St. Andrew's Sermons

It is always interesting, at this time of year, to listen to the reviews and reflections on the year that is just ending, and the predictions and prognostications about the year that is just beginning. Radio stations and internet sites recount the best songs of the year, the best youtube videos, the best movies, the best news stories. On the television, in newspapers and in personal conversations, we hear all manner of speculations on what were the most significant moments of the past year, who were the most important people, and how the events of the past year will affect us as we move forward in our personal lives, and in our life together as a human community.

By most of the accounts that I have heard so far, the past year has not been deemed to be an entirely easy one. The continuing war in Iraq and Afghanistan filled us with a sense of despair about the possibility of concluding that conflict in a just, healthy and peaceful way. The tumult in the economic market affected many people’s lives, and there is still uncertainty as to whether the supposed recovery is as stable as we might hope. We were shocked to discover that an influential group of environmental scientists has been manipulating their research on the causes of climate change, and the recent gathering of world leaders in Copenhagen seems to have produced little more than an increased amount of hot air in an already overheated environment. Over the past year, we came to realize that the new American president may not be able to accomplish everything that he wants to do quite as easily as he had hoped, and that the world’s greatest athlete is not quite as exemplary a role model as had previously been assumed.

In our own city, the resolution to the garbage strike made us all question why there had been a strike at all, the bickering of our municipal politicians not only continued, but will likely only increase as the mayoralty race nears, and we all will be facing a fare hike on the subway, even though we all know that the fare hike will not be enough to cover the projected deficit of our public transit system.

In the midst of all of these times of ambiguity and change in our city, we can, however, take some level of consolation in one certain and unchanging constant in our life together. And that constant is that we can all safely assume that the Stanley Cup will not be coming to Toronto for any length of time in the near future.

In our own congregation, the good news that the massive West Tower project was successfully completed last year is followed by the somewhat less good news that the work on this beautiful building is not done yet. In many ways, it was a good year, financially, but we are still continuing to subject the hard-working members of the Board of Managers and Session to the perplexing challenge of seeking to address issues of stewardship in light of the fact that our congregational givings do not fully support the ministries of the congregation, causing us to continue to over-rely on income from our congregational trust funds. And in the midst of these large, expensive and necessary projects and the ongoing call to faithful stewardship, we find ourselves troubled by the increasing numbers of guests at our congregation’s “Out of the Cold” programme this year, even as we continue to be confronted with the challenge to make visionary decisions that will enhance and strengthen our witness to faith, to hope and to love here in the heart of downtown Toronto.

And the complex and uncertain times that confront our world, our city and our congregation are equally true in many of our own lives. Many of us have ourselves faced, or have had loved ones who are facing times of uncertainty in their working lives, or who are struggling through times of sickness and decline in mind and body, or who are experiencing times of loss, sadness, and breakdown in their relationships, in their families and in their marriages.

And so, as we end one year and begin another, we find ourselves asking many big questions that cause us to face the future filled with a sense of uncertainty. Will the economic recovery hold? Will the war in Afghanistan continue to claim the lives of so many young Canadian soldiers? Will we discern what will be necessary in order to undo the damage that we have done to the environment? And how can we make the best and wisest decisions -- as a country, as a city, as a community, and as a congregation, and in our personal lives -- that will ensure that we will journey into the future filled with a greater sense of vision, courage, confidence and certainty?

Today’s suggested reading from Jeremiah invites us to catch a glimpse of the people of Israel in a similarly uncertain time in their life together. As those of you who have read the text will know, much of the Book of Jeremiah is a rather mournful and despairing text, in which the prophet Jeremiah railed against the idolatry and injustices that were plaguing God’s people, and warned in ominous tones about the exile that was about to beset them. To a people who were assuring themselves – and who were sometimes being assured by many of their political and religious leaders – that all was well, Jeremiah spoke the unpopular message that God was not pleased with the people, and that there were going to be consequences for that divine displeasure. The people who had been called and chosen, by God, to be a light to the nations and to show the world what a community formed in response to the God of holiness, of justice and of love looked like, had allowed levels of injustice and of unfaithfulness to mark their life together. And Jeremiah had been sent to deliver the profoundly unpopular message that the impending exile would be a both a sign of God’s displeasure, and would also serve as a necessary corrective to the people’s behavior.

But not all of the Book of Jeremiah is doom and gloom. The reading that we are invited to ponder on this particular Sunday in the church year is taken from a beautiful section of Jeremiah in which the dominant theme is not judgement and condemnation, but rather hope and consolation.

In verses 7 to 9, we read,

For thus says the LORD: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, "Save, O LORD, your people, the remnant of Israel."

See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.

With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back,

And then, in verses 12 to 14, we read,

They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again.

Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says the LORD.

To a people in that time of uncertainty, of fear, of poverty, of failure, and of challenge, God’s words were filled with comfort, with hope, and with vision. But what is interesting to realize is that this restoration to hope would not be a consequence of the people’s own efforts, nor in anything that they could accomplish for themselves. Rather, the way that their time of uncertainty would be overcome would be because God would act on their behalf – God’s grace would save them and lift them out of their trouble and from their uncertainty. To a people who had failed to be the people that God had called them to be – and who, therefore, were facing the uncertain and potentially devastating consequences of their unfaithfulness -- the prophet spoke words about a God who was inviting them to overcome their despair with hope; a God who was calling them to shout with gladness and sing with joy; a God who would gather them together, into a restored community, from all around the world; a God who would turn their mourning into joy and transform their sorrow into gladness.

God was still God. And, for that reason, the prophetic hope for those ancient people was that the people would hear and respond to God’s invitation to face their difficulties, their uncertainties, and even their times of despair, with a renewed faith in the God who still loved them, and who still had the power to overcome the troubles that were confronting them, who was still faithful to them.

Because God would never leave them or abandon them; they, in response, could face the future faithfully.

Although we did not read the 31^st chapter of Jeremiah in its entirety this morning, it is interesting to realize that it is from this same chapter of Jeremiah that we find the promise that this restoration and hope would be revealed in a new covenant, a covenant that would be rooted in grace.

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

It is this vision of a new covenant from Jeremiah that Christ himself was referring to when he broke bread and shared a cup of wine with his friends, and said, “this cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood”. In Jesus Christ, the grace of God was revealed, once, for all, and for all time – and was revealed to be a grace that could not be overcome by any level of challenge, any form of hatred, any moment of uncertainty, any form of despair – not even death itself.

And it is this same covenant of grace that continues to stand at the heart of the Christian faith. Regardless of the situation in which we find ourselves, our hope – even in times of uncertainty, of challenge and of fear – is rooted, not in our own goodness or power, but in our belief that God’s grace and God’s love are still sufficient for every challenge that lies before us.

And so, we begin this New Year, confident that whatever challenges and uncertainties lie before us, we are called to face the future with faith.

Because God is still God.

So now, to the One who is able to do abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus, both now and forevermore, Amen.