Reign of Christ the King Sunday, November 20

When they came to the place that is called the skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  Then Jesus said, "Father forgive them; for they know not what they are doing.  And they cast lots to divide his clothing.  And the people stood by watching; but the leaders scoffed at him saying, "He saved others, let his save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!"  The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."  One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah?  Save yourself and us!"  But the other rebuked him saying,  "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds but this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."

Luke 23:33-43

I was recently at a beautiful old church in our city perched right atop the river valley, distinctive with its brick exterior, boasting beautiful windows and woodwork.  After entering and taking sitting down my friend asked: is a cross in here?  We began to look around: on walls? widows? in print? the ends of pews?  No cross that we could see.  A thoughtful silence fell as we reflected on the significance of the cross in Christian life and worship.

The cross is perhaps the most recognizable symbol in the world.  Think about all the places you see it in a day: around necks, inked on bodies, on the ambulance, some hospitals, most churches you pass.  The cross a notorious instrument of Roman torture upon which Jesus suffered humiliation, emotional pain, alienation and the worst of physical suffering.  The cross where Jesus died at the hands of fickle people, of people deep in fear; some consumed by their own ambition/power, some aware of the ways in which Jesus threatened their ways and means, others ignorant, mislead and co-opted.  Golgotha the place of skulls - desolate, full of the stench of humanity; the stench of death.  

The cross is offensive, it always has been.  When criminals hung upon it naked, for hours that stretched on, writhing in pain, begging for death to come, all of their humanity, all of their dignity was stripped from them - that was the point.  The cross is offensive to people today too which is why it no longer hangs in some places of worship.  It offends our modern sense of decorum; God lets his son die on a cross? That just seems inhumane, why would it happen like that?  We don't like how we come off in the story - it reflects the worst of humanity.  We hear the vitriol in the crowd, the insults called down.  We imagine the purple robe they put on him, the crown of thorns - all to mock, to shame him; their faces made ugly with rage and we want to look away. We want all of the love of the cross with none of the violence.  We want salvation without sacrifice.

Instead we have the arresting image of our King hanging on a cross.  An innocent man tortured.  And his response is forgiveness: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."  Jesus answers all of the anger, all of the bitter mockery and insults  with a prayer asking God for forgiveness on our behalf.  Perhaps it is from the cross that Jesus sees mostly clearly the force of the powers of evil in our world and the darkness of the human heart.  And it breaks his own. Even at our worst we are not beyond the reach of Jesus and his forgiveness.  Even as he dies he is offering life.  And this is so beautifully illustrated in criminals who are hanging beside him.  The criminal on the left is still looking for someone to pin all his anger, his grief, his sense of injustice, his shame upon as he hangs, dying a scornful death. He chooses to mock Jesus, the saviour saying: "If you are the Messiah save yourself and save us."  The criminal on the right responds to him with a rebuke "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we have been justly condemned, we are getting what we deserve.  But this man has done nothing wrong."  And he turns to Jesus saying, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Remember.  This is not just a request to 'bring to mind'; this is a word with deep scriptural resononance: "When I bring clouds over the earth and a bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.  When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."(Gen.9) or from Psalm 25:7: "Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O Lord."  As, Fleming Rutledge points out "when God remembers, he does not just think about us, he acts for us, with power to save."  

This criminal ending his life in misery and shame sees Jesus for who he is, a King with a Kingdom.  Not even all of those who have been closest to Jesus, who have seen him cast out demons and raise the dead can see him this clearly.  Luke is relentless in his determination make us see that the gospel is for all people, including those who have committed despicable acts and been sentenced to death. Again, this is the good news and the hard news.  It is the good news because we know the darkness of our own souls, we have sensed at times what we are capable of and we too can be forgiven, "we can live in freedom because the strong love of Christ has reached across all borders and all boundaries."(Andrew Murray Purra) And it is the hard news because if we are to take Jesus seriously, we are to see that we aren't that different than 'those people' and we are to follow Christ to 'those places' and meet him there in the face of the criminal, the leper, the homeless, the addict, the prostitute, the john because "God has assigned infinite value to all elements of society "(Fleming Rutledge).This is our participation in the exodus of Christ initiated through Jesus' death on the cross.  And this exodus is not just for hebrew people but for all people and it is not limited to freedom from physical slavery but it "breaks the chains of slavery from all forms of sin and evil that bind the human spirit; it brings the promise of unending life and love and liberty as well as an unfettered relationship with God." (Andrew Murray Pura)

This Sunday is Reign of Christ Sunday and we sit with the jarring image of our crucified King identifying himself with all that is wrong and sad and shameful and broken in the world and yet has been redeemed through his death and made new.  And so the cross which stood as a notorious symbol of death has been subverted - the cross has become the way of life!  May it ever be before us.

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I read through all of the lessons this week and I like the trajectory that they take.  There is so much in this passage and yet each of these lessons have stayed with one key concept and developed it.  They have allowed children to enter into these stories in tactile and imaginative ways, and opened up places to make connections to their lived experience.

I think when I have taught this text before I have fallen into the trap of trying to explain the significance of what is happening (though barely grasping it myself) and getting bogged down in these explanations or in questions that are too theological and have kids looking at me like a two headed monster.  I re-read a little bit of what Gretchen Wolff Pritchard writes in her book and thought it might be worth sharing, she writes:

"For Christians, the stories of Christ's life, death and resurrection are the most powerful 'fairy tale' or 'myth' in the world.  They also happen to be true.  But it is the enormous power of these stories that exert such pull on our imaginations and drives us to act them out in springtime, and Sunday by Sunday throughout the year.  "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again"; "Take and eat; this is for you." This story which is so captivating to adult and child alike, though we cannot put our finger on why it so moves and nourishes us, is what we share with each other in the life of the church; and the difficult situation it helps us cope with is our own mysterious, inexplicable life: our birth, our alienation, our need for love, our fear of death and our assurance that the Christ who died and rose again has somehow brought us home to the heart of God."
- from Offering the Gospel to Children

May God be with us this Sunday as we celebrate the Reign of Christ

God's Love Lasts Forever

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful and gifts and dedicated to God, he said, "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down."

They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?"  And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, "I am he!" and, 'the time is near!' Do not go after them.

"When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately." Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

But before all of this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.  This will give you an opportunity to testify.  So make up your minds not to prepare a defence in advance; for I will give you words and wisdom that none of you opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will even put some of you to death.  You will be hated by all because of my name.  But not a hair of your head will perish.  By your endurance you will gain your souls.

Luke 21

The lectionary texts from the gospel are increasingly foreboding as Jesus moves towards Calvary. There is a heaviness to these stories - even the ones that contain a measure of happiness such as Jesus entrance into Jerusalem do not escape the pervasive darkness; the clashing of kingdoms and powers remain.  God's entrance and presence in this world in Jesus has never been a classic feel good story, though we do like to tell it this way, don't we? A wee babe born amongst animals visited by angels and shepherds and wise men.  Yes, it is a profoundly beautiful, full of grace enough to makes your heart ache with love. But there are valleys traversed that are treacherous and steep; there are points so low, nights so long, that one wonders what will come of it all and just costly it will be.

Judgement and mercy are threads that run all throughout the story of God - and mercy prevails.  After flood waters have rescinded, "there in the clouds - just where the storm meets the sun - was a beautiful bow made of light.  It was a new beginning in God's world.  It wasn't long before everything went wrong again but God wasn't surprised, hew knew this would happen.  That's why, before the beginning of time, he had another plan - a better plan.  A plan not to destroy the world, but to rescue it - a plan to send his own Son, the Rescuer.  God's strong anger against hate and sadness and death would come down once more - but not on his people or his world.  No, God's war bow was not pointing down at his people.  It was pointing up into the heart of heaven."

Judgement. Mercy.  Love. The Salvation of God.

This year - nearly two thousand years since Jesus spoke these words, the sense that things have gone terribly wrong in our world remains - wars, tsunami's, terrorism, environmental disasters, humanitarian crises.  And even in our relatively comfortable part of the world we know the effects of fire, of homelessness and poverty, of human suffering.  Lord, have mercy.

And how do we respond to this as followers of Christ?  It seems that neither futility nor hedonism is the answer.  Jesus puts forward another way: endurance.  Think of the long distance runner who must train in all conditions; persist in the face of discouragement, discomfort and pain in order to be physically and mentally disciplined to run the race. Endurance.  Think of those who have demonstrated outstanding moral courage in a time that required leadership; they have suffered defeat, rejection and loss. They did not give up: Endurance. Think of those who spent their lives working on behalf of people oppressed and forgotten about by the world; they have battled hard against despair and pervasive loneliness. Endurance. Think of those who have left their homes and their families because of economic or political disaster; they have become refugees - endured homelessness, homesickness, displacement, fear, worry, unemployment, despair, and illness. Endurance: it is not for the faint of heart; it is was we are called to as Christians.

"And before this terrible time followers of Jesus will be arrested, persecuted, betrayed and hated."

Did the disciples wonder as they heard Jesus speak if it was their very lives he was talking about? Would they remember those words he spoke to them: "make up your minds not to prepare a defence in my name; for I will give you words of wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict... not a hair of your head will perish, by your endurance you will gain your souls."  I think they held on to these words, this promise - though they experienced failure along the way they endured; they gave passionate and bold witness for Christ. And they gained their souls; their forever life with Jesus.  And the same is true for us, not a hair on our heads will perish, in our endurance we will gain our souls.

In this text that there is a collapsing of time - the time which Jesus was describing was not unlike the world he entered, the world in which the church would establish itself under the crushing powers of Rome; and the world we now live and struggle in.  So the text works on us in three ways - in the past, present and future.  Just as our salvation has been accomplished, is being worked out and is yet to be fully realized; this is the 'already - not yet' tension we find ourselves in.  We have been given salvation and yet we struggle in our flesh.  However, we do not struggle in futility, "we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."(Romans 5:3-5)

During advent we enter the mystery of the collapsing of time in the incarnation of Christ.  We are reminded that Christ came into a world that was dark and dangerous; he entered into the misery and the beauty, the strength and vulnerability of human life and defeated sin and death forever.  And we are waiting with expectancy, full of hope for the full reign of the kingdom of God on earth - for all things to be made new.

"I am the Beginning," Jesus said, "and the Ending!"
One day, John knew, Heaven would come down and mend God's broken world and make it our true, perfect home once again.
And he knew, in some mysterious way that would be hard to explain, that everything was going to be more wonderful for once having been so sad.
And he knew that the ending of The Story was going to be so great, it would make all the sadness and tears and everything seem like just a shadow that is chased away by the morning sun.
"I'm on my way," said Jesus, "I'll be there soon!"

Heavens and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away... (Matthew 24:35)
God's love lasts forever.
Amen.


*** A New Beginning - Noah's Ark from Genesis 6-9 & A dream of heaven - John sees into the future, from Revelation 1, 5, 21, 22 taken from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones

Thanks to the Rev's William, Don, David, Amber, the always thoughtful Sandy and the Thursday morning Mums' Group for enriching the conversation around the text today.

Jesus and Zacchaeus

He entered Jericho and was passing through it.  A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.  He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature.  So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.  When Jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.  All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner."  Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much."  Then Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke 19:1-8

The story of Zacchaeus is a story that catches the attention of most children who often struggle to see in crowds, who pull on the legs of their parents to be held or hoisted onto strong shoulders and who eagerly engage their imaginations and their bodies in climbing trees.  This wee man would have been jostled in a crowd, pressing up on his toes only to get knocked over, staring at the backs of other men and women perhaps frustrated by of his diminutive stature. But he is not easily deterred; he is a man who gets what he wants although mostly through use of his power.  Today however, he has success because of some ingenuity and physical prowess - he will run ahead of the crowd and climb a tree to get a birds eye view of Jesus.  Was he trying to be conspicuous and get the attention of Jesus or was he hoping to go unrecognized in this crowd? After all he was a chief tax collector; chief among the corrupt banking elite, getting rich off the backs of the citizenry, colluding with the Romans against them. In this city Zacchaeus would enjoy his own celebrity of sorts.  Truth be told though Zacchaeus is short, he is no victim.  He has been a part of a system that has victimized others and through this he has become rich.  And of all the people in the crowd on this particular day who does Jesus draw attention to, whose name does Jesus say, whose home will Jesus go to - but Zacchaeus'.  Who wouldn't throw up their hands at this! Not Zacchaeus, not his house.  Luke's gospel has contained some difficult stories about wealth - the foolish farmer who builds bigger stores for his grain, the rich man who walked past Lazarus each day, the rich young ruler who walks away from Jesus because the cost of discipleship is too great.  Surely he will rebuke Zacchaeus, not call him!

Zacchaeus is all too eager to welcome Jesus.  People in the crowd suspect this puffs him up - he just got the person of intrigue, the person people are most curious about, to his house.  Of course he did, that scoundrel.  He always gets what he wants.  Will no one deny him? I can feel my own chest tightening at this - think Wall Street corruption.  Mismanaged, dishonest and corrupt companies crumble or are bailed out by government resulting in economic collapse and many of those responsible for engineering the crisis walk away with massive severance pay and protection under the law.   The people in the crowded are justifiably affronted.  Or are they?  This is what Luke is chipping away at in us, in me - who is salvation for: the tax collector, even the chief tax collector, the woman caught in adultery, the one who comes home, the older brother, Lazarus, the Lepers, Nicodemus, the Samaritan - and even me.  This is the good news, that is sometimes hard news.  Because as much as we want people to love, the way the crowds loved Jesus when he rode into Jerusalem, we also want to heap scorn on others - we want to make someone else responsible for all of the injustice in this sad, sorry world.  We want Jesus on our terms just like the crowd on this particular day; just like the people whose cries would move from "Hosanna, Hosanna" to "Crucify Him, Crucify Him"within a week.

So what do we do with the salvation of Zacchaeus? Do you ever feel tempted to stand to the side like the older brother not trusting the refund and restitution cheque he hands you?  So angry that you just might tear it up? And yet all the while in your heart you know the right thing is throw your arms around your brother. But it stings and you grumble about the past and you want to be stingy instead of welcoming the new and generous work that God is doing in Zacchaeus.  Because even the most ethically bankrupt are not beyond his generousity.

If you have been following Jesus for a long you need this story too because it isn't just the story of someone who encounters Christ for the first time and receives salvation.  This is a story about being found, hearing your name and responding to Jesus; this is a story that is instructive for how to live as followers of Christ and sometimes the best people to offer that perspective and instruction are the people who glimpse it and receive it for the first time.  Our relationship with money is slippery isn't it?  We want to hold on, we want to cozy up with the illusion of control and self importance, when the right response to Jesus' grace and generousity to us is to joyfully let go and give back in abundance.  Just like Zacchaeus did.

The last line of this story reads: "for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost." Maybe that line will remind children of our earlier story in Luke - Jesus is the shepherd who will find the one lost sheep, the way he found Zacchaeus in that tree, called him by name and offered him salvation.  Zacchaeus for his part was an eager recipient! I love the physicality of this story - the man running ahead of the crowd, climbing the tree and then scurrying down from it and standing before Jesus to proclaim: "Look Jesus, half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything I will pay them back four times as much."  May we all respond to Jesus with such vigour and whole-hearted expressions of thanksgiving for the generous gift of salvation.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.  "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God I thank you that I am not like the other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.'  I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.'  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner!'  I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."  Luke 18:9-14

This is the second of two parables that Luke tells about prayer.  The first parable told in the first 8 verses of chapter 18 is about a judge and a widow.  The judge is described as a man who neither feared God nor respected people.  The women is a widow who seems to be the victim of a grave injustice and is continually pleading her cause before the judge.  These two people are almost as far a part as two people can be in this society - the judge, a man whose position and gender make him respected and powerful; the widow - a woman would have been among the most vulnerable and least powerful in society.  It is hard to imagine how this woman had the courage to approach the judge in the beginning and harder still to understand why she persisted in pleading her cause before this judge who was known for disrespecting humanity.  As I hear this story, I cringe for this woman making a fool of herself.  Does she not know who the judge is by reputation - he will make a mockery of her. Does she not see how awkward this is? Does she not hear the jokes people are telling about her? And yet the judge does a surprising thing, he relents saying: "though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually complaining."

And Jesus urges his disciples, he urges us, to be like this widow - persistent and courageous.  After all if the judge, as awful as he is, will grant her justice, how much more will God who is just and good and who loves us come to our rescue.  It is the faith of this woman that enabled her to persist and it is faith like this that Jesus is looking for on earth.  By praying continually and not giving up hope we are living out the belief that God has surely not abandoned this world, he has not abandoned us.  In this story the courage and perseverance of this woman are not abstract qualities - they are connected to her prayerful posture, her petitioning of the judge.  And this not only has a value for here and now but in the story it is an eschatalogical necessity.  As we pray about the deep injustice and suffering in this world, in our lives,  we are bearing witness to the world yet to come, this is part of praying 'thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'  Luke's Jesus shows concern for the disciples who must endure, who must pray always and not lose heart.  I wonder how often these stories Jesus told came to mind for the disciples when he was no longer with them.  May the Holy Spirit also grant us courage and persistence in prayer in the midst of our own brokenness and in the face of the grave injustice we see and experience in our world.

The second story, the story which Sunday School centres around today also features two Jewish men: a pharisee and a tax collector.  The pharisee is the good man, the respected man, the religious man, the teacher.  The tax collector is the wealthy man, the crooked man, the dishonest man, the swindler.  And on this day both of them find themselves at the temple; the pharisee prays: 'thank you that I am not like the others: liars, thieves and adulterers and tax collectors.  And by the way, God, I gave a tenth of my income and I fasted twice this week.'  The pride, self-satisfaction and smugness are suffocating.  The tragedy is that somewhere along the way the pharisee has begun to trust in himself, in his own goodness, in his right-ness instead of trusting in the mercy and love of God.

I would hazard a guess that most of us have prayed a prayer something like this in our Christian life.  Maybe our language was a little more nuanced. Maybe we didn't intend to put down addicts and dead-beat dads and when we prayed it, maybe we felt like we really had dodged a bullet in avoiding those sins and calamities and were very grateful. Grateful that we had never fallen off the rails like those unfortunate 'other' people.  Grateful that we had followed all the rules because, look at us, we are pretty good people.  We can hold our heads up before God and say thank you.

The pharisee by contrast stood at a distance, he could not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!' The tax collector caught a glimpse of who he is and who God is and all he could do was beat his chest, praying through tears of contrition.  He sees the truth: he is a sinful man but he is loved by God and he bends toward God in humility, in worship.  In that moment the pharisee understands his salvation as a gift, something he did nothing to deserve.  In this moment he understands that he can trust the mercy and love of God regardless of what he has done.    Can you hear also the contrition of David or Paul crying out: wretched man that I am? Can you remember a time when you have also been overcome with contrition and received the love of God as nothing other than an undeserved gift.  Something you did nothing to earn and nothing you could ever repay.  Something that laid you low before God and at the same time raised your soul to great heights with such freedom.

And then comes the great reversal - remember Lazarus and the Rich Man of a few weeks back, or the one (former) leper who came back to say thank you and was a Samaritan, this book is full of reversals.  And no matter how much we begin to anticipate it - it always leaves us without words: 'The tax collector goes away justified rather than the other.'

At First Baptist Church in Edmonton you can sit in the naeve on a Sunday morning and often you will hear the choir above you singing Kyrie Eleison.  Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy... In the movement of this song, in the plea of the contrite heart for mercy we join our voices with people throughout history, beginning with the tax collector in Jesus' story who beat his hands to his chest and cried out: God be merciful to me a sinner.  It is an ancient prayer.  It is a prayer of few words that express so much: our utter dependancy on God, our thanksgiving for his mercy, our confessed need for Him.  It is a prayer that helps us to understand that it is not by our own goodness that we can come before God but through the mercy and grace of God through the cross of Christ that we are saved.

Our pride is ever before us - slippery and masquerading in all sorts of attitudes where condescension is barely perceptible but present in thanksgiving for what we are not, in thanksgiving for the right ideas that we have about God and the ways and means of being his people.  It is present in the subtle judgements we pass on our brothers and sisters - at least I am not a fundamentalist like her, at least I am not a wishy washy liberal like him,  if I had money like them I would live differently, if only they worked a little more they wouldn't always be so hard up and needing so much help from everyone....  The truth is we cannot get too far out the door without getting tripped up by pride.  How quickly feelings of self-aggrandisement wash over us until we are nearly drowning in them.

And we come to church and we hear: Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.  It is in our worship that we are reminded who we are and who God is.  It is here that we renounce our sin, claim the righteousness of Christ and place our trust in Him, not in ourselves.

It is important that children understand that how we live before God matters deeply but that isn't what saves us.  In the words of Paul: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God!" (Eph. 2:8)  Let us throw ourselves upon God and trust in his unfailing love and unending mercy. Let us trust in his salvation and continue to pray with all humility and with perseverance and courage.

September 25: The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

Jesus told his disciples:  There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.  So he called him in and he asked him:' what is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management because you cannot be manager any longer.'  The manager said to himself what shall I do now?  My master is taking away my job, I'm not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg - I know what I'll do so that when I lose my job here people will welcome me into their houses.  So he called in each one of his master's debtors.  He asked the first, 'how much do you owe my master?' Nine hundred gallons of olive oil, he replied. The manager told him, take your bill, sit down quickly and make it four hundred and fifty.  Then he asked the second, and how much do you owe? A thousand bushels of wheat he replied, take your bill, sit down quickly and make it eight hundred.'  The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.  For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of light.  I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.  Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.  So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?  And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?  No one can serve two masters.  Either you will hate one and love the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.
(TNIV Luke 16:1-13)

Well, if this parable prevents us from anything it is reductionist thinking and the temptation to moralize the story as we are so often eager to do - especially when we are telling stories to children.  We have here an anti- hero - a manager who is about to get fired from his job for wasting the master's possessions and he must make his final accounting before the end of his last shift.  He is obviously somewhat self aware - he knows he is not strong enough for manual labour and he is too proud to beg; from now on he will only get by on the relationships he has in the community.  Recognizing this the manager calls in the debtors and in an attempt to build some good will, he reduces their debts.  We are left to wonder who is absorbing the loss here - is it the manager or is it the master?  Whose money is this to give away? Is this and has this always been at the discretion of the manager?  Does it matter?  The view that he is forgoing any commission is certainly a more generous view of the manager's character but the truth is - we don't know.  The clock is ticking the books need to be reconciled - the suspense is building.  What will happen when the master finds out he has done this?  Will he destroy his reputation and his chances for future work?  Will the master require that he pay back any losses?  No!  What happens is a rather surprising plot twist: the master commends the manager for being shrewd.  At last he is using his wits to do business, it is commendable.  This is a generous response by the master - he sends this man on his way with some encouraging words - 'well done!' There are some clear connections between this parable and the lost son which preceeds this: both have a master/father and a subservient manager/son; in both parables there is a squandering of resources and in both cases there is a generous response by the master/father at the end of the story. What feels a little sticky about this parable is that clearly the manager is acting out of his own self interest.  He does not appear repentant for any mismanagement and is now acting only to save his reputation and to buy his way into people's homes, perhaps even implicating them in the process.  And Jesus commends this - he says the people of this world are more shrewd with their own than the children of light.  In the message Peterson picks up and expands on it saying: "streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law abiding citizens.  They are smarter, on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be the same way - but for what is right - using adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you will live, really live and not complacently get by on good behaviour."

Perhaps the parable is illuminating a way for us to be in the world: smart, be generous and subversive for what we will receive is beyond any human accounting and outside any economy of exchange?  Perhaps there is a slightly ironic and sarcastic tone to these words that Jesus is speaking in verse 9: "And I tell you make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they make welcome you into eternal homes."(NRSV) Perhaps Jesus wants to disposses the disciples of any illusion that dissipating wealth in the hope of securing connections will give them any security or stability.  Getting at a central paradox in the scripture that letting go is the way to have and keeping is the way to lose.  That we must have faith in God to take care of us and thus echoing the exhortation to his disciples in chapter 12 saying: "do not worry about your life, about what you will eat; or about your body what you will wear.  Life is more than food and the body more than clothes... do not be afraid little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.  Sell your possessions and give to the poor.  Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail... for where your treasure is there your heart will be also."

The truth is that mammon -  is our undoing - it always has been.  In verses 10 -13 Jesus is coming back to the first commandment - you shall have no other gods before you.  How many times has Israel had to re-learn this? And how much do we need to hear this today? It is a demanding teaching; it exposes us over and over again.  Mammon can own us in scarcity or abundance.  In its abundance it can inflate our sense of self; it can give us a false sense of security and confidence. In scarcity it can also leave us overcome by fear and feelings of inadequacy.  In both cases it can be the cause of great amounts of anxiety.  And yet when our lives are ordered, when God is our master we can find a way to live that is free and generous whether we have a lot or a little.

This is an interesting text to bring to children - how quickly they too acquire the love of things and how complicit we are in fostering this.  From very early on children are acculturated into excessive and expensive habits and it can be very difficult to disentangle ourselves from this cultural ill that threatens to distort the value of things and relationships.  As teachers and parents how can we find our way and then lead the way for our children?  How can we live in such a way that children don't just know that God's economy operates in a different paradigm but that they get to experience kingdom economics here and now?  How can we be good stewards of what we have been given; generous, smart and even subversive undermining the powers of this age and living into a lasting inheritance?

Or maybe children can teach us - have you ever seen how satisfied young children are with simple things?  We lived in an old house with lead glass at the top of the windows and when the sun would pass through rainbows would dance along the walls.  I cannot tell you how beautiful it was to see children delight in watching and counting rainbows on the wall.  Or maybe you remember how a child is utterly satisfied in being with one who loves them and having the attention of that person.  And maybe deep down we aren't that different.  And maybe it is for this reason that the kingdom of God belongs to children.

I am under increasing conviction that I cannot love God well; love God first; love God best unless I am practicing sabbath.  Unless I am carving out time and space to remember/discover who I belong to, who I am, then I am all too likely to be swept up in the scurry of the week, entangled in disordered priorities and as a result becoming a sloppy manager of what I have been given.  If I am learning to love God and ordering my life out of this I can't expect everything to fall into place or become easy.  In fact some things will become a lot more difficult.  The life of a follower of Christ is demanding - there is no way around this in the gospel. But how we live now matters deeply to God.  So as we live with wealth: the wealth of the kingdom and worldly wealth may God renew our vision for the kingdom of God beyond us and among us.

Lost and Found

My Mom is a pretty resourceful lady with a great talent for recovering things that other people have passed over or thrown out.  Very little was wasted in our home growing up and few things give my mom more satisfaction than finding practical uses for scrap fabric, or sanding down and refinishing a discarded piece of furniture. Her latest project was recovering two very dated reclining chairs; I was openly skeptical of the value of this endeavor but was once again proven wrong when we arrived this summer to see those chairs looking new and inviting in the living room.  And so it comes as little surprise that my mom is also a good thrifter.  This summer when we arrived in Comox she had a stack of books she had gathered on her travels.  At the top of the stack was a copy of Because of Winn Dixie; a touching and poignant story about a young girl named India Opal who was abandoned by her mother at three years of age, her itinerant preacher father, an orphaned dog and a the group of misfits who find one another and themselves along the way.  It is a brilliant little story because it touches so beautifully and truthfully on loss - India's mother does not come home, but India finds a home and a people and a way to live hopefully, even with her sadness.  At the end of the story this rag tag group of people: pinch faced Amanda, the rumoured witch Gloria Dump, Otis who is just out of jail, the orphaned Dog Winn Dixie, the town bullies, India Opal and her Dad are gathered up in old Gloria Dump's house eating egg salad sandwiches and enjoying music.  And sometimes I wonder if that isn't just the type of party that Jesus would show up at.

This theme of lost and found is the theme of our text for this week: the lost sheep and the lost coin.  This is a theme that runs all through scripture.  Think of Adam and Eve hiding from God and yet found by him, remember Cain murdering his brother in a jealous rage and wandering around trying to hide from God, or Jonah running from God and yet being found by Him in the belly of the whale. The story of God carries with it a God who pursues, who finds us, who reaches out to us where we are - hiding in deceit like Adam and Eve, wandering and deep in jealousy and anger like Cain, inside a whale in disobedience like Jonah.  Sometimes being lost is really dramatic and sometimes its a little more subtle, it's a disorientation; we have lost our way even when we seem so close. It is that experience of circling around a neighbourhood looking for the house you were meant to be at ten minutes ago, one you've been to before, knowing you are in the vicinity might help but the truth is - you are still lost.

Jesus tells these stories to two groups of people gathering around to hear him: those who are sinners and those who are teachers of the law and pharisees.  The pharisees are murmuring, muttering in the background - they are scandalized by Jesus, he is eating with sinners, with unclean people.  And cleanliness matters! Meals matter - they are an expression of worship - clean food, clean hands, clean plates, pure hearts - to eat with sinners is blasphemy.

And to this crowd of people Jesus tells three parables. The first is about a shepherd who leaves ninety nine sheep to go looking for one who is lost and then upon finding the one missing sheep, he throws it on his shoulders and hosts a party for friends and neighbours.  The grade three worship bulletin has a little section called "interesting facts" and there it states: a shepherd would not actually leave ninety nine sheep to go and look for one that is missing.  It certainly would be risky business to leave a flock to go and look for just one sheep who didn't have the sense to come home with the others.  Wouldn't it be better to cut your losses and return home with ninety nine?  Even if you left your flock in the care of other shepherds dangers were in the moors: wild animals, rocky crags and cliffs.  But it is a risk this Shepherd must take; he searches for the sheep - you can imagine him calling to the sheep, making noises to try and attract the sheep to him; looking and listening for any clues as to where the sheep might be.  And when the sheep is found he is full of JOY.  The kind of joy that God has when a sinner repents, comes home, is found.

Or what about the woman who turns her house over to find one coin, it clearly states she had nine others.  One coin - one denarius - one days wage and this woman could not afford to lose it. But finding this coin in a poorly lit house with dirt floors is a tall order.  You can imagine her sweeping or running her hand along the floor with one hand and holding the lamp in the other, her heart beating rapidly and her mind racing: where could it have gone, what did she do with it?  Have you ever lost something and felt that surge of adrenalin as you turned your house over, near tears, or called your Mom and asked her to pray that you find your wedding ring or something else of great importance? The woman persists until she finds that coin and when she does she gathers her neighbours and friends to celebrate with her and this little celebration is a glimpse of the celebration God will have at one sinner who is found, who turns to God.  There is a tenderness and an intimacy, something about being known, in these stories. We are all unique, we all have value and matter deeply to God: "O God you search me and you know me, you know when I sit and when I rise, you knit me together in my mothers womb, your eyes beheld my unformed substance." (Psalm 139)

And so back to that sticky matter of eating with sinners - Jesus is also talking about sharing the table with sinners.  Just like the Father in the story of the lost son (which follows the lost sheep and the lost coin).  The younger son doesn't feel worthy to come to the feast his father has prepared for him - he wants to eat with the servants, surely he does not deserve to be the guest of honour at such a lavish celebration. The older son doesn't want to share the table with his brother - after all why should the father throw a party for that scoundrel?  What did he ever do to deserve that?  All his brother did was come home after squandering his fortune.  And yet the Father welcomes both of them to the table, to the feast.  It is a wide and generous invitation for all of us sinners and saints.

It is a pretty incredible story that has become our own story of lost and found.

Let us return home, receive the embrace of the God of love & rejoice together!

The Ascension of Jesus

So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"  He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth."  When he said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.  While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.  They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?  This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way you saw him go into heaven." Acts 1:6-11

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Today (Thursday) is the Feast of Ascension and this Sunday we will reflect on the Ascension of Christ together with the children.  Our season of Easter tide is coming to a close, forty days have passed since the resurrection of Christ and throughout this time he has made appearances to his followers, stretching out his hands to them, breaking bread with them, restoring them, opening the word to them, speaking about the kingdom of God and the coming of the Holy Spirit.  In these Easter stories Jesus often appears unexpectedly: to the women at the tomb, to the disciples in the upper room and then to Thomas. He cooks breakfast on the beach, meets the travellers on the way to Emmaus and at the end of this period he leaves them in a cloud of glory with these words:

"It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth."

As I have contemplated this story I have wondered what it would have been like to witness the ascension - that particular time when the veil between this world and the world to come became very small and God's glory broke through.  I suspect it would have been all at once unsettling, overwhelming and mysterious. I think I might have stood weak kneed and slack jawed as Jesus was lifted out of sight.  Maybe as I went back with the other disciples and talked and prayed I would see it more and more as the gift, the revelation God intended it to be. I wonder if it would continue to minister to me and to teach me throughout my own ministry.  Perhaps after I had absorbed the wonder of the clouds and the vision of Jesus being lifted up before me I would remember Moses and the cloud that settled on the tabernacle; the glory of the Lord - a sign of his divine presence.  As I spoke with the others I would remember the words of the prophets, and the prophet Elijah who was taken to heaven in a chariot and great whirlwind. I would remember the voice of God from the mount of transfiguration saying, "this is my Son, my chosen, listen to him."  And the ascension would become weighted with meaning and beauty that "Jesus would take Earth, in his own person, in his own human body right into heaven" and then we would pray and wait for Spirit is "the life of heaven manifest and powerful here on Earth." (NT Wright).

I wonder if the disciples struggled with fear and anxiety as they waited for the promised Holy Spirit. I wondered if they were comforted and encouraged by one another.  I wonder if they prayed as they had been taught:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever.

... Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  The Kingdom of Heaven glimpsed in Christ. A Kingdom where the God reigns with love, with justice, and in truth.  A Kingdom where not one person is overlooked, where people are made whole, where all of creation is made new.  A Kingdom that has already been established but is not yet revealed in its fullness.

I wonder if there was an anticipation building among them as they waited and prayed.

I wonder if Jesus' words to them as he parted burned in their hearts:

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you..."

"You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth..."

But how, Lord, we wonder as we wait....

Ascension Day

We saw his light break through the could of glory

Whilst we were rooted still in time and place,

As earth became a part of heaven's story

And heaven opened to his human face.

We saw him go and yet we were not parted,

He took us with him to the heart of things,

The heart that broke for all the broken hearted

is whole and heaven-centred now, and sings;

Sings in the strength that rises out of weakness,

Sings through the cloud that veils him from our sight,

Whilst we ourselves become his cloud of witness

And sing the waning darkness into light;

His light in us and ours in him concealed,

Which all creation waits to see revealed.

Malcolm Guite

Ascension and Pentecost are closely linked and I am grateful that the texts of the last couple of weeks have been leading us towards Pentecost. This week as we gather with the children, we celebrate the Ascension of Christ; we give thanks for his life, his death, resurrection, ascension in glory to the right hand of the Father.  We reflect on the time that we live in, the age of the church; what it means that we bear witness to Christ; to be a people who reveal the justice, mercy, love, wholeness of God's Kingdom in our city.

Here are some ideas on how we might teach on the life of Christ and his ascension today:

(from Carolyn Brown)

1.  Gather some images or props from Christ's Life: his birth, his baptism, his ministry, death, resurrection, ascension.  Take some time to share some things you have learned this year about the life of Christ.

2.  Where is Jesus now?  He sits at the right hand of the Father.  People have not seen Jesus since he ascended but people do see Jesus in dreams and visions.  Jesus will come again in the same way he left.  Take some time to think look up some of the references to clouds and the glory of God.  Give children the opportunity to have a creative response to this.

3.  Using the image of passing the baton in a relay race you can discuss with your class, Jesus finishing his leg of the race and passing the baton on to the disciples, to the church.  You could have kids run around a space and pass the baton to illustrate this. How does the church carry on Jesus' work today?

4.  Witness!  What is a witness? Have you ever been a witness to something joyful and good or even to something difficult?  What was this like? How are we witnesses to the love of God?

5.  Why are you looking Up?  This question is a reminder that God is with us, he is all around us wherever we are.  Everywhere we go we can look for where God is at work and we can join him.  It might be in caring for the earth, in gardening this summer, it might be in kindness you show someone, in standing up for what is right or including someone who doesn't have many friends in your group, it might be in welcoming someone who is new in your neighbourhood this summer, it might be in helping your mom or dad, it might be that you look around, see where God is and give thanks.

6.  You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth!  How would this group of disciples begin the work of sharing the gospel with the world?  How do we share the gospel today?  Have your friends ever asked you about God or what it means to be a Christian?  You might want to share a story of a missionary that has impacted your life.

Wedding at Cana!

John 2:1-11
2:1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

2:2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

2:3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."

2:4 And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come."

2:5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

2:6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

2:7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim.

2:8 He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it.

2:9 When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom

2:10 and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now."

2:11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.


I look forward to this text each year during the season of epiphany. After all what better surprise is there than all that water being turned into exquisite wine at a wedding party.  This text provides us with a beautiful picture of the manifestation of God's glory blessing the earthy things of life with a foretaste of the goodness that awaits. A wedding is an ordinary event - if you haven't been to a wedding recently you can likely remember a season of life when weddings dominated conversations and the calendar. All throughout the summer couples litter the lawn of the legislature with their entourages in tow; it is so ubiquitous that it almost fades into the background.  But a wedding is a remarkable event -  two people say 'yes' to one another in spite of the fact that they are sure to disappoint and fail one another and weather the uncertainties and suffering of life. At a wedding two people proclaim the truth that love is stronger than death and surrender to it.

The gospel of John tells the story of a wedding - there is little description given for us to sink our imaginations into – no reporting of what the bride wore and no detail of the food served.  All that we know is that on day three of this particular wedding they were running out of wine.  Now most weddings have a little crisis of planning - at our wedding there was no place for the groomsmen to sleep the night before the big day and there was the small matter of parking meters in downtown Edmonton – nothing too catastrophic.  But this is pretty profound miscalculation and you can imagine the tension mounting under the looming crisis.  The family running around frantically trying to save the situation, maybe calling on favours or trying to broker a deal; in the meantime perhaps some quiet bickering and blaming going on here… I told you that wasn’t going to be enough, you never listen to me…  You can almost hear it can’t you?  Maybe you have your own version of it! Even Jesus’ mother, Mary, gets in on the action here whispering in the way that only a mother can: “Jesus, do something.”  To which Jesus gives a layered perhaps even chilly response: “woman, my hour has not yet come.”  Jesus himself was fully immersed in the complexities of human relationships he was also moving into a public life – revealing himself to the disciples, to the people.

In the midst of weighty expectation and anxious fumbling around – Jesus does something.  He tells the chief steward to fill the pitchers with water and after this is done he instructs him to take a taste to the master of the banquet.  And what the master tastes is wine - the best yet! The pitchers are full; the celebration is on - relief washes over, joy is palpable – it is coursing through them.  There is a new-ness that has come to the celebration – water has become wine – where there was scarcity there is now abundance. 

Jesus blesses the earthy stuff of life – like this wedding – his glory is shot right through it.  In the midst of our own fumbling and weighty expectations and disappointments and wild hope we can see it; it proclaims:

Christ transforms – he makes all things new! And while he revealed his glory turning water into wine that isn’t what transforms us, you see the water in those pitchers was used for cleansing and it becomes wine - something altogether different, something new - the symbol of Christ’s blood, his life; his love poured out on the cross by which we can be made new.  And the cross that was recognized as a sign of death has been transformed - Christians the world over wear it on our necks, hold it in our hands, place it on our churches - because it has become the way of life.  It is nothing less than utter giving, self -giving, forgiving, freely given love.  It is this self giving love Paul is referring to in Ephesians 5 – when he says husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.  And wives submit to your husbands; respect them – there is a mutuality and a reciprocity here – a dimension to this love that mirrors the agape love of Christ which passionately seeks the well being of the other.  When we love one another like this we reflect the redemptive and creative love of Christ – a love that can make beauty from ashes.  And here is why this matters because along with mountain -top moments like a wedding life has its fair share of dashed hopes, bitter disappointments and sadness. And relationships are hard work – we too easily wound one another with words or with silence by what we have done or left undone.  We find ourselves in old patterns and habits AND we long for new – ness.  In Christ we have the proclamation – all things are new.

Christ’s glory proclaims that there is abundance in scarcity! He doesn’t fill the jars half way – he fills them to the brim - all six jars; he feeds thousands on a hillside picnic with the loaves and fish of a child and he will sit with a woman at a well; the noon sun beating down and he will say to her: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst; the water I give them will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  As much as this story whispers about Christ’s death and saving work on the cross – it speaks to life! That is what the reference to the third day is all about - Jesus is hinting at resurrection – he is declaring right there at that wedding - love is stronger than death! He is life! Life full and overflowing! Do you hear the invitation: Come to the water all who are thirsty.  You who have no money come, buy and eat. This is the invitation of a generous God receive it – become it.  Live a life so full of LOVE that it is utterly compelling – offer water to those who have none, share what you have been given. Live a life that does right by others – do justice. In whatever scarcity you may face – remember that God makes streams of water flow in the desert; that Christ is water – this is what Isaiah is prophesies and what Christ proclaims.

Let the story of this wedding reveal Christ, who shows up in the ordinary stuff of life, blesses it and shines his glory through it! Jesus who makes all things new, who brings abundance in the face of scarcity.  Let it reveal God who, through the self sacrificing love of Christ, has offered us forever life and has prepared for us a feast that is yet to come. He has sent the invitation far and wide: receive it, become it.

The Baptism of Jesus, The First Sunday after Epiphany

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
3:15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah,

3:16 John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

3:17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

3:21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened,

3:22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."


Today we celebrate the baptism of our Lord - this story is the story that makes sense of our own baptism and it draws us back to the wonder of God made flesh; the wonder of creation being redeemed and restored through Jesus.  As he passes through water, he blesses it so that we might receive the gift of LIFE as we pass through it.  We need water to survive, to live and to live forever.

Many of the children in our midst have been baptized at an age where they will remember the sacramental rite. The feeling of the water running down their heads or being plunged beneath it, if they were immersed. They may remember the feeling of oil on their foreheads and the warmth of the candle's flame as they held it front of them. Others were babies or young children at their baptism and they may have a picture with their parents and god parents and a candle in their room at home. They will likely know the story of their baptism, if they wailed all the way through it, or slept soundly; who their godparents are; who was present to celebrate with their family. And if they have grown up in the church they will know what it means to be welcomed into the covenant of God and into this family - the church.

Take some time and encourage children to tell what they know of their own baptism or the baptism of a friend or sibling.  Perhaps you will want to have a bowl of water in the classroom maybe you can place it in the centre of the circle or pass it around; encourage children to put their hands in it, to let it run through their fingers. Maybe you want to have a pitcher and give students each a glass of water to drink - reflect on all the ways that we need and use water in our lives.

A couple of years ago Don did a baptismal class for children - it was a simple and yet profound teaching looking at the symbols of baptism: water, oil and light.  In exploring water he first showed a picture of a pregnant woman and talked about how babies grow in the womb - in water - that has wonderful properties enabling life to develop.  We considered how our bodies are comprised of 60% water and how much water our bodies require each day.  He also had an arial view of the world in which we could see the bodies of water on the earth and begin to  grasp how necessary it is for all life on earth.  Finally children put their hands through dirt, before long it was up to their elbows and in their fingernails, if they scratched their nose it was on their faces - it was everywhere.  Though it was fun to muck around in at the beginning, it wasn't long before it was a nuisance to them and they wanted to wash it off.  The children plunged their hands and in some cases their arms into clean water bringing to light the cleansing properties of water and drawing the spiritual parallel of water cleansing us of sin and bringing us to newness of life.

The in the baptismal liturgy we hear the following words read over the water at the baptismal font:

Praise God who made heaven and earth,

All who keeps his promise for ever. 

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

All It is right to give thanks and praise.

We thank you, almighty God, for the gift of water 

to sustain, refresh and cleanse all life. 

Over water the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation. 

Through water you led the children of Israel

from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.

In water your Son Jesus received the baptism of John 

and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, 

to lead us from the death of sin to newness of life.

We thank you, Father, for the water of baptism.

 In it we are buried with Christ in his death.

 By it we share in his resurrection.

 Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit. 

Therefore, in joyful obedience to your Son,

we baptize into his fellowship those who come to him in faith.

Now sanctify this water that, by the power of your Holy Spirit, 

they may be cleansed from sin and born again. 

Renewed in your image, may they walk by the light of faith 

and continue for ever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Lord; 

to whom with you and the Holy Spirit

be all honour and glory, now and for ever.

All Amen.

Take some time to give thanks for the sacrament of baptism, for Jesus who identified with us in baptism and leads us into life; give thanks for the forgiveness of sins, for a God who makes all things new.

This might be a good opportunity to share about what your baptismal identity means to you.  You may also want to invite someone to come participate in your class and share about their baptism and what it means to them.  Perhaps this conversation will spill over to the dinner table.  

May God fill you with his Spirit as you prepare; may the time you spend in preparation and with children this week be full of thanksgiving and joy.