"I'm a stranger here myself"

Induction Service

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Richard Fee

Isaiah 54:1-3; 7-8

Psalm 39:1-13

Ephesians 2:11-22

BEING REAL

There is told a story of a family which, one day following church services goes to a local restaurant.  The father, mother, older daughter and young son file into the type of restaurant that we know all so well.  The vinyl-seat-covers-of-the-booths, the juke-box-in-the-corner, the greasy-spoon type of restaurant. 

They are welcomed by the veteran waitress who points, but does not lead them, to their table.  She is a waitress who has seen it all, a bit surely, will take no guff, whose blonde coiffure is highlighted by her rhinestone studded glasses. 

Placing the large ice filled glasses of water on the table she takes out her menu order form and asks, “What’cha all want today?” 

The mother commences by stating, “I will have the Sunday special, roast beef, mashed potatoes, peas, Yorkshire pudding and peach cobbler for desert.”  The father chimes in, “I will have the same.”  The daughter smiles charmingly and declares, “I will have the same.”

Turning towards the young son, the waitress raises her eyes above her glasses, arches her eyebrows, and asks, “And you, kid, what do you want?”

“I’ll have a hot dog.”

“In unison, mother and father, with smiling approval from the daughter, loudly declare, “No hot dog.  He will have the Sunday special as well.”

Never lifting her eyes from the menu order form, the waitress says clearly, “What’cha want on your hot dog?”

“Ketchup, lots of ketchup”, he replies.

“You got it, kid.” And she turns away towards the counter and the open hatch of the kitchen.

The son, sheepishly looks at his parents and states, “She thinks I’m real.”

I do not share this story for its insights - or lack thereof – on parenting, waiting on tables, nor on nutrition.

Rather, I believe it does speak about those people – who, although perhaps ever so close to us, are sometimes not seen as “REAL” or who are not taken seriously.

SCRIPTURE

Our readings from Isaiah and Ephesians speak of inclusion, welcome, expansion, of having consideration for the role of “the others”, the “unreal”.

The problem of inclusion was before Isaiah.

Speaking to the heart of a destroyed Jerusalem, with the homeland ruled by aliens,

with few exiles likely to return from their captivity,

the prospects for regaining strength and realizing fulfillment of the promises of God were limited.

Still Isaiah declares that God will bring increase.

“…lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes…do not hold back^.”

Isaiah gives a vision for a peaceful expansion beyond the borders of Judah not by conquest of neighbours. 

Isaiah does not solely speak of numerical growth but points to the areas of life where the richness of the faith would be shared with those drawn in for spiritual strength.

Isaiah hints that just perhaps there might be communion with God beyond the fold of the nation.

God is Lord of the universe.

God enters into fellowship with those chosen for the redemption of the entire human race.

Isaiah points prophetically towards the radical nature of a welcoming, inclusive and loving God.

Isaiah addresses the presence – the existence – of those “others” – so near – and yet those not considered “real” by the people of Israel.

Prior to this prophetic insight, all peoples, in their grasping at an understanding of the ground of all being, proscribed their gods – limiting them to field, family, fealty.

But Isaiah hints at what will be fulfilled by the coming Messiah.

Our reading from Ephesians this evening brings forth this very real human feeling.  Aliens and strangers to the covenant, having no hope, without God. 

But Paul in this letter announces the radical good news – that Gentile Christianity stands on an equal footing with Jewish Christianity. 

Previously strangers, now full inclusion.

Now REAL.

The outreach by the early Christians – by the Jewish Christians –

the outreach to Gentiles – changed everything.

This was cataclysmic.

Suddenly all 5,000 plus laws and proscriptions were under review.

There was no longer the possibility of two messages going out – one for the Jews and one for the “others”.

Peter and Barnabas gave up this idea and struggle for a season.

Paul alone carried it forward.

The reading of ancient texts was now radically different.

Reading Isaiah was seen through new eyes.

^“Enlarge the site of your tent, … lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes…”

Is this what was really meant even by Isaiah?

If community will continue to mean “coming together to defend against” –

now, then, against what are we defending?

If we are to confront evil together,

against what evil are we to defend?

Jesus says, wait!  Do you not see, hear, understand?

My father is the foundation, not just of this forest, field, or fiefdom but of the infinite universe.

Each person has a role, a worth.

Each is to be welcomed.

THE CHALLENGE

The challenge is this: this is the church.

This is the meeting point.

This is the collection of strangers, sojourners, aliens.

This is the community.

What are the obstacles that prevent lengthening the cords of inclusion?

What are the obstacles that prevent us from strengthening our stakes of rootedness in the truths of the faith?

Rowan Williams states it this way, “The Church exists to be in itself a symbol of God’s purpose for a reconciled humanity; as such it works on the assumption that we do not yet know where the boundaries of the Body of Christ might finally lie.  …the call of God can be addressed to any human person or community, and that it is the same call to compassion, justice, conscious and responsible love.  The Church proclaims that there is one human destiny and that it is found in relation to one focal figure, Jesus; but also that what this human destiny means cannot be worked out without ‘communion’, a relation of profound and costly involvement with each other and receiving from each other.  Only as each different ‘other’ becomes a friend and a member of the Body can we discern how the unity of the Body will look; we do not begin with a blueprint which is to be forced on a stranger, or even a timetable and a programme for how they must accept the gospel.  It is a matter of looking at the stranger with candour, patience and hope, in the trust that our common destiny can be uncovered by the grace of Christ.”  Pg 27  Rowan Williams, The Truce of God

ST ANDREWS

Here at St Andrew’s, the induction of your new minister is a recommitment that you wish to go on as a community. 

The induction of your new minister is a recommitment that you desire to lengthen your cords to create a welcome for those not yet “real” to you.

The induction of your new minister is a recommitment that you wish to strengthen your stakes which are those things that hold fast your habitation in the winds and furies of these days.

A challenge given to law students at the University of Ottawa regarding what cases they may eventually take on, spoken on September 4, 2007 by Mahar Arar, but equally applicable to the members of St Andrew’s, King Street was this:  “Who will you include and who will you exclude.” 

PRESBYTERIAN MAN

Tonight there is a challenge to St Andrew’s and to Will Ingram. 

Do we return to the “unreal” days of “Jews” and “Gentiles”?

Do we return to our own Canadian Tire tent and batten down the pegs?

Are you prepared to lengthen the cords of this venerable church?

Are you prepared to strengthen the stakes of your moorings in the faith of Jesus Christ?

The road is not clearly defined.

The winds are howling.

The sands are swirling and shifting.

In her column of (yesterday) September 15, 2007 Christie Blatchford wrote about what women “fall for” in a man. 

She wrote, “Who falls for that kind of schmaltz?  Who expects it and is wooed by it?  I grant you, I am more accustomed to the Presbyterian model of man, who tends to the taciturn and who believes sharing is what you may do with a meal but not with feelings.”  Globe and Mail, pg A23.

The Guardian newspaper recently wrote this: “Britain’s new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is a son of a minister of the Church of Scotland – Protestantism does not get more muscularly reserved than that – and his political appeal is based much more on experience than empathy.” 

DIANA

It was a telling moment as recounted by a former press secretary to the Queen when, following the death of Princess Diana, he encountered a group of wheelchair users on their way to lay flowers at Kensington Palace.  “They were saying, ‘Who’s going to speak for us, now?”  They had a point.  The disabled: who’s going to speak for them?  The AIDS patients: who’s going to speak for them?  The drug addicts, the down-and-outs, the homeless, the elderly?  Diana was their voice and drew attention to their plight.” 

Members of St Andrew’s enlarge the site of your tent and let the curtains of your habitation be stretched; do not hold back; lengthen your cords.

CHILD’S QUESTIONING

Elie Nasrallah in a Globe and Mail article on July 31, 2007 wrote of his five-year-old daughter entering the universe of philosophy, theology and reason when she asked for God’s phone number.  He admits that he lost her at that moment to the realm of thought, and forces over which he had no control.  “Nothing was going to be the same from that moment on: she is a thinking human being conscious of her reality and trying to make sense of this universe.”  He realizes that children’s spontaneous questions are nothing short of miracles.  “They challenge you…they demand forthrightness and honesty; they possess no political malice; they tolerate little ambiguity.”   He reflects more deeply about his daughter and concludes this, “…behind our culture’s façade of indifference to these mighty matters lurks the constant yearning of human beings to come to terms with the ultimate questions of existence.  From that perspective, I am at peace, in mind and spirit, armed with the conviction that Jessica has started the journey of wisdom by simply asking a rational question that has no rational answer.” 

Will Ingram, strengthen your stakes for the challenges of faith and questioning.

THE HOKEY POKEY

On one of my occasional visits back to my hometown I did what all citizens of Killam, Alberta and district are wont to do on a daily basis.  I went to the “drug store”.  Everything from detergent to diuretics to baby diapers, from pills to plaster casts of Elvis, this is the quintessential one-stop shopping.  Passing the greeting card section, I came to the fridge magnet section.  Not to be sneezed at, this display could rival any urban super chain.  One fridge magnet caught my attention. 

“What if”, the magnet urged me to ponder, “What IF the hokey pokey IS what it’s all about?” 

And as proof of the success of commercialization and capitalism gone rabid, I bought the fridge magnet. 

And I have been pondering the question ever since.

We gather this evening to induct a new minister here at St Andrew’s, King Street.

This church is not our church.

This message is not our message.

This is the house of God.

This tent is the dwelling place of the creator of all.

This message is from God’s own son, sent to show us the way.

This is in real time.

This is about being real.

This is for real people.