THE OLYMPIC SPIRIT & MOMENTS OF TRANSFORMATION

Like many of you, I watched the opening ceremonies of our Winter Olympics on Friday night and have subsequently caught glimpses of some of the events that athletes have participated in over the past couple of days also. I experienced along with most of the country, a deep sense of wonder and awe as I watched nations march out one by one in a procession that stirred the soul and which reminded us of our shared common humanity, of our yearning for the transcendent, for that ‘something more’ which unites us as one. As I watched the Aussie team come out, I felt this sense of connection very deeply. I was texting my family back home as they watched the opening ceremony at the same time I was, we were commenting on how good Team Australia looked, and what a shame it will be to take so many medals away from Canada! I felt this deep sense of connection again in a very different way as the team from Georgia came out and the audience stood and applauded them in a sign of solidarity, ‘we are with you’, it seemed to say. It was such an incredible outpouring of the human spirit that you couldn’t help but be moved by it. Such a sense of oneness. As the night went on, we saw the indigenous peoples of Canada perform a welcoming ceremony to the world, further reminding us of our shared common humanity, and of that transcendent wider reality which we do not always understand or acknowledge, but which nonetheless, unites us all. It was such an amazing night for this, from the boy flying across BC Place with the visual effects of the changing topography of Canada’s landscape on the ground, to Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado’s anthem that blasted around the world, to the sparkling polar bear rising above the ice, to Wayne Gretsky running the torch through the streets of Vancouver to light a second cauldron – it was hard not to get caught up in the emotion and the spirit of the night. It was truly a mountaintop experience. I believe, this is what church, at its best does. Through the music, the message, the ceremony, it seeks to connect us to that transcendent reality which lies behind our every day experience. This morning, I want to suggest to you, that church is a rich and deep expression of this, but it’s not the only one. In yesterday’s Vancouver Sun there was an interesting article entitled, ‘Sport and Spirituality’. It spoke of those mountaintop experiences, those feelings of ecstasy and interconnectedness that we all experience from time to time. It claims that you are just as likely to experience God in church as you would on a snowboard, carving your way down Blackcomb Mountain. The article notes, ‘sports, like religion, has ritual, builds community, provides purpose, has codes of ethics, and requires faith. It requires that one give oneself over to a story in which the elements of human experience are distilled, displayed and integrated into a pattern of meaning that stirs the heart and quickens the soul.’ In the Gospel we heard this morning we find Peter, James, and John ontop of a mountain with Jesus. We’re told that while Jesus was praying the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became a dazzling white. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah are seen talking with him about what he will accomplish in Jerusalem. And Peter gets so excited by this mountaintop experience, he wants to set up camp for the prophets there, he wants them stay. He wants this experience to last. But of course, the nature of mountaintop – peak experiences is that they are fleeting, but they come to us every now and then, in a myriad of ways. One of the ways I am fed spiritually, is through the Sacraments of the Church – there is something inherently healthy about having a tradition that speaks to your spirit and feeds you, pointing you toward something bigger than yourself and inspiring you to be all that you were created to be, to live and love fully and deeply. I meet God in the person of Jesus Christ in this way. But I also met God drinking a glass of red wine with a mate and watching the opening ceremonies Friday night. I met God in the conversation I had with a Shoppers Drugmart cashier last week. I met God in a chance conversation with a homeless person on the streets of Vancouver and I meet God everyday in the company of family and friends. There are many ways we can experience the Divine and be lifted up spiritually through those mountain top peak experiences that come our way from time to time. The article concludes, ‘A peak experience fills the individual with wonder and awe. They are rare, mystical, exciting, and deeply moving. An athlete can find as much virtue, luminosity, and self transcendence through sports as a monk can find through any spiritual traditon. It’s also worth remembering that peak experiences remain readily available the old fashioned way; through meditation, prayer, liturgy, dream work, study of scriptures, pilgrimage, yoga, poetry, silence, contemplation and communal singing, or going to a concert or theatre show. The prevalence of peak experiences remind us that nothing, potentially, is untouched by the sacred.’ I would invite you all this week to observe this truth, this notion that nothing is untouched by the sacred during the upcoming season of Lent which begins this coming Ash Wednesday. We will hold services at 9am and 6pm and administer the ashes. I will then be catching a midnight flight that evening to Australia for a couple of weeks’ vacation. When I return, we will begin a new book study which is going to explore this concept of the sacredness of all life more fully. The book is called ‘An Altar in the world’ by Barbara Brown Taylor. In it, the author reveals many meaningful ways for us to discover the sacred in the secular, and in the small things we do and see. It’s a wonderful Lenten discipline we might want to explore more fully. A sign up sheet is available on the narthex table. Also, don’t forget the ‘Love life, live lent’ booklets with 40 actions you can do throughout the 40 days of Lent. These actions include; a home and family action, an action for work or school, an environmental action, a community focused action, a global action, and an action to encourage prayer and mindfulness. Through these actions our very lives and the world in which we live are transformed into something new, as these actions draw us toward cultivating and honoring authentic mountaintop experiences, and honoring the sacred in our everyday lives. And so, here we stand today on this mountaintop alongside Jesus, Peter, James, John, Elijah and Moses. We can’t stay up here forever, nor should we want to. Our job is to open our lives to those mountaintop experiences when they appear, and to take the nourishment we have received through these encounters out into the world where God already is. We are Christ’s ambassadors, bearers of God’s love to all. We are called to introduce people to the God who inspires wonder and awe in all faith traditions and sacred human experiences, including our own. For when we do this, the kingdom of heaven is furthered, as people come to know and celebrate God in their lives, not just as some abstract, distant concept, but as a living, breathing, loving God, who calls them into relationship, and into a life inspired by wonder and awe. Amen.

The following sermon was preached by the Rev'd Larry Adkins, November 8, 2009.

Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you, our Hope and Salvation. Amen. In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus says “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had…” Jesus and his friends are at the temple in Jerusalem. They see the rich and famous enjoying their status with fine clothes, their ostentatious mannerisms and the gifts that they are giving to the temple treasury. Jesus is profoundly unimpressed and warns his companions of people who behave that way. As he is speaking, an elderly woman comes to the treasurer and quietly deposits two small coins worth less than a penny. Jesus praises her for her generosity and in doing so, introduces the concept of proportional giving - the idea that our gifts to God are not given value by their raw buying power, but by their portion of the total assets of the giver. The poor woman is praised for having given all she had, while the rich and famous were condemned for giving small portions of their own wealth. The story provides us with a powerful principle to think about. For centuries, God and our faith have referred to us as stewards of our resources. What we do with our resources is called stewardship. We are all familiar with that term. But stewards are managers and managers are not owners. Managers are people who handle resources on behalf of owners, they act in the interest of the owner. Our owner is God - from whom all our blessings flow. This is not a case of religious semantics. The wealth of our households is not ours in any permanent sense. It can be said that we own our individuality, our principles and our character, for we shape these things but even these will cease when we die. But our money, our resources existed before we did and will continue after us. We manage them, we do not own them. We are called to manage these resources in the interest of God. The accountants among us are probably thinking, “Well then how much are we supposed to give? It’s the old tithing question. Well, it is the wrong question for that is a question for the owners not the stewards. If you opened an RSP account with your banker, would you be surprised if he asked you how much of the account he was supposed to manage? Certainly because your expectation is that the bank would manage all of it in your interest. So it is with God. Would Jesus say that we are to love God with all our heart, all of our soul, all our mind and 2 percent of our income. Not likely. To talk about giving creates the impression that we are owners who can choose to give or not to give. The fact is we are managers and the only question is - do we manage in the interest of God well, or badly. A popular interpretation of the gospel story is that it is a celebration of smallness. We look at the woman’s tiny gift and we marvel at what God can do with that little bit. We do the same thing with the mustard seed story and think its about having just a little bit of faith. Not so. The Gospel is not about little things; its about big things. The widow gave all she had - 100 percent. The point is not giving some portion of what we have to God’s work but managing all that we have in God’s interest. Frankly, a problem with the concept of giving is that it’s a verb - something you do. It carries with it the implication that it’s something that sometimes happens and sometimes doesn’t. Is it reasonable to think that one can love your neighbour once in a while and satisfy the expectations of God? Is loving a verb like that ? However, loving and giving are also adjectives - they describe our lifestyles and the lifestyles we were made for. I might suggest that, in today’s techno-speak, we are hardwired for generosity or at least I hope that we are. Life is meant to be lived outward, toward the world, not inward toward ourselves. Life works best when we look and live outwards. The Gospel reading today, perhaps more than any other at this time of year speaks volumes to me of the sacrifices that our young men and women have made, in the last 142 years of the history of our nation. Communities and families right across this great country of ours have often gave all they had - they gave the lives of their sons and daughters in the name of peace. They gave not from their abundance but from their poverty. From a poverty that was also their dearest treasure. In 2009, 29 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan - their average age was 25. And, we in this province continue to be asked to send the treasure of our families to far away lands in the name of peace. I have had the privilege this past year to meet some of the youth of this province prior to their departure oversees. I say privilege because they are answering their governments call to duty, they are answering a call on our behalf but this privilege came with a deep sadness. A sadness because they were, for the most part, naive about the dangers and their own capabilities and a sadness because there was a very good chance that some of them would not be returning to their families and their communities. These young men are not strangers. They are our neighbours. On our notice board in the Narthex are pictures of three of those young men all of whom, when they are home, live within minutes of this Church. As I said a couple of weeks ago, one, Robert Bourgoyne is from St. Thomas Anglican Church. Another young man Brayden Lippert who is just 18 years old recently wrote home to his mom and dad from Afghanistan. I would like to quote, with permission, from that letter. He writes, “Each day is a gift, if you don’t find the different ways God teaches you lessons in the little things, then you will never ever be able to understand the big picture He has planned for your life. Unfortunately this is not an easy lesson to understand. You see things you only see in movies, but only it’s not on a screen. It comes with smells, sounds and feelings a movie will never give you. Those things rock you to your core. It scares you and it excites you and afterwards your left with nothing but reflection and self-improvement. God is in everything whether I like it or not. Nothing slips past Him without his knowing. It’s only been a little while but this is the stuff that carries with you for a lifetime. It’s an experience I never want to have again.” I would say that Brayden has faced the cruel reality of his circumstances and with an obvious deep faith he has realized a degree of strength and comfort because of his knowledge that God is with him. Today, we bring our thanks to our God of love and liberty for the peace and security that we enjoy. We remember those who in time of war faithfully served their country. We pray for their families and for ourselves whose freedom was won at such a cost. And with God’s help we would ask that we become a people zealous for peace, and that the day will come when no nation will feel compelled to go to war against another nation. And so we pray, Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day to day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations, give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your presence and love wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Pentecost 9

The following sermon was preached by The Rev’d Dale Yardy, August 9, 2009.