SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13 2024 - DO NOT FEAR; REJOICE AND BE GLAD
October 13, 2024
Deborah Laforet
Do Not Fear; Rejoice and Be Glad
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. Let me tell you about some of the conversations I’ve been having this week. • First, as you know Carolyn has decided to end her appointment with St. Paul’s to grow her coaching practice. This means Carolyn will not be our pastoral care minister starting in January. Carolyn and I have had lots of conversations about what this means for St. Paul’s, for me, and for her and Jay. The board had a conversation on Thursday, talking through the tasks that are important, and that we don’t want to see disappear and how we continue the important work that Carolyn does for us here at St.Paul’s. • On Wednesday, I sat with six other clergy in Oakville - United, Presbyterian, and Anglican. We talked about the calls to the church in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Report and how we might talk about how our Oakville churches address these calls. • Just before that meeting, I sat in the car and talked to someone in the United Church who is struggling with a church board that wants to cut his pay in half. • Also, on Wednesday, four United churches gathered here at St. Paul’s to have big conversations about our presence in Oakville and how we best make a meaningful impact in this community. We talked about property, staff sharing, and we discussed what are the important decisions we needed to make in the next six months to a year. • Over the past few weeks, over email, I have been having conversations with a couple of Palestinian Christians who would like to use our space to show a film about Palestine, and I’ve been talking with Rabbi Wise from our local synagogue about coming to St. Paul’s and being a guest speaker, which brought me to a conversation about the statements coming out 2 of 5 of the United Church of Canada on Israel’s accountability for its actions in Palestine and Israel’s current relationship with the Canadian government. • Lastly, last weekend, Horseshoe Falls Region, our local United Church body, gathered for a meeting, and one of our topics was the apparent racism in the United Church admissions process, where more than forty black ministers from around the world have been trying to get a job in United Church congregations, with some of them having looked for years and having been a part of dozens of interviews, and can’t get hired anywhere. Did you know that I am sometimes asked what else I do besides Sunday morning worship? But that’s beside the point. My point is that there is a lot going on. Everybody has challenging stuff in their own lives and the lives of their families. Here at St. Paul’s we are in the midst of lots of change and an unknown future with the sale of our building and imagining our next steps. Beyond that, we have what’s happening in the wider church or in other communities in which we’re involved. Then there’s the concerns for people around the world, those being affected by the climate crisis with hurricanes and wildfires, elections that seem to be swinging way to the right, and the thousands and possibly millions of people killed and suffering in wars between nations. Today, Jeff shared with us words from the prophet Joel, telling us not to be afraid. We heard: “Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice.” “Do not fear, you animals of the field.” “O children of Zion, be glad, and rejoice in your God.” These are words of reassurance to a struggling people. We hear the prophet assuring the people that God has not abandoned them as can be seen by the drenching rains on the fields, the threshing floors full of grain, and the healing that comes after years of struggle and loss. Everyone here has struggled or is struggling. Some of us encounter times in our lives when we don’t think we will make it through, when we don’t think it will ever get better, and we 3 of 5 don’t believe joy and laughter will ever return, but the prophet, with these words, assures us that it will, that God is with us and that God deals wondrously with us. Fear is strong right now. With the war between Ukraine and Russia, and with the extension of the war with Israel and other countries, I feel fear. October 7 marked the year anniversary of a vicious attack on Israel by Hamas, with over 1000 dead. Since that time, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children. As more Islamic countries rise up against Israel, it makes one wonder whether this the beginnings of a world conflict? On Friday, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, a grass-roots movement of atomic bomb survivors, for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. I don’t think awarding those trying to get rid of nuclear weapons is a coincidence. It’s timely. People are thinking about what a world war might look like. On this day of Thanksgiving, on this day when we pause to give thanks, I'm feeling tentative about it. I’m feeling hesitant to offer up my thanks for all the blessings in my life when it feels so fragile and temporary. I wonder whether offering thanks for peace belittles the conflict around the world, or if offering thanks for food, shelter, friends, and family, dismisses the number of people who go hungry, shelterless, and who are lonely and don't have loved ones to surround them. I remind myself though that this is when it becomes most important to count our blessings. Offering our thanks does not mean we close our eyes to the hurt and suffering in our world, but by offering thanks, we say no to the despair that feels like it might choke us. When we offer our gratitude with intention, we halt the tide of hate and evil from filling us and spreading into every corner of this world. By pausing to say thank you, we are acknowledging and celebrating that there are always moments for which to be grateful, that there are always people that are fighting to make this a better world, that we live in a created world that fills us 4 of 5 with awe and wonder, and one that holds so much beauty and inspiration, and that our world is filled with love and compassion, forgiveness and grace. We are often encouraged to wake up and remember for what we are thankful, maybe in a journal or through prayer or just saying out loud those words of gratitude. It’s good for our mental health we are told. It’s good to remind ourselves that we have much for which to be thankful. But I also see it as a way of pushing back against the ugliness that inundates us through the news, against the self-hatred many of our are taught to believe about ourselves, and against the cynicism and bitterness that grows within us when we are hurt. Being thankful opens us to the good that surrounds us and encourages us to be a part of that good. This Thanksgiving, I encourage you to offer your prayers for a world in need, offer your hands towards shaping and creating God’s kingdom on earth, but also use it to begin a practice of being thankful, not as a way of banishing our fear, but as a way of not letting that fear drive us, reminding ourselves that God is with us and is dealing with us wondrously and lovingly. Of this we can be assured. For this we can be thankful. Thanks be to God. Amen. 5 of 5 Joel 2:21-27 (Introduce yourself.) Today I am reading a passage from the prophet Joel. There is not a lot known about the prophet Joel or the historical context of this book. What we do know is that chapters 1 and 2 seem to deal with some profound crisis in the community. I am reading verses 21-27 from chapter two, which offers reassurance to the people experiencing this crisis. Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things! 22 Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and vine give their full yield. 23 O children of Zion, be glad, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. 24 The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25 I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army that I sent against you. 26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame. May the Spirit guide our understanding of this holy scripture.