SUNDAY, JUNE 9 2024 - GOD'S KINGDOM AND NEW VISION'S
June 9, 2024
Deborah Laforet
God’s Kingdom and New Vision’s
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen. I going to share with you a story. In 1925 something kind of amazing happened. People who believed in God but had different ways of showing it, decided that they were going to work together. Church leaders from the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches approached the government of Canada to pass legislation concerning transfer of property rights. On June 27, 1924, the legislation passed, and it became effective on June 10, 1925. There was excitement and passion about what would come, but also grief over what had been lost, and even worry and fear because a church like this had never existed before. These feelings might be familiar to us as we go through our own changes here at St. Paul’s. The United Church of Canada was growing something new, hoping to seed God’s love into the world, and wasn’t quite sure what might grow from that seed. At Toronto's Mutual Street Arena on June 10, 1925, The United Church of Canada was inaugurated at a large worship service where participants were handed a 38-page order of service containing the full text of the liturgy, prayers, and hymns. For almost 100 years the United Church has been planting seeds, working to build God’s kingdom on earth. Now, 99 years later, that initiative, that seed that was planted, has grown into a thriving, healthy, church that is still producing fruit in abundance! Right? Hmmm…There are many wonderful and amazing stories from over the years, including ordaining the first woman, ordaining people no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, the two apologies from the settler church to the indigenous church, churches that have opened their doors to refugees and the unhoused, and the many relationships built in ecumenical and interfaith work. But is the United 2 of 5 Church thriving? Is it growing, in numbers, or otherwise? Maybe we need to look at the example of the churches at the beginning of this century and see what made them so successful, because they certainly weren’t dealing, like we are, with declining numbers, closing churches, and faith communities struggling to survive. Right? Hmmm…. Some of you, who have been around since the 50’s and 60’, remember full to overflowing churches. New churches were being planted and opened and churches were powerful places of influence in society and in politics. Worship is where you were expected on Sunday mornings, and people were proud to say which church they attended and in all the wonderful ways they volunteered and served their community and country through the church. But in 1925, it didn’t look that way. In fact, one of the reasons the Presbyterians, the Methodists, and the Congregationalists began having talks about union is because union was already happening across the prairies. Churches were declining and struggling and had begun to amalgamate in order to survive. This wasn’t just some new idea out of the blue that seemed like it might work. It was already happening and was already working in several churches across Canada. This union addressed a reality of closing churches and declining numbers. Sound familiar? Back then, they talked about planting seeds. They weren’t coming together as a final product, as a fully grown and thriving church, already producing fruit, and sharing a harvest. In many ways, the church saw itself declining and maybe even dying. This was the spark for new life. People saw this union as the planting of a seed, as the start of something new, not knowing what might grow and what fruit might be produced. The United Church of Canada is 99 years old tomorrow and for the rest of the year, you will be hearing about the church’s 100th year that we are celebrating. Today, there will be a big worship service at Metropolitan United Church at 4pm. It’ll be live on YouTube if you’re 3 of 5 interested. There will also be lots of resources and other events offered to congregations to join in celebrating this momentous year. One resource I found was the inaugural sermon offered at that worship service by Samuel P. Rose at the Mutual Street Arena. If I’m correct, he was an ordained Methodist minister who was a lecturer on Apologetics at the Wesleyan Theological College in Montreal. I’m going to share with you a passage from this sermon. I invite you to listen carefully. The language is from a different time, but, see if, like me, you think his words might still resonate 99 years later. He said, “we must admit that institutionalism runs too readily into selfishness, and comes too easily to think of itself as essential. Against this tendency, fatal to the realization of the highest good, may God preserve us! What an ideal for the United Church of Canada to set before herself, willing as a grain of wheat to die, if thus she may enter into a larger life; ready to be “lifted up,” that she may draw [all], not to herself, but to the Christ, who, loving the world, gave Himself for our salvation! Such was the Master’s free, unforced choice for Himself; and if to be a Christian is to be Christlike, there is no alternative choice for ourselves as individuals, or for the Church as a whole, if we are truly to bear His name.1” Every Easter, we preach the good news, that death has not won, that death is not the end. We preach of Jesus who tried something new, who resisted empire and imperialism, and was killed for it. We preach that he lives again. And we preach that the same is true for us. Death will come for us all, as individuals and as institutions. But death is not the end, and death is actually necessary in order for us to live again. In the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, he said, “Thy kingdom come.” Jesus preached that the kingdom is here and is coming, which was a bit confusing for people, then and now, but as Judy told us earlier, Jesus mentions the kingdom of God 32 times in the gospel of Luke. He Inaugural Sermon: —Samuel P. Rose sermon, June 10, 1925, as found in The New Outlook, vol. 1, 1 no. 2 (June 17, 1925. A Methodist minister and a Lecturer on Apologetics in the Wesleyan Theological College in Montreal. 4 of 5 tries several times and in several ways to explain this idea. He talked about it as a banquet where people will come from all over to take their places, and that it’s not something you can see and point out, but something that is among us. He said that we need to receive the kingdom as a little child, and he compared the kingdom of God to a teeny, tiny mustard seed that grows and houses nests and birds and to the small bits of yeast that make bread rise high. The kingdom of God is what we make of it, big or small. It’s among us, around us, within us. It’s a seed. A seed that needs to be nourished, that needs loving attention, that needs care in order to thrive. We can discuss how the United Church of Canada has done with its seed in the past 99 years; and we can discuss the same about St. Paul’s. This congregation began 68 years ago. How did we nurture our seed? I’m an aspiring gardener. I was never taught how to nurture a garden. I am learning, and I make mistakes all the time. I learn from them though, and each year, I get a little better. Nurturing and growing strong and healthy plants from a tiny seed takes time, patience, a willingness to learn from mistakes, commitment, and lots and lots of love. No matter how many mistakes we make, we can try and try again. When storms come and drown our new seedlings, we wait for the sun to shine, and we start again. During dry times, and times when we take need to step back from planting, we wait, we rest, and we praise the rains when they fall. It’s all part of building the kingdom of God. We are here now. We’re ready to put our hands in the ground, in the dirt, plant the seeds and nurture the soil. We pray that the Spirit brings us the right amount of rain and sun, and we wait for the produce that we know will come. We know because death is not the end. We know because life always comes after death. We know because Christ is our example and we follow that example, sharing the good news that God’s kingdom is here and now, that God’s kingdom is coming because we are building it, here and now. May it be so. Amen. 5 of 5 Luke 11:2-4 - Lord’s Prayer series (Introduce yourself.) This is our third week focusing on the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, the prayer many call, The Lord’s Prayer. Today, we are looking at the phrase “Thy Kingdom Come.” The phrase, Kingdom of God, is mentioned by Jesus 32 times in the gospel of Luke. I’m going to read a few of those verses. The first time it comes up is in chapter 4, verse 43. …he said to them, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. In chapter 13, he offers two short parables. 18 He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” 20 And again he said, “To what should I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” Later in that same chapter, he says, 29 Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and take their places at the banquet in the kingdom of God. In chapter 17, Jesus talks with religious authorities about the kingdom of God. 20 Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” Lastly, in an often quoted passage, when the disciples try to keep the children from Jesus, he says, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 17 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 18:16-17 May the Spirit guide our understanding of this sacred scripture. Amen.