Church of the Ascension

The Story at Home

From Fear to Peace

The Story
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
National Indigenous Day of Prayer
June 20, 2021

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” 

Something to Do

An Evening Outing

Go for an evening boat ride or, if not a boat ride, an evening walk “to the other side”. The other side might be the other side of the neighbourhood or the river/canal or the city. Notice the changes around you as you go. Are you still in familiar territory or have you found something new? When you reach the other side, look back and consider where you came from. Do things look different from here?

Be Still

Jesus calmed the storm raging around the disciples, revealing that the power of God dwells within him. But that’s not the only storm Jesus calms – he also calms the storms that rage inside us. In the midst of the chaos that swirls around us, and sometimes within us, Jesus speaks: “Peace. Be still.” Spend time in stillness this week and let the peace of Jesus quiet the storm.

Something to Wonder

Afraid of the Storm

It is just good sense to be afraid when you are in the middle of a big lake during a big storm – but perhaps the storm itself needn’t be feared. In what ways might a fear of nature be at the root of some of humanity’s problems? How could we reframe our response to nature’s power? How might that shift our relationship to God?

Teacher, do you not care?

Have you ever said this to Jesus? Perhaps you need to say it today. It can be a scary thing to say but it can also be a freeing thing, naming your need and your worry and your anger. It is a way of focusing yourself on the presence of Jesus and orienting yourself towards his teaching rather than the storm so that you can handle whatever is raging around you.

Something to Learn

Chaos and Liminality

The disciples and Jesus are in the middle of the lake – not yet where they are going and no longer where they were. In this in-between time, chaos erupts in the form of the storm. Jesus calms the storm but they remain in the midst of crossing.

Reading this story as metaphor leads us to think about liminality – that state of being at a threshold, neither here nor there – and the chaos that experience can generate. Victor Turner, an anthropologist researching and writing in the 1960’s, developed the idea of liminality as a way of understanding the work of ritual in human culture and it has since become a key concept in many social science and humanities fields, including theology.

For the ambitious or eager: read one of Turner’s essays on the subject here: “Liminality and Communitas“.

The Pandemic and the Process of Becoming by anthropologist Sarah Osterhoudt is a first-person reflection on liminality in the context of the pandemic.

Leading in an In-Between Season is an interview with Susan Beaumont on liminality in the context of congregational and faith life. Beaumont is a practical theologian, consultant, and spiritual director.

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.

Land and the Kingdom of God

The Story
Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 13, 2021

Mark 4:26-34

Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples. 

Something to Do

The long, green, growing season

The Reign of God is revealed all around us, in the beauty and miracle of the fruitful earth. God gives growth and life, for us and for all creation. Receive this healing gift this week – spend time outdoors, visit a farmer’s market, tend your own garden – and feel yourself filled with the new life that comes from God.

Revisiting Parables

Last summer, we spent a lot of time with parables and trained our eyes to see them in our own lives. Spend some time seeing parables around you again – and listen to the parables members of Ascension shared with us on July 26, 2020.
The Kingdom of heaven is like… a collaborative sermon of shared parables

Something to Wonder

When the grain is ripe

The first parable in this week’s story includes the work of the farmer who plants the seed and then, seeing when the grain is ripe, goes out to the harvest. What does the farmer’s inclusion tell us about the Reign of God? What field have you been given to tend? What stage of growth is it at?

Like a mustard seed

The second parable in today’s story offers us a tiny seed which grows beyond all expectation in order to provide a home to the birds of the air. Where are you in this parable? Are you a tiny seed, waiting to grow? Are you the strong branches, providing shade and shelter? Are you a bird, building a nest?

Something to Learn

Theology, Land, and Indigenous Teaching

Two articles from the Political Theology Network:

Indigenous Stewardship and the Death Rattle of White Supremacy by Natalie Avalos
Native peoples in the Americas understand the universe as alive and sentient. All phenomena in it are understood to be a distinct expression of life force, or spirit. Since all persons – human and other-than-human – such as plants, animals, rivers, winds, and mountains are expressions of spirit, they are understood to be interconnected and contingent.

Indigenizing Philosophy through the Land: On the Nature of the Concept by Brian Burkhart
Indigenizing philosophy through the land then is more than a culturally distinct way of philosophizing… it is a process of decolonization in the form of a revitalization of the relational modes of Indigenous life grounded in land as the relational ground of kinship and human beings as grounded in and inextricably entwined with this relational kinship ground.

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.

Renouncing Satan and Turning to Jesus

The Story
Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 6, 2021

Mark 3:20-35

The crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain Jesus, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered. Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” – for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.” Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” 

Something to Do

Tying up Satan

Jesus ministry of exorcism was strange enough to worry his family and attract the attention of the authorities and it hasn’t gotten significantly easier for us to deal with in the centuries since. The supernatural register used in the Bible doesn’t always sit easily in our modern minds but, regardless of how we imagine Beelzebul, we must surely acknowledge that evil continues to hold power over people and institutions in a myriad of tragic ways. This is the evil we renounce at our baptism; it is the evil from we which we ask to be delivered in the Lord’s Prayer; it is the evil we name in confession and in intercessions as we ask God to set our world free.

This past week brought a stark reminder of evil in our country with the recovery of the remains of 215 children, buried in an unmarked gravesite at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. This is news – and it is not news. It is also an important moment for advocacy and justice work: the strong man has been tied up by the outbreaking of truth and empathy and now is the time to plunder his house!

What can we do?

  • Keep learning
  • Add your voice to political campaigns
  • Give your money
  • Orient and re-orient your heart and mind towards justice and hope through prayer, critical thinking, and conversation

Resources for doing all of that:

Who are my mother and my brothers?

Again and again, Jesus rejects simple understandings of biological family in order to emphasize the importance of God’s family. Some Christian communities bring this teaching to life by calling everyone brother or sister. This teaching is also related to the Indigenous teaching that we are all relations – humans, animals, plants, water and all creation.

This week, use family words – brother, sister, mother, father, cousin, sibling, etc – to talk (or think) about the people and nature around you. How does it feel? Does it change the way you think about anything?

Something to Wonder

He has gone out of his mind

Jesus’ family seems to have been genuinely concerned about his mental state which led them to dismissing his teaching. Have you ever dismissed someone’s gifts – or been dismissed yourself – because of assumptions about mental health? What are the roots of that reaction? What are the consequences?

Whoever does the will of God

What is the will of God? Start by answering that question in a big, general way and then get more specific.
What is the will of God for me? For my church community?
How can I/we live out the will of God at this time? What choices do we need to make? Where should we put our time and money? What behaviours do we need to cultivate? What will we do?

Something to Learn

A Brief History of Satan

There’s a lot of important learning in the first “to do” offering of these week’s Story at Home so I will only offer one additional piece in the Something to Learn section: Wikipedia’s very thorough article on Satan. It offers plenty of rabbit trails to follow, if you are so inclined!

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.

Here I am – now what?

The Story
Trinity Sunday
May 30, 2021

Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” 

Something to Do

Holy, Holy, Holy

The song of the seraphs, often called the Sanctus (Latin for “holy”), is used in both Jewish and Christian liturgies – and has been since ancient times. It appears in the Bible again in the Book of the Revelation 4:8. In Christian rites, it is part of the Eucharistic prayer and, in our tradition and many others, has had a second part added to it: the Benedictus which comes from Matthew 21:9.

We are familiar with it looking like this:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

Listen to some different settings of this ancient hymn:
Sanctus (Ἅγιος) – from the Divine Service at the Cattedrale San Demetrio, Italo-Armenian Catholic Church (Byantine Rite)
Sanctus from Fauré’s Requiem
Sanctus (in English)- the Merbecke Setting, sung at St. Lawrence Parish Church, York
Holy, Holy, Holy from the Mass of Restoration by Josh Blakesley

Here am I

And while we’re in a musical mode, listen to this beloved hymn by Dan Schutte: Here I am , Lord, recorded during the pandemic.

Something to Wonder

Bonding with Isaiah

Read this story again and put yourself in Isaiah’s place. What emotions go through you? Do you find it easy to relate to Isaiah’s reactions or do some feel more alien to you? What does God say to you at the end of the story, after you offer yourself to be sent? How do you respond to God? Keep the conversation going for as long as you – or God – have something to say!

Now what?

Isaiah was sent to be a prophet – first bringing hard news to the king and making himself quite unpopular and then bringing words of comfort and assurance to the exiled people of Judah. After your conversation with God, what are you being sent to do? How will you follow that call?

Something to Learn

Here I am…now what?

Discernment is what happens when we make decisions according to our best understanding of God’s will. We sometimes think of it as being a once and done event – or perhaps an every now and then event – but it is actually more of an ongoing discipline which comes to crisis (decision) points every now and then.

Felicity Clare’s essay, Holy Discernment – Uncomplicating God’s Will for our Lives, is a beautiful account of one woman’s growth in discernment.
And here is an excerpt from the book she refers to, Called to Question by Sister Joan Chittister.

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.

The Holy Spirit – wind, fire, word, and wonder

The Story
Pentecost Sunday
May 23, 2021

(originally published for Pentecost 2020)

Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs – in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'” 

Something to Do

The rush of wind

There are so many ways to connect with the wind – blow bubbles, make a pinwheel, sit under a tree, watch the clouds go by. Take the time to do one or more of these this week and contemplate the ways in which the wind is like the Spirit.

Tongues of fire

Don’t set your head on fire – but do light a candle or two and contemplate the ways in which flame is like the Spirit.

Many languages

Have some fun with Google translate. How many different languages can you say “filled with the Holy Spirit” in? How is language like the Spirit?

Something to Wonder

At this sound, the crowd gathered…

Remember when crowds could gather? How does reading about this crowd make you feel? What do you miss about crowds? What do you not miss?

Have you ever experienced the Holy Spirit in a crowd? What was the experience like? Was is exhilarating? uplifting? frightening?

Amazement/ Bewilderment/ Sneering

People’s reactions to the revelation of the Spirit included amazement and confusion…and cynicism: “But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Have you ever reacted with doubt to someone else’s experience of the Spirit? Or to your own experience? What made it hard to believe? What made you re-think your evaluation?

Why do you think some revelations are harder to believe than others?

How are you predisposed to recognize the Spirit? How might you stretch yourself?

Something to Learn

The Holy Spirit – a primer

Once again, the Bible Project has produced an excellent introduction to a complex topic. Read the essay and watch the video here.

Also worth watching is their video on the first chapters of Acts, as the disciples receive the Spirit and the church begins to take shape.

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.