1 – Right Relations with Food, Faith, & Creation
Exploring the 5th Mark of Mission
with Jerremie Clyde
10am Sunday, Sept 13
7:30pm Thursdays, Sept 17 and Oct 1
We all eat, hopefully, several times a day. Many of us also pray for wisdom, discernment, and courage in growing God’s Kingdom. These are related actions, but what does eating, salvation, creation, and our own callings have to do with each other?
In the words of Wendell Berry “These are religious questions, obviously, for our bodies are part of the Creation,…. But the questions are also agricultural, for no matter how urban our live, our bodies live by farming…”
Together we will explore how growing God’s Kingdom on earth can be done every time we eat. We will look at what scripture has to say about our mission to the rest of creation, what it means to extend grace to creation and our role in making all things new. Participants will learn not only about our call to care for creation but also why it is that is news to so many. When we are done participants will be better able to explain how care of the environment fits within the Church and be better equipped to continue to grow in knowledge about restoring right relationships with creation.
Jerremie Clyde is a farmer and academic from Calgary Alberta. His research interests are linked to food, whether in history or media studies, and increasingly theology. When not at the University of Calgary he can be found looking after 164 acres of creation just North of Sundre. The farm is set in a knob and kettle mix of forests and pastures. Together with his family they raise grains, a dozen different varieties of potatoes, and good grass to feed their herd of yak. Jerremie also volunteers in the Diocese of Calgary organizing and facilitating creation care related talks, conferences, and events.
Jerremie joins us as our guest preacher on Sunday, Sept 13 and for a more in-depth presentation on Thursdays, Sept 17 and Oct 1.
Forgiveness and Justice
The Story for the
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sept 13, 2020
prepared by the Rev’d Rhonda Waters
Matthew 18:21-35
Then Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.
But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.
When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Something to Do
Forgive…
Is there anyone you are reluctant to forgive? Or someone you truly want to forgive but simply can’t? Spend some time in prayer for that person and for your relationship. You don’t have to ask God to make you friends – just ask God to bring you the grace of forgiveness and commend that person into God’s care.
And be forgiven
Is there anything you feel guilty about? Spend time in prayer asking God to forgive you so that you can be set free from that burden and turn your energy towards living in God’s ways.
Something to Wonder
How many times…
Peter’s desire for clarity is understandable. Our world is full of largely arbitrary numbers intended to provide reasonable guidelines to situations with no clear boundaries. For example, nothing magical happens on your 18th birthday to suddenly render you an adult but we need a clear boundary for when to start treating you like one.
Jesus’ answer, like so many of Jesus’ answers, is that the question is wrong footed. Forgiveness is not about counting or keeping score. Forgiveness is about an abundance of grace, spilling over from God so that we might share it with others. The numbers in the parable emphasize the fundamental uncountability of God’s forgiveness: 10,000 (The Greek word is actually myriad) talents represents an impossibly huge amount, akin to “a gazillion”…or to “seventy times seven”, and then contrasts that to the relatively insignificant amount of grace being asked of the slave. Surely, having been forgiven the world, the slave can extend some mercy to their fellow?
The story, fundamentally, is about how we respond to God’s forgiveness, not about how we trigger it.
How do you respond to God’s forgiveness?
The Dangers of Forgiveness
This passage, and others like it, have been used to control people living in abusive and oppressive situations and to enable the ongoing evil behaviour of those in power over them. How do we hold both truths together: we are called to a radical form of forgiveness AND we are called to lives of dignity as persons created in the image of God? What is the difference between forgiveness and permission? Between forgiveness and reconciliation? Is it possible to forgive without forgetting?
Something to Learn
Restorative Justice
Restorative justice is a set of practices that seeks to disrupt the simple pattern of finding guilt and assigning punishment. Ideally, it finds a way to balance forgiveness with justice in a way that allows people – both offenders and offended – to move forward.
Reconciliation through Restorative Justice
This short video describes a restorative justice practice in the context of a First Nations Healing Circle.
The Little Book of Restorative Justice
by Howard Zehr with Ali Gohar provides a very accessible introduction to the theories and philosophies that underly restorative justice.
Something to Pray
Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways.
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow.
The story this week has made me wonder about…
(what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.
The story this week has filled me with…
(how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.
The story this week has reminded me of…
(are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.
In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost – Season of Creation September 6, 2020
God’s faithfulness…even in the face of death
a sermon on Exodus 12:1-14
The Rev’d Rhonda Waters
Israel, Egypt, and Us
The Story for the
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sept 6, 2020
prepared by the Rev’d Rhonda Waters
Exodus 12:1-14
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.
Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
Something to Do
Liberating Creation
The story of God’s liberation of Israel reveals a truth about God that Jesus constantly tried to teach: God stands with the weak and oppressed and will set them free. What if this does not only apply to oppressed people but to all of creation, currently bound by unjust and unsustainable human practices?
Join Kairos’ 30 Days of Action for Climate Justice and join in God’s liberating work.
This is how you shall eat it
I’m not going to suggest you actually eat a meal standing up with your coat on and your bag packed as I don’t want to make light of what is happening in this story. People are preparing to escape a dangerous place, waiting for the sign that it is time to run. Their meal is hurried and anxious and they are scared.
This is not just a story for millions of people. If you have the good fortune to live in safety, how might you help those who do not? Money, political pressure, prayer, time – all are needed to protect refugees, people living with domestic violence, political prisoners, and others.
Something to Wonder
No plague shall strike you
This foundational story of God as the faithful deliverer of Israel includes God as the vengeful punisher of Egypt. How does that make you feel?
Does the one require the other? Why or why not?
Where are you in this story?
We tend the read the Bible by positioning ourselves with the Israelites in the Old Testament or with Jesus and the disciples in the Gospels. In what ways are you, like the Israelites, in need of liberation?
It is also wise to consider how we might be aligned with the other people in the stories. In what ways are you aligned with Egypt?
Something to Learn
This month shall mark for you the beginning of months
According to Jewish teaching, this is the first mitzvoh (religious obligation or commandment) given by God to Israel. Read more about Jewish understandings of the calendar and the practice of Kiddush Levana, the Sanctification of the New Moon.
Sanctifying Time by Tali Loewenthal
“The task of the Jewish people is to sanctify and transform existence, making it into a realm for the indwelling of the Divine”
A Matter of Time by Rabbi Naftali Reich
“Why this particular mitzvah? Would it not have been more appropriate perhaps to initiate the Jewish people with a mitzvah that represents transcendent spiritual concepts?”
Make Your Days Count by Rabbi Yisroel Ciner
“We count the days of the week to remember the Sabbath. The creation. We count the months to remember the exodus. The re-creation. “
Something to Pray
Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways.
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow.
The story this week has made me wonder about…
(what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.
The story this week has filled me with…
(how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.
The story this week has reminded me of…
(are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.
In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.