Sunday, August 14, 2005 – 10:00 a.m.
A Message: "Our uniqueness before God"
by Rev. James Farrell
Joseph, like many of the
people of his time viewed God as in complete control of his life…in fact, in
complete control of every life and breath on the earth…it is an attractive view
still held by some today…attractive because if everything transpires through the
will of God then we have less responsibility for our own daily human actions.
Joseph could clearly see the
hand of God in the circumstances that spared his family from starvation…a place
of gratitude welled up from within him and praise to God flowed from that
place…it should flow from us too!
Radical Gratitude was on my reading list this past while and as
Christians I think we should live with an attitude of "radical gratitude" for
all our lives! "In everything give thanks" …
that appears on our church sign on the front lawn and is a encouraging message
as we leave this place to keep a positive attitude…the quote comes from 1
Thessalonians 5:16. It is an ideal maxim to live by. Giving thanks is an
attitude…it's infectious and fosters faith which encourages more thanksgiving.
It can be like the attitude
that gives thanks for the teenager who is complaining about doing dishes
…because it means he is at home, not on the streets. Or giving thanks for the mess
to clean after company because it means we have been surrounded by friends. Or giving thanks for the
clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat. Or giving thanks for a lawn
that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing
because it means I have a home. Or giving thanks for all the
complaining I hear about the government because it means we have freedom of
speech. Or giving thanks for the
parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am
capable of walking and I have been blessed with transportation. Or giving thanks for the
person near me in church who sings off key because it means I can hear. Or giving thanks for the pile
of laundry and ironing because it means we have clothes to wear. Or giving thanks for
weariness and aching muscles at the end of a day because it means I have been
capable of working. Or giving thanks for the
alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means I am alive. No, everything in life is not
wonderful…and yes, it is pretty tough to delight in illness, loss or all those
things that serve to frustrate us, but we can give thanks that we don't walk
through this life alone, we can give thanks that in the face of pain or loss God
stands beside us, or may even be carrying us from time to time …and that
is certainly something we need to understand and to give thanks for! In the gospel passage that
appears as part of today's lections that I have encouraged you to read for your
own edification, you will find the story of the Canaanite woman wanting to have
her daughter healed or delivered from an evil spirit…she asked…persisted, and it
happened… That reading, like the Joseph
story proclaims a God that can be counted on to direct history…global and
personal… to do the things that we want or need as the result of our faith and
courage. I don't want to make this
message say that God will do anything we ask but it is important to recognize
that what we really want—the desire of our heart—given over to the heart and
compassion of the God who dwells with us can result in an amazing turn. One of the things that
happened during my sabbatical was that I found myself on 4 flights, two of those
I sat beside my brother and on two occasions I sat beside other folks…one of
these travel companions was a woman who was the mother of a New York City Rabbi
…that was great, it gave me an opportunity to speak with her about
Jewish/Christian relations…something that I had spent time on this past spring
and shared in conversations with some of you through our Lenten study. Needless
to say the flight went by quickly. Another person I met on the
return flight from Toronto to Calgary was a man named Denis. Denis, my new
friend, shared an amazing story of personal transformation. Denis has always
been a church person along with his family—a man who has worked hard to be a
good provider for his family …and his hard work led him all the way to being
president of a busy Canadian company…in fact his executive position is with a
chocolate and food company…so with all that chocolate in his background it was
easy to get to know him…I have this theory that chocolate lovers are easy going
people. You will have to test that
out with your own experience. Over the course of the flight
Denis shared his story of healing and transformation. At 49 years of age, he became
aware that the problems he was having with health were the result of cancer…non
Hodgkin's lymphoma to be exact, the same disease that claimed the life of a good
friend of mine. His journey like many with cancer led him to hospital on a
number of occasions and always with a battery of tests and the results of those
tests were not encouraging. Throughout all the prayers
and concerns that people had shared with him, Denis realized one day that he
never really prayed for himself… he had never just stopped and laid his heart
out before God. At that moment of realization
he did pray in the quiet of his hospital room and in those moments something
incredible happened … he became exceedingly light-hearted, joyful in fact and
his body felt the tremors of what he has come to know as the touch of God upon
his life. In that moment he knew he had been healed…not just emotionally or
spiritually but also physically. Further medical tests bore
that out … much to the surprise of the physicians and oncologists that had been
attending him. Like Joseph, Denis has been
able to see the hand of God directly in his experience, his healing and
presently, through his sharing of his story he is also able to see the hand of
God in the change that his story can effect in the lives and spiritual journeys
of others. On occasion I have shared
with you a similar story of what I am convinced was God being present to me in a
special way—not a healing from cancer rather a brush with the Holy—so as you
might imagine our conversation was easy and something rather special as we could
share spiritual experiences that may seem out of step with the world. The experience of the
Canaanite woman and her daughter and the experience of Joseph and his family may
seem out of step with the world as well, but these are real experiences.
What is dangerous is for us
to make doctrine out of the experiences…to name the experiences as normative for
all who love and serve God. For one thing there is
nothing about the Canaanite woman being a lover and server of God in the record
of her story…it is something we infer …she is simply a desperate person in
need…but more importantly it would be remiss of the church to declare that the
experience of one person is normative for someone else. Shared faith stories do
breed more faith stories and that is a good thing but it is not the basis for
doctrine or dogma. And there is "the rub" because to not hold up the
possibility of God's experience in one situation as being potential hope for
another is to deny that God's love and care extend equally to all people.
I most certainly do believe
that God's love extends to all people but just as we are all different I believe
that God's interaction with each unique person is experienced in unique ways…I
don't want my relationship with God to be exactly as yours any more than I want
my experience with your family to be identical to your experience …nor can I
guess that you would want your experience with my family to look exactly like
the experience I have with my family. We each have a unique
relationship with the God of our creation and that may be the most difficult
thing we have to learn on our faith journey. We are unique creatures in
Christ…that is what we are and the way that the Christ
spirit is manifest within each of us and the way the Christ spirit relates to
God through each of us needs to be different for each of us also. So, I celebrate Joseph's
interpretation of his life story…I delight in the account of Denis'
transformation and healing but I don't hold those stories up as normative for
me…they are stories of what can be in the economy of God…stories to point us
toward the one God who lives and moves and has God's being within and around us. I am not lesser for not
having had Joseph's or the Canaanite's woman's or Denis' experience …nor am I
greater for having shared a story with similar characteristics to Denis' story
or for that matter nor am I greater for not being sold into slavery and not
having to be put in a situation where I can see the hand of God working to save
my destitute family. Ours is an amazing God who is
pleased to deal personally with each of us and to be there for each of us in
ways that only we need…ways that edify and nurture us…ways that let us
know that we are loved and cherished by our God for exactly who we
are and in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. That is part of the joy that
exists for each us as those who claim the promise that we are not alone, we do
live in God's world, a God who has created and is creating …a God who works in
us and others by the spirit…a God who works in different ways and through our
different needs… And for that I say "Thanks be
to God." Amen.