I don’t know how many times I’ve told this story from this pulpit.
At least a couple of times that I know of.
I’m as bad as the absent-minded minister this particular story is about!!
But I do know the last time I told it was on Sunday, April 22, 2007.

A preacher, who shall we say was "humor impaired,"
attended a conference to help encourage                                 
and better equip pastors for their ministry.

There were many well known and dynamic speakers.
One of them approached the lectern
and gathering the entire crowd's attention, said,
"My wife and I just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary,
and I just want to say that some of the best years of my life
were spent in the arms of another woman!"
The crowd was shocked! Stunned!
But he followed up by saying,
"Yes, sir, some of the best years of my life
were spent in the arms of another woman,
and that other woman was my mother!"

The crowd burst into laughter.
The preacher thought it was a good story, too.
So the next week he decided he'd give the joke a try.
As he approached the pulpit that Sunday morning,
he tried to rehearse the joke in his head.
Parts of it were a bit foggy to him
but he was determined to try it anyway.

Getting to the microphone he said,
"My wife and I have been married for almost 40 years,
and I just want you to know that some of the best years of my life
were spent in the arms of another woman!"

The congregation was horrified.
“Yes, sir,” he said, “spent in the arms of another woman.”
And his wife, if looks could kill, had him dead and buried.

But his mind had gone blank.
He searched for the words of the punch line but couldn’t find them.
He was lost for words.

After standing there for what seemed an eternity,
and still searching for the lost punch line, he said,
“Yes sir, some of the best years of my life        
were spent in the arms of a woman other than my wife …
and for the life of me … for the life of me …
I can’t remember who she was!!”

As we celebrate Collier’s Anniversary today,
with all that we forget and remember,
I want to remember with you  ~  who we are.

Our church has stood on this site since 1864,
three years before Confederation on July 1, 1867;
but we have been a community of faith since 1836
when a log church stood next door.

Our church stood here as the 19th century turned into the 20th …
has stood here during the two world wars of the last century …
during the years of the great depression …
during the tumultuous years of the 1960’s …
and as the last millennium gave way to the new.

As a church, we have baptized babies
and married couples
and laid to rest those we love  ~
more people, I suppose, than we can number.

We have gathered Sunday by Sunday for 172 years
to sing and pray and listen to scripture and preaching.

We have opened our doors to the community,
and in the community of this place
we have opened our hearts to one another.

What are we all about?  What should we be all about?
Why is this place, and for others their places, so important?
What difference does it make for us and through us?

Well, those are big questions.
And I’m sure you all have your answers.
So let me offer mine.

This church is here because of a story …
the most wonderful story ever told …
a love story of divine proportions …
a love story of infinite possibilities:
God’s love story for the world.

God’s love echoes throughout the pages of scripture  ~  the written word.
But more significantly, God’s love echoes through the life of Jesus  ~ the Living Word.

It is in Jesus that we are able to see and experience
how wide and long and high and deep God’s love is.
It is in Jesus that God’s love comes to life.

And Jesus had something to say his weary world as he has something to say to ours.

He has something to say to a world full of people
weary of violence
                                                           and poverty
                                                   and hunger …

something to say to a world full of people
weary of being the last, sometimes, and the least …
weary of living lives empty of meaning and purpose …
weary of all of the things that can fill a soul with sorrow.

Near the beginning of Luke’s gospel, Jesus has returned to his hometown
and it is here, in the synagogue where he had worshiped all of his life,
through the reading of scripture,
that he told the people, although they didn’t know it in the moment,
why he had come and what his coming meant for them and for everyone.

Turning to scripture, Jesus read: 
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Can you imagine what those words would have meant if you had been there listening?

Most of those listening would have been poor.
They were prisoners  ~
trapped by circumstances, often from which they couldn’t escape …
trapped by the wrong doing of their lives that they couldn’t shake.
Their world was a dark world and they longed for light.

Most of those listening would have embraced the thinking,
because this was the thinking at the time,
that they lived oppressed lives because of something inherently wrong within them
and that their misery was a punishment from God.

To hear that this was the year of God’s favour …
to hear that their longing that things could be better was ending …
to hear that their hopes that life could be transformed were being realized …
to hear this must have brought joy in the midst of all the weariness.

But those words were words they had heard before.
And the words, as hope-filled as they were, were just words on a page.
The years kept rolling on.
They had heard the words for generations.
Beautiful words.  Promising words.  Hopeful words.
But theirs was the same old misery.

It was the same old misery
until Jesus handed the scroll to the attendant and spoke to them.
And what he said changed everything.

What he said to them was that what the scriptures promised
was not some future hope but a present reality,
something that could be experienced here and now.
What Jesus said to them was this:
“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Not tomorrow.  Not in the future.  But today.

Today was the day for the light to shine to end the darkness.
Today was the day of freedom and recovery and release.
Today was the day of God’s favour. Today.

And shortly after that, when he began to preach in the nearby towns and villages,
he said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.”

The kingdom of God which Jesus preached, more than anything else,
was a kingdom of justice and peace …
a kingdom where the last and the least
 mattered as much as the first with the most;
a kingdom where no one was to be oppressed
and where no one was to be the oppressor;
a kingdom where the power of love trumped the love of power;
a kingdom where the will and the way of God would be the way people lived.

To repent means all of the rich things the word means
in confessing our sins, in turning away from them, and in receiving God’s forgiveness.
But to repent, from the Greek, also means
to go beyond the mind that you have.
To repent is to think differently about the way you’re journeying.

Jesus invited the people to enter into this new way of thinking,
this new way of journeying  ~  now, not later …
to become active participants in his way  ~  today, not tomorrow.

It is startling to me that the One whom we know as “The light of the world,”
whose very life was the light that “shines in the darkness,”
who was “the true light that gives light to everyone,”
said to those who would be a part of the kingdom of God he preached,
“You are the light of the world …”
said to those who would be a part of the kingdom of God he preached,
“Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds
and praise your Father in heaven.”

It is startling to me that the One who came as light into the world
“commissions and assigns us
to brighten up this dark world like stars that shine in the night.
And like those stars that reflect the sun’s glory after darkness has fallen,
… to spell out the promise of the coming dawn.”

 

Jesus bids us shine.  Jesus bids us shine.
How did the hymn of our youth put it?
Jesus bids us shine with a pure, clear light,
like a little candle burning in the night.
In this world is darkness, so let us shine,
you in your small corner, and I in mine.
Jesus bids us shine, then, for all around;
many kinds of darkness in the world are found:
sin, and want and sorrow; so we must shine,
you in your small corner, and I in mine.

Jesus bids us shine ~ “you in your small corner, and I in mine.”

If we believe that Jesus was “the word made flesh”
what Jesus is telling us is to also become the word made flesh:
not just to tell the good news but to be the good news …
to journey with him in such a way that our faith, deeply believed,
becomes a faith, beautifully lived …
to journey with him in such a way that God, dwelling within us,
becomes the God who, through us, dwells with others …
to journey with him in such a way that, truly,
we begin to see the face of Christ in everyone we meet
and everyone we meet begins see the face of Christ in us.

And when we do that
the kingdom of God will be present  ~  not hoped for …
in the here and now  ~  not afar off.

So what does it mean for us, individually, as the followers of Jesus’ way
and as followers, together, in this place?
Because, more than anything else, Jesus bids us shine.

We open our hearts and our doors, as I said a couple of weeks ago,
to any and all longing for some good news.
We open our hearts and our doors
because there is so much brokenness that needs mending.
We open our hearts and our doors
because there is much darkness out there  ~
sin and want and sorrow  ~
and people long for light.

Jesus knew the truth of the words that
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”
Joy comes to us  ~   when we bring joy to others.
As do hope and peace and love.

So let us shine the light of joy and hope and peace and love
        on those who long for it,
                as those listening to Jesus that day longed for it.
                        For Jesus bids us shine.

Let us shine the light
by letting each smile become a hymn
and each kindly deed a prayer.
                        For Jesus bids us shine.

Let us shine the light, as John Wesley wrote, by doing
“all the good we can,
by all the means we can,
in all the ways we can,
in all the places we can,
at all the times we can,
to all the people we can,
as long as ever we can.”
                                                                For Jesus bids us shine.

Let us shine the light
        by remembering that it is never the wrong time to do the right thing
                and it is never the right time to do the wrong thing.
                        For Jesus bids us shine.

Let us shine the light, remembering that
“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
For Jesus bids us shine.

Let us shine the light in such a way
        that the kingdom for which we pray when we pray Jesus’ words,
“Thy kingdom Come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”
                        will be present in us because we have lived according to God’s will.
                                For Jesus bids us shine.

And let it be said of us …
let it be said of this church …
“The light of God shines there  ~  in its people.
The love of God is known there  ~  through its people.
The hope of God is found there  ~  in people caught up in Christ.”
Let that be said of us and of the church we love.
For Jesus bids us shine.

 

SOLI  DEO  GLORIA

 

 

 

SCRIPTURE

Luke 4:14-21 (New International Version)

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.  He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read.  The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
      because he has anointed me
      to preach good news to the poor.
   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
      and recovery of sight for the blind,
   to release the oppressed,
      to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."[a]
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
(a) Luke 4:19 Isaiah 61:1,2