Oct 31 2021 – Sunday Worship Posted

Good Morning,

My hope is that you have had a wonderful week! With the slow but sure opening up of public spaces there is an optimism that seems to match the brilliant colors of the leaves that marks the changing of the seasons.

The reflection this week is entitled Beyond the Golden Rule.  We will reflect on the relationships we have with our neighbors and on imperative of Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves.

If you would like to have a pastoral visit – in person, by phone or over Zoom – please reach out and we will set a time to be meet.

With Blessings,

Patrick

Announcements

Remembrance Day service of worship

Our Remembrance Day Service of worship will be held on Sunday, November 7^th.

Remembrance Day masks

Brenda had created a special mask for Remembrance Day.  Members of the congregation are encouraged to pick one up at Service next week and wear it during the week before Remembrance Day as well as during our service of worship on Sunday, November 7^th.

In appreciation of Brenda’s time and talent, Session would encourage all who are able to make special goodwill offering.  While these creations are priceless, a minimum donation of $10.00 per mask would be gratefully received.

Christmas Poinsettias

Again this year we will be ordering poinsettias.  As has been our practice we will have them available for pick-up on the first Sunday of Advent – November 28^th .  This means that the final date for placing an order is November 21^st.   The ordering brochure to the bottom of this e-mail.

As it previous years we will decorate the Sanctuary for the Advent and Christmas season and deliver Christmas flowers to our members who are unable to join us for worship on a regular basis.  If you would like to contribute to these purchases please speak to Brenda, place a donation in the offering plate marked poinsettias or transfer your donation to Ken.

Brenda has agreed to take the lead again this year; however she needs help! If you are willing and able to assist with any of these tasks, please talk directly to Brenda.  She will need help with

1. Collecting orders and payment
2. Picking up the flowers
3. Distributing the flowers
4. Delivering the flowers to those unable to attend

Covid-19 Double Vaccination Protocol

Under the guidance of the Presbytery of Brampton, Session has adopted a new double-vaccination protocol.  What this means is that for the safety of the members of our congregation, anyone attending a service of worship will be required to be double vaccinated.  The exception to this rule is children under the age of 12 for whom the vaccination is not available.  It also means that the capacity limits for attendance at worship have also been lifted as a result of the latest provincial government announcement.

We will also continue to follow the public health guidance including keeping physical distance, not socializing inside the sanctuary and wearing masks during service.  We also expect that anyone who is exhibiting symptoms or who has been travelling will remain home for the week.

Weekly Reflection:

I will continue to e-mail the Scripture lessons and Reflection each week.  Additionally, I will attach links to the music that we will be using during the worship service.

With Thanksgiving & Blessings

Patrick

Worship October 31, 2021

Music:

• # 314: God is love, come heaven adoring

o   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvidkf4XuVU

• # 489: Help us to help each other Lord

o   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TnXdgPCBNU

• # 471: We are one in the Spirit

o   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGD_BFSf90c

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 13: 1-8a

13 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends.

Mark 12: 28-34

²⁸ One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; ³⁰ you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³² Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; ³³ and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

Reflection:  Beyond the Golden Rule

They were neighbors. Some would say friends.

They shared a fence.  They shared conversation.   They both enjoyed a good meal with a nice bottle of wine: so often they shared fellowship around a table where there were stories and laughter.

Until one day there was an incident.  No one is quite sure what it was:  some say one of the neighbours borrowed a ladder from the garden of the other with-out asking permission; others say it was an argument about their views concerning vaccinations; while others concluded that it must have been something more than that. Because the conversation stopped … the fences got taller … and there was no more laughter heard from around a table shared in fellowship.

There was recognition that what the one neighbor did to offend the other could have come from their different expectations of what it meant to be a good neighbour.  For they were people from different cultures, who were raised in different parts of the world; they had had different parents and upbringings that led them to different expectations of what were normal and acceptable neighbourly interactions; they had learned different perspectives related to morality and ethics; and they had had different experiences that led to different expectations of what it meant to live in community. …  No different than any other person that has ever lived, each one of them had been shaped by their upbringing and their environment.

One of the neighbours, the one who had been offended, his position to his Christian neighbour by paraphrasing the Bible. He was adamant that what had happened should not have happened … and that it would not have happened if the Christian had only followed this one teaching of Jesus – Do unto others as you would have them do on to you.

The neighbor was quoting what is know as the Golden Rule: the principle of treating others as one wants to be treated.  It is a maxim that is found in most religions or cultures and can be considered an ethic of reciprocity.

I expect that most of us who are gathered here today have heard of the Golden Rule before.  And if you are like me you have probably taught it to your children.  And perhaps without question you too have associated the Golden Rule with the passage from Scripture we read today or with the parallel stories that are told in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, for we remember the words of Jesus: “the second commandment is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (pause)

If both were attempting to follow the Golden Rule, why were they unable to resolve their differences?  Did they misunderstand or misinterpret what Jesus was teaching?  Or is the lesson of Jesus in the situation described in Mark’s Gospel not applicable or relevant to the disagreement of the neighbors?  (pause)

The context of Mark’s story is a discussion of theologians and religious where they were arguing or disputing how Scripture could be interpreted.  There were different perspectives and different opinions being expressed, and by the sounds of it not a small amount of disagreement.  It is then that a scribe entered into the discussion and asked a question, and you would have noticed that it was both a polite and a respectful conversation:  the Scribe observing that Jesus has spoken well at the beginning of the interaction and Jesus acknowledging the wisdom of the Scribe at the end.

I’m drawing attention to the way that Jesus and the Scribe engaged with each other because I have a sense that it may contain part of the answer to our question as to why the neighbors were unable to resolve their differences.

The initial get-to-know-you interactions between the neighbors were polite and respectful.  The neighbors shared conversations that disclosed who they were as people.  And they were successful finding enough common ground such that their relationship could progress to times of fellowship and evenings spend around a table.

Such wasn’t the case for Jesus and the Scribe.  Theirs was a chance meeting, a brief interaction that did not lead to a further engagement or deeper relationship.  As such, how Jesus and the Scribe engaged, while being instructive as to how to interact with strangers who you are meeting for the first time, it falls short of providing instruction on how to engage in deeper relationships or resolve differences.

I believe this is one of the reasons why the way that the Golden Rule was interpreted and applied during the conflict of the neighbors was completely inadequate for resolving their differences in a way that led to reconciliation.

There is a subtly here to which I want to draw your attention, because I believe it will help us to understand why the neighbors did not fully appreciate or understand the teaching of Jesus as well as how they misconstrued the understanding and intent of what has become know as the Golden Rule.

You may not have noticed how Jesus answered the question posed by the Scribe.  Jesus meets the Scribe where the Scribe is using the reference and the language that is meaningful and important for the Scribe.  ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; refers to the central Jewish prayer taken from the Book of Deuteronomy that encapsulates the monotheistic essence of Judaism.  By starting his response in this way, by using the quotation known as the Shema Yisrael, Jesus communicated in a way such that what he said and his intent would have been immediately understood by the Scribe.

Jesus’ focus in his response, is to ensure that the Scribe understood him.  I’m sure that there are many ways that Jesus could have answered the question; however, I believe that Jesus answered the question in a way that he believed would be understood by the person to whom he was speaking.

Consider a time when you have been trying to explain something to someone from a different culture – who doesn’t have the same images as you have, or someone who speaks a different language – who doesn’t have the same words, or someone who is much younger – and doesn’t know the same references.  To be understood you need to put yourself into the place of the other person and attempt to use words, images and references that are relevant to the other person.  In this case, the perspective of the other person is the one that is central and arguably most important.

It seems to me that this is point that was not understood or understood differently by the neighbors and the primary reason why the neighbors were unable to reconcile. Doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, is a wonderful rule for new engagements and establishing boundaries of what you as an individual consider as ethical, moral, and acceptable ways to engaging with another person.   However, interpreted in this way, with a focus on self and acting in a way so that others will treat you the way that you want to be treated, the Golden Rule may not, and often does not, create a space for learning from the other person, changing of perspective or deepening in relationship.

But Jesus didn’t say, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Jesus said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  And while this phrase contains what we understand as the Golden Rule, there is much more to it that the establishment of rules to govern social interactions so that they can be polite and respectful.

There are 2 things that ground and inform what Jesus said.

The first is the first commandment.  How we are to love our neighbor is connected to how we are to love God … with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength.  The first commandment is that we are to love God with our whole being – nothing held back.  Connecting the 2^nd commandment to this one, teaches us that we are also to love our neighbors with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength.  The imperative here goes way beyond social interaction where the intended outcome is a polite and respectful encounter:  Jesus is speaking about relationship.

And we all know that relationships are messy.  And I expect that every one of us have had experiences where our interactions have been anything but polite and respectful … especially with the ones with whom we are in deepest relationship.  And so I expect, that each one of us have had situations where we have had to, with humility, ask for and receive forgiveness as well as grant forgiveness from a place of grace.  We have learned, often the hard way, that while it is important for us to have a self-identity, for a relationship to grow and develop over the long haul, we must learn to focus on the needs, the hopes and the dreams of the people with whom we are in relationship – whether that be with our spouses, our children, our families … or our neighbours.

The second thing that grounds and informs what Jesus says is the directive to love.  Notice the difference between the imperative to do unto others as you would have them do unto you … and the command to love your neighbor as yourself.

There is a Jewish proverb that says, “Before every person there marches an angel proclaiming, ‘Behold, the image of God.’”  I’ve come to understand that the call of God, the love that bids us to follow, is always a call to become the true you:  not an imitation of someone else. The true you: someone made in the image of God, who gives and receives love.  From this perspective we begin to understand that our neighbor is also someone who has been created in the image of God and is equally deserving of love.[i]

Simply put the critical action that Jesus asks us to take in our interactions with others … is to love.  And as we have heard:

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends.  (pause)

I wonder what would have happened if the neighbours had understood the teaching of Jesus in this way?  Would they have been open to having their perspective changed?  Would they have been humble enough to ask for or offer forgiveness? Would they have been able to reconcile their differences?

And what of us who are gathered here today?  Do we have neighbourly relationships that are frayed?   And are their actions that we can take, in humility and from a place of love, that could lead to reconciliation?

My prayer this day is that in our interactions with others that we open ourselves up to learning from the other person and the possibility of changing our perspective, so that they will know that we are Christians by our love and learn that the possibility of reconciliation of relationship is always possible.  Amen

[i] R. Rohr Daily Meditation, October 29, 2021