Stories of Community
August 17, 2014 | Patrick Preheim
Thank you Aleta, Heidi, and Dillon for calling us to worship. I offer a story to focus our meditations on the theme for today. [Trash Bin slide] A few weeks ago, after supper, I looked out my back window to see an orange trash bag leaning against our household dumpster. “Odd”, I thought, “that wasn’t there when I biked in earlier”. Concerned that my neighbours were using my driveway as a landfill I went exploring. Sure enough there was another orange bag or two in the dumpster. “Well”, I reasoned, “it is now my trash so I have a legitimate right to look through it. In addition to several prized redemption items for Sarcan I found a pizza box & receipt with an address. Confront my neighbour or not, that was the question. The devotional book I regularly use has a section in which we are invited to pray for our neighbours. Some 7 years after we moved into our house there are still many on the block who I do not know. In a strange way this neighbourly transgression was an answer to prayer. I went visiting with pizza box and receipt in tow. The conversation transpired without incident. Now I know my neighbour’s name is Mark and his son’s name is Liam. Liam, whose job it is to take out the garbage, now knows that if their trash bin is full he can ask if I have space. And while I wouldn’t call our relationship friendship, we are further along than we used to be. This experience, and other encounters I have had across my property line, made me think it is time to bring our neighbours into worship.
In his trying to figure out faithful living in his community a lawyer asked Jesus, “who is my neighbour?” Our worship service today will consider this question as well. We pray that the scriptures, hymns, and stories assembled will strengthen our connection to Jesus Christ as we live our Christian identity in our neighbourhoods. Sisters, brothers, strangers, sojourners, friends, neighbours—welcome to this time of worship.
Our bulletin has several pages of announcements and I would commend them to your reading. I have been asked to highlight a couple which pertain to the way in which we are good neighbours to others of this congregation. Sunday School teachers: Renata says the teacher signup sheet for the first quarter is posted on the north bulletin board in the Education Wing and asks that we each consider if participation on a team of teachers is a service to which God is calling us. And if we all resist God’s nudging, I suspect Renata’s phone call will come-- reminding us all of the pledge we make at child dedications to help raise our children in the faith. Secondly, note that next week we will again have a brunch potluck. And now please join your hearts with mine in prayer.
“O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbour: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, contemporary collect for Proper 9)
How to Build Community Slide
Opening Hymn: “Heart with loving heart united” #420 HWB
Lighting of the Peace Lamp: We who long for justice and peace in face the temptation of thinking the success or failure of our work reflects how well the Kingdom of God is progressing. Our scriptures and tradition, however, invite us to place the burdens which come with success and setback—the burden of arrogance on the good days and the burden of dejection on the bad days—in the light of God’s eternal work of shaping reality. Hear these words from Psalm 37 (vv. 5-7a): Commit your way to the Lord; do good, and be confident God will act....Be still before the Lord and wait in patience. [light lamp and repeat]
Luke 10.25-42
This biblical text served as one of the passages at the Mennonite Church Saskatchewan assembly earlier this year. I don’t exactly remember Dori Zerbe Cornelson’s reflections about it, but something she said allowed me to enter the parable in a new way. I began to consider things from the perspective of the man who is beat up on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. And what if this teacher of the law from our story, I wondered, was meant to identify with the wounded one on the road? My thoughts flowed...
We who are steeped in the laws of God, we who have the answer for eternal life, have been beaten up and left half dead. Child abuse scandals, residential school horrors, slavery, patriarchy, and so on have given the church a black eye. The meanness and bullying displayed by those who call themselves Christian have stripped us of credibility. Our insistence to go it alone down to Jericho has made us susceptible to rouge ideologies which rob us of the full gospel. To survive this situation, the parable tells me, we need a Samaritan. We need those vilified by the tradition, those judged by the tradition, those Samaritans who worship on other mountains (Jn 4.20). Yes, we offer them love, but they offer us something at least as important.
Slide of Hugh
What to do about Hugh: Hugh is my next door neighbour. He has a health condition which makes anything requiring fine motor skills nearly impossible. His eating habits have compounded some of his health concerns. On social assistance his brother and sister keep the rent low so that he can continue living in the house where they grew up. Despite this familial generosity Hugh doesn’t like telling them about small stuff around his place that needs fixing. No, he saves that for me. Maybe on account of the below market rent he pays them, maybe fear at being sent to an institution, maybe on account of wanting a certain amount of independence Hugh subcontracts his house problems to me and a few others. More than once I have told Hugh that I am more of a good neighbour than a useful neighbour. My aptitude with most tools is narrow, but my connection to people with useful skills is actually pretty broad. And thanks to those who in the past have helped me help Hugh.
The other week Hugh was lamenting across the fence that the wall bracket for his air-conditioning was broken, making use of the unit impossible. I knew he was really asking for help, but I didn’t want to help. I had a back log of church periodicals and books which needed attention so I put him off. I flopped down on the couch and resumed my reading. Wouldn’t you know it but the reflection of my next chapter was on the Good Samaritan. The irony of reading about a Good Samaritan minutes after side stepping my neighbour was not lost on me. Questions of hypocrisy plagued me. I put my book down, went over to Hugh’s place, and made a call.
Hugh is the best neighbour I have ever had. He doesn’t read very well, but he knows all the people and cars which belong on our block. He greets everyone and loans tools to whoever needs them. I am learning from Hugh how to be a good neighbour even as I try to be a good and useful neighbour for him. He is the living laboratory where my claims to faith are being tested and refined. He is the mirror which helps me relearn compassion. He enables me to meet Jesus again and become more Christ like. And I thank God for this Samaritan through whom the living Christ is made known.
How to Build Community Slide
Hymn: “Lord, speak to me” #499 HWB
Renata Klassen: The Plots ThickenFolk Fest Slide
Yesterday was the 5th Spruce River Folk fest held north of Prince Albert on the farm of Ray Funk. This cultural event hopes to create awareness of Landless Bands within Saskatchewan with the proceeds of the day going to Mennonite Central Committees partnerships with Saskatchewan First Nations. Grace Mennonite Church of P.A. has been very involved in this project which links them with Indigenous neighbours. Ryan Siemen’s, pastor at Grace Mennonite, was asked to reflect on this joint project in relation to our Luke 10 scripture. He wrote,
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As a people of Biblical faith, we worship and proclaim a God of promise and covenant. First to Noah, then through Abraham & Sarah, Moses & Miriam, David & Jeremiah and ultimately, in the person of Jesus Christ. We are called into covenant, into treaty, with God and the Other, our neighbour. As Canadians, and particularly Canadians who reside in the numbered treaties of 1-11, we were given the right to live on this land because of promise, covenant and treaty. Room was created so we could plant our roots, tend the soil, grow our families and live in peace. Treaty between First Nation and Settler allowed us to live together. As the Office of the Treaty Commissioner says, "we are all treaty people." However, as we know promises are not always kept, covenants break, separation occurs. We learnt this through ancient Israel, we can see this in the story of the Young Chippewayan who lost their treaty right in land and identity without due process. Yet, God, then and now, invites us to remember the promises, to hearken back to the treaties and covenants we have made, so that we may live in right-relationship with our Creator, and our Neighbour. (Ryan Siemens)
Let us Pray: From generation to generation, O Lord, you hold your promise, your covenant, your treaty with humankind.
During this time of worship, renew in us what it means to be
a people of promise, a people of covenant, a people of treaty.
We pray this in the name of the One whose Covenant binds us today and forever more, Jesus the Christ. Amen. (Ryan Siemens)
How to Build Community Slide
Hymn: “How can I say” #117 StS
Listening Neighbours
Many people say they find it difficult to get to know their neighbours – it used to be second nature to speak to those across the fence. Maintaining a relationship with neighbours is not always easy, but I believe when people move out of their comfort zones they may find a richness in their relationships they would never have imagined.
I like to pay attention to what is going on in my neighbourhood – maybe I am just nosy. I like to think that if I know my neighbours, I will know how to help them if they need help. When you look for opportunities to help others, the opportunities will come more easily. And you will find that the better neighbor you become, the more blessings you will receive.
God asks us to bear one another's burdens, do good, give and lend to people who ask, pray for one another, comfort one another. In other words, Love your neighbor as yourself.
One of my neighbours is a friendly person, with whom I have developed a close friendship over many years. She once told me that she admired my religious conviction, but religion was something she did not need. It surprises me how often she will bring my church or my perspective into our conversation. I sometimes feel she is watching me to see how I will react to situations, as though she holds me up to higher standards because I have told her my feelings about my faith.
We are both in different places spiritually, and yet I feel we are closely connected. She has recently lost her husband through cancer and I admired her attentiveness to her husband during the months he was in palliative care at home. She had nursing help for her husband during the night so she could get some rest, but she looked after him during the day. I know it was not easy for her and I have watched and learned from her about caring for a loved one when the loved one is no longer the person they used to be.
Now my neighbor is the one who needs to be cared for and I hope that I can give her what she needs; friendship, trust and understanding. (Helen Siemens)
Raspberry Patch PicturePrickly Situations
This raspberry patch is amazing. Year after year it produces a bountiful crop of that tasty red berry. This is a picture of Patty’s mother who was here from Edmonton nearly two weeks ago to helping pick during the peak of the harvest. Several years ago in the early morning, 6:00 or 6:30, I was in this very plantation hunched over looking for hiding berries when a neighbour woman walked by in her housecoat. It is uncommon for people to walk through my yard from the street to the alley—it is a short cut to nowhere—let alone in their housecoats. Stunned at what I thought I was seeing from my hunched over position I straightened up. It appeared she was just going to move through the yard, and I probably should have let her go, but I said, “Excuse me. Can I help you?” She stopped and proceeded to explain her situation. She and her boyfriend several doors down had had a fight, she said he had hit her, she had called the police, she had left the house, now she was circling round back to see if the cops had arrived so she could go in. “Oh”, I said, “Sounds like a tough situation”. And with that she ambled on. That was on a Thursday.
Two nights later, Sunday morning at 4:00 am, there comes a ringing of the bell and a pounding on the door. Shay, the neighbour lady, either wanted to come in or for us to come out. All the racket threatened to disturb our basement renter, so I went out on the front steps. She and her boyfriend had had another row. She talked for a while and then asked to use our phone. Something didn’t feel right about letting her inside the house, so I said no. She was fine with that and kept talking. By now Patty was watching the drama from the kitchen window. At some point she leaned over to give me a hug. And I leaned over into the iron hand rail so that she could not give me a hug. At that point I said good night, went inside, and locked the door. Later that summer Shay and her boyfriend either moved out or were evicted.
I can not say that I am particularly grateful for my encounters with Shay, but they did offer something positive. The next weeks I began asking some of the other neighbours about their experiences with the couple, and I was able to connect with a few of the block around this neighbourhood concern. A second gift Shay gave me was a reminder of my limits. It became clear that the kind of help Shay needed was not the kind of help I could give. She needed to see a variety of professionals whose degrees are different than mine. I could refer her to these people, but she would need to follow up with them and she didn’t really want to follow up. That left me with praying for Shay. And that I did and still sometimes do. There are some situations in our neighbourhoods for which our only response will be prayer. And I think that is o.k.
It is, in fact, the direction our Good Samaritan story leads. Most lectionaries end the parable at v.37, but I think it is connected to Mary’s teachings on prayer in v.39 as well as the early part of Luke 11 which has Jesus has retreated for prayer and then teaches the disciples the Lord’s Prayer when they ask how they should pray. In prayer we will meet Christ and the Spirit who are praying with us and through us and beyond us. It is often through prayer that we will sense how we can be a good neighbour and sometimes even a useful neighbour. We do well, I think, to root our doing in a life of listening to Jesus and praying to our father in heaven.
May God grant us a desire to sit at the feet of Jesus, souls which long for a discipline of prayer, and courage to go where our Lord would have us and pursue that which he would have us do. Amen. (Patrick Preheim, co-pastor Nutana Park Mennonite Church)
How to Build Community Slide
Hymn: “I bind my heart this tide” #411 HWB
Joys and Concerns: As I mentioned “praying” is one way Christ cares for us and we care for others. The joys and concerns are printed in your bulletin [read through them]. Nothing additional was given to us prior to worship so we will enter into a time of congregational prayer. I will highlight an area for our personal and collective prayers and invite you to silently offer to God those things the Spirit brings to your mind. I will conclude each section with the phrase, “Lord, in your mercy” and your response will be “hear our prayer”. We join together in prayer.
God of boundless compassion, we bring our prayers to you with confidence, in the name of our Lord Jesus. You look on us with mercy and tenderness. We pray for ourselves and those dear to us holding up to you the joys and concerns of our lives. [silence] Lord, in your mercy.
You are patient, waiting for all to turn to you. We pray for our community and for our neighbours. We bring before you our church members who are hurting and our neighbours waiting to know you more deeply.
[silence] Lord, in your mercy.
You call your people to speak and live the very words of God. We pray for the church in all places as it seeks faithful responses to persecution, war, or the ambivalence caused by affluence. We pray for NPMC and all your congregations. [silence] Lord, in your mercy.
You love justice and right. We pray for the world, for those who are poor or in need, for those in positions of power whose decisions impact the most vulnerable.
[silence] Lord, in your mercy.
We offer you other concerns we carry in our hearts.
[silence] Lord, in your mercy.
Generous God, you draw us into surprising stories. Use them to disrupt our complacency, and remove our fear that we may follow you into the joy of your kingdom. In the name of the one who taught us not to lose heart, we pray: Our Father....
Offering and Offertory
Hymn: “Go my friends in Grace” #57 HWB
Benediction
