Year: 2011

Jewelery, Black History Month and the Kingdom of God

I’m not much for jewelry. Apart from our wedding rings, the only jewelry that I ever bought for Sylvia was an opal necklace. But to demonstrate how inattentive I can be to such things, I didn’t even notice the tiny little diamond embedded in the necklace. Truth be known, I wouldn’t have bought the thing if I did see the diamond – both because it is so tiny that it adds nothing to the opal (which is beautiful) but also because the odds are that this diamond was mined with near slave labour.

Jewelry and slavery are often not that far apart. Precious minerals and gems are the stuff of masters, not slaves. These are the treasured possessions of the aristocracy, indeed, of royalty.

So when Jesus says that his Kingdom is like a lost treasure that a woman will turn things upside down to find, or that it is like a pearl of great price, he’s tapping into this human desire for things of immense value. This treasure, this pearl, he is saying, are the royal jewels of his Kingdom.

But that is where the analogy ends. I mean it doesn’t help slaves to be told that the Kingdom is like the gems and minerals that they are forced to mine in a context of brutal and violent oppression. It might not be such a great metaphor for Black History month in Ontario.

But Jesus also says that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, something small that grows into a bush of safety and rest for all who come to it. And the Kingdom of God is like a little leaven that a woman puts into a lump of dough and before she knows it the whole lump has been leavened.

The Kingdom of God is like the hope for freedom that burns in the heart of oppressed peoples from the slave plantations of America to the streets of Egypt. The Kingdom of God is like the longing for home that will rise up like grass through cement amongst the homeless. The Kingdom of God is like a treasure of dignity, welcome and justice that a single mom will go through hell and high water to secure for her kids.

The aspirations and hopes of the Kingdom, the radical hope of Jesus, is like a leaven that will permeate and transform everything. In 19^th century America this hope empowered Afro-American slaves to wade in the waters of liberation from their slavery.

This, my friends, is a pearl of great price. At Wine Before Breakfast this week we’ll have a little peak at the jewels of the Kingdom.

Andrew Federle will break the bread and open the word.
Joanna Moon has written her first ever prayer litany (yea! Joanna!)
And the Bandhood will call us to songs of subversion.

The first Wine Before Breakfast service was on September 18, 2001. Gathering one week after the events of 9/11, it was only appropriate that the service took the form of lament.

During the prayer litany, the gathered congregation was asked,
“How long? How long must we sing this song?”

And their reply was, “Till we get the healing done.”

As some of you will recognize, this is a question from U2’s “40” that is answered with a line from Van Morrison.

“Till we get the healing done.”

Not too long ago I was at the Church of the Redeemer when they had prayers for healing. Essentially, anyone who wanted such prayers and the laying on of hands would go up to the communion rail, while the rest of us quietly waited and listened to a guitar/piano duo do an amazingly sensitive and appropriate jazz improvisation on a few tunes.

How long would we wait before the service would move on to the Eucharist?

“Till we get the healing done.”

But there was something about the music that was being played that was itself deeply healing. I didn’t go up to the front for prayer, but felt that I was been ministered to in my own places of deepest hurt and disappointment, my own places of unhealth, as I listened to the music.

Music has a way of doing that to you. Music is one of the most powerfully healing gifts that God has given to us in a creation of sound, vibration, sight, tone, imagery and words. And that is really at the heart of the Bandhood of all Believers at WBB. They play for us every week, “till we get the healing done.” Sometimes the healing will require exposing some raw places in our lives, sometimes the healing will require a good cry, sometimes it will require a good laugh. Whatever it takes, the Bandhood is in the Healing Game.

Some folks don’t like healing. They generally don’t like music either. Or at least if they do like music it will be music that can be kept safely in the background. Nothing that would challenge them, insinuate itself into their lives, perhaps even bring healing.

So this Tuesday we’ll meet some folks who get pretty upset when Jesus starts healing people. Heck, they’ll even call him a child of Satan, while the crowds are amazed and are pretty convinced that Jesus is the son of David.

That’s the kind of crap that Jesus had to put up with. People who can’t speak or see get their voice and their vision, while folks who supposedly have sight and the ability to speak, remain blind and only speak lies.

This week at Wine Before Breakfast we’ll hang out on the corner where Jesus is still in the healing game, against all opposition and slander.

Van Morrison might also make an appearance (of sorts).

Deb and the band will continue their ministry of healing in our midst.
Amy Fisher will open up Matthew 12 with us.
Talina’s got the prayers.
And Judith Alltree, who was there on September 18, 2001, will break the bread and pour the wine.

Wine Before Breakfast
Tuesday, February 8 @ 7.22am
Wycliffe Chapel

New Wine…Before Breakfast

Something new is going on.

The lame walk,
sinners are forgiven,
bureaucrats of the empire are leaving their jobs,
and all the wrong people are coming to dinner parties.

“You know that something is happening,
but you don’t know what it is,
do you, Mr. Jones?”

The scribes figure that this is all blasphemy.
The man presumes to forgive sins!

The Pharisees are offended by the dinner guests.
Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

And even John’s disciples are confused.
What’s with all this eating and drinking when we’ve all got used to fasting and John’s rather limited wilderness diet?

And Jesus replies:
in a world of human brokenness and sin we are called to be priests pronouncing forgiveness;
remember, God requires mercy, not sacrifice;
and don’t go pouring new wine into old wineskins.

At Wine Before Breakfast, we are all called to priestly ministry!
We all have the vocation of forgiveness!
We are all called abandon our service to the empire and embrace priestly ministry in the kingdom.
We are all called to the banquet of sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors
– Jarvis Street, Bay Street, and St. George Street all at the same party!
It is an early morning party!
A Wine Before Breakfast party!
A new wine party!

Let’s be careful that we don’t constrain that new wine in old wine skins.

Come on out to the party on Tuesday morning at 7.22am.
Forget your perfect offering.
You see, only sinners are invited.
Know any other sinners to bring along?

Andrew Asbil will join the rest of us priests in breaking the bread, pouring the wine and opening the word.

Wine Before Breakfast
Tuesdays @ 7.22am, Wycliffe College Chapel
Breakfast to follow

Dear Wine Before Breakfast friends:

I am not a person who has many enemies. You know, real enemies. Not just people who maybe don’t like me, but people who are a threat to my very life.

But every time I come to Central America I am confronted by the reality of violence. Stories of the military murdering people in a church. Stories of exhuming the bones of children who were massacred.

When you face that kind of brutality it is not surprising that people develop deep hatreds. Indeed, the very sight of a uniformed soldier in the context of a military dictatorship can occasion fear and anger.

Jesus must have known such emotions. He grew up in a military dictatorship. He had seen the brutality of the occupying forces. He undoubtedly had heard the stories of Herod’s violence shortly after his birth. Some of those murdered boys could have been his cousins.

But his Kingdom was bigger than either the Roman empire or the nationalist zeal and revolutionary fervor of Israel. His Kingdom faced the violence but refused to ape it.

While this is demonstrated most radically on the cross, the expansive nature of his Kingdom was also evident throughout his ministry.

A Roman centurion  comes to Jesus to ask for the healing of his servant. He knows that he doesn’t really have any basis for the request. He wouldn’t be surprised if Jesus told him to go to hell, but somehow the stories about Jesus gave him courage to make his request.

And Matthew tells us that Jesus was amazed at the centurion’s faith and he healed the servant.

This is an expansive love, and it is offensive. This is offensive to every mother who has lost a son to a military junta. This is a slap in the face to every 1^st century Jew or 21^st century Latin American who has had to live under a state sponsored violence that has stripped them of their land, the livelihood, their hope, their children.

This is the breadth of the Kingdom.

I’m in Costa Rica as I write this and I look forward to returning to Toronto on Monday evening in order to be with you all at Wine Before Breakfast on Tuesday.

Sara will be preaching,
Judith will break the bread,
and Deb Whalen will be leading the WBB Band.

Welcome back to WBB. If you want to bring some muffins or other baked goods, let Sara know.

Wine Before Breakfast
Tuesday, January 11 @ 7.22am
Wycliffe College Chapel