September 15, 2019
Holy Trinity Refugee Committee Sermon
Katherine Assad and Rob Shropshire
(Note: the Scotiabank Marathon fundraiser will be on October 20 –
Donate here: https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/TeamFundraisingPage.aspx?teamID=878153#&panel1-1)
Jo (coordinating) gets up to introduce the sermon – “…Katherine and Rob.” She calls us up, but we aren’t there. She is surprised. She calls us.
Katherine jogs in, chipper. Runs around the sanctuary and up to the lectern, calling for Rob to catch up.
Rob enters, wheezing, struggling. Struggles up to join Katherine at the podium, out of breath.
At the time when Lee, in a moment of
some desperation, asked me to do the homily for this Sunday, I just
happened to be brooding over the climate change crisis. I looked at
the readings for today and these words from the Deuteronomy passage
jumped out: “This day I have set before you life and death,
therefore choose life that you and your descendents may live” –
those words provided a sharp focus for what I was thinking about. In
the case of today’s reading from Deuteronomy that choice for the
Israelites – between life and death – was a question of honouring
or not honouring the covenant that Moses put before the people.
Honouring it meant choosing life and living in accordance with the
Law, or rejecting it with the destructive consequences that could
follow. Renewing the Covenant and confronting that choice was
something that the Jewish people faced repeatedly in the course of
their history . Today, the stark choice of choosing life is something
we face. What I think that means for us, I’ll come to in a moment.
Readings: Psalm 99, 2 Peter 1:16-19, Luke 9:28-36, The Peace of Wild Things (Wendell Berry)
A few weeks ago I met up with Tim, a friend from Christian Peacemaker Teams who I haven’t seen for several years. As we caught up on our lives we compared our networks of Christian activists and peacemakers, noting the connections, discussing the mentors and inspirational people we interact with. Tim referred to ‘holding the dragon close’. He explained that a dragon is an influential and powerful person in your life who is somewhat dangerous.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a message from a friend,
requesting that I come to Queen’s Park about 4.00 pm the following Monday to
join a demonstration. The occasion for this was the attempt on the part of the
NDP to pass a bill declaring climate change an emergency.
But a striking fact about this invitation was that I was
requested to wear my clergy collar. Now
if, like me, you’ve been to many lefty- type protests, you often DON’T want to be identified as a
clergy person! But not this time. I was there were greeted with open arms,
invited to pray and then to pose for a group photo.
Walking back to the subway, I pondered on this turn of
events. It occurred to me that maybe it was because the organizers, mostly
university and high school students, are for the most part, “unchurched.” Their
parents likely didn’t bother baptizing them and regular church attendance was
not a part of their upbringing. So maybe this unchurched generation are not as
predisposed to regard the church as something alien.
We are pleased to announce the hiring of Zachary Grant as our new Community Director. This is the next step in our ongoing process of change. He’ll be helping us realize some next steps over the coming months.
Zachary will start July 15. All those of us who have met him are really excited about starting this new era together with him. Once he starts, there will be a series of “cottage meetings” to allow everyone to meet him in a more intimate context. He will be at church some weeks and preach from time to time, but will not be there every week.
