Sunday January 27th 2008

SCRIPTURE:   John 9: 1-41

REFLECTION  BY

THE REV. PAUL MULLEN

AT

SCARBORO UNITED CHURCH, CALGARY

JANUARY 27, 2008

“WHEN WE CHOOSE TO LIVE”

I want to begin by thanking you for the call to be your minister and the warm and sustained welcome you have given us. Jeanne and I are delighted to be here and we look forward to our time together. Thank you as well for presenting me with these symbols and entrusting me with the aspects of ministry they represent. I am honoured by the trust you have placed in me.

I am also aware that we are in the honeymoon phase of our relationship and I do hope that will continue for a while. At the same time I am aware that some will be starting to realize that I am merely human. And that is a good thing.

One thing I have learned in my ministry is that conflict is inevitable, shalom or  just-peace, is optional. I haven’t been in Calgary long enough to discover if you have Co-op taxis here like they do in Edmonton. It seems like every trip I made I ended up at some point behind a Co-op taxi. The reason I noticed and remembered is that every cab had their slogan on the back window:  “Safety is an attitude, attitude is everything.”  I would like to revise that and say that God's peace is an attitude, attitude is everything.

I have come to believe that having an attitude of peace is a choice. Having an attitude of reconciliation is a choice. We can read about it in Deuteronomy 30:19‑20 where a dying Moses says to the Hebrew people before they enter the Promised Land, “I am now giving you the choice between life and death, between God's blessing and God's curse, and I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Choose life. Love the Lord your God, obey him and be faithful to him, and then you and your descendants will live long in the land that he promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

On the Midrash discussion I take part in through the Internet. a minister who is approaching retirement shared a story. The church he began his ministry in had two different groups who each "owned" a locking (and locked) cabinet in the church basement, each with their own tableware and cutlery.  Each group refused to share with the other. At church dinners, whether or not there would be enough plates and cutlery to go around, depended on who was on the outs with whom. The real tragedy is that he returned for an anniversary celebration decades later and  the cabinets were still locked, and the fractures within the community had yet to be healed. The divisions were the result of personal ill will, and showed themselves in the availability (or not) of plates, knives and forks at church dinners.

The minister noted that "This kind of  ‘silly’ division in a church is really not silly at all, divisions like this make it difficult for the community actually to be a community. Worship, Christian formation, fellowship, works of kindness and mercy, all these and more are compromised, and even made impossible, by division."

Unaddressed conflict makes it all but impossible to carry out our mission and outreach. Conflict needs to be named, engaged in a reconciling way, negotiated or accepted and lived with in order to do what we are called to do.

Please don’t think that problems and conflict are new to the church or only happen in “some churches”. When the Apostle Paul was going from place to place starting new churches he wrote letters to them. Sometimes we think he was simply spelling out how Christians should act. A closer reading (and not much closer) reveals that he was writing because their conflicts were deep, sometimes abusive and threatened to tear apart these new communities of faith. Listen to Paul's plea for a change in attitude at Corinth(1 Corinthians 3:2‑9):

“When there is jealousy among you and you quarrel with one

another, doesn't this prove that you belong to this world, living by its

standards? When one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow

Apollos’‑‑‑ aren't you acting like worldly people? After all, who is

Apollos?  And who is Paul?  We are simply God's servants, by whom

you were led to believe. Each one of us does the work which the Lord

gave him to do: I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plant, but it was

God who made the plant grow. The one who plants and the one who

waters really do not matter. It is God who matters, because God makes

the plant grow. There is no difference between the one who plants and

the one who waters; God will reward each one according to the work

each has done. For we are partners working together for God, and you

are God's field.”

To help the church today the Sisters of St. Joseph, Concordia, Kansas, composed these Beatitudes of Reconciliation to help us all develop an attitude of peace, an attitude of reconciliation.

Blessed are those who are willing to enter into the process of being healed,

for they will become healers.

Blessed are those who recognize their own inner violence,

for they will come to know non‑violence.

Blessed are those who can forgive self,

for they will become forgivers.

Blessed are those who are willing to let go of selfishness and self‑centredness,

for they will become a healing presence.

Blessed are those who will listen with compassion,

for they will become compassionate.

Blessed are those who are willing to enter into conflict,

for they will find transformation.

Blessed are those who know their interdependence with all creation,

for they will become unifiers.

Blessed are those who live a contemplative life stance,

for they will find God in all things.

Blessed are those who strive to live these beatitudes,

for they will become reconcilers.

May God s  just-peace,  God s shalom, be with you all.    Amen.