Newspaper piece -- What is the Church?

The dedication service of McQueen Presbyterian Church was held on October 8, 1911, with capacity attendance. Its name honored the Rev D.G. McQueen, who had played an important part in the creation of this mission. It was a proud moment for the Rev. And Mrs. Forbes – their first church in their new mission field... (And We Come After page 19)

McQueen Presbyterian would, in due time, become St. Paul's United Church. And our current building is on the same parcel of land as that original log church. 100 years of continual ministry on the same corner where Alexander Forbes originally drove a stake labelled “Presbyterian Church” in 1909!

On that corner have now stood a variety of buildings. First was the log building which now stands in the Museum. Then, 14 years after that first dedication, the congregation built a new building to house a growing community. In the early 1950's a Christian Education building was built. Then the current sanctuary was built in 1956. Finally the Christian Education building was demolished and the “new” wing was built in 1986-87. But none of these buildings have been the church.

That is right none of these buildings, nor any of the other buildings around Grande Prairie that bear the name “Church” are the church. They are merely structures where the church meets. So what is the church?

When I was first in Junior Choir we learned a song whose first verse went:

The church is not a building the church is not a steeple
the church is not a resting place the church is a people

That is where the church is. The church is in the people who gather in buildings large and small, sharing stories of faith, singing songs, and then going back out into the world. The church is not in what happens on Sunday morning it is in what happens 7 days a week. As St. Paul's celebrates its centennial this Thanksgiving weekend we remember how it has lived out being the church. We remember that as long as Alcoholics Anonymous has been in this area, there has been a connection with St. Paul's. We remember that folks from this congregation helped get the Community Dorm started, and the Native Friendship Center. We remember that folks from this congregation have served the community in many ways, sometimes under the name of the congregation but more often simply because they were moved to serve. And many other congregations in this community could tell similar stories. This is the church.

The church is present in the world to help God transform the world. We aren't called to be an insular members-only place. We are called to welcome all, to recognize the gifts that all have to offer. The church is called to have an impact on the world, on individuals and on communities.

After he had won the civil war and wrested the kingship of Israel from Saul, David promised God that he would build a grand temple in which God could live. God told him NO. God asked why God would need such a dwelling now when God had never needed it before. God continues to remind us that our buildings are not the church. They are tools that help us BE the church.

At this point in time, as the people with whom I try to be the church celebrate the centennial of our buildings, I have one question for all of us. How is God calling us to be in the world today? Who is God calling us to be today and in the years to come? Here is a hint, taken from the Gospel of Matthew:

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ ...Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

At the time of this anniversary we have stories of thanksgiving to tell about how those who came before us have been the church in this place. What stories will those who come after us tell about the impact we made on the world?

10Y 120M 3652D ........ and counting

(remember that 2004 and 2008 were leap years)

I realize that the world does not need another 9/11 blog post.  But here goes.

It was a Tuesday morning.  As I was getting ready for the day I happened to flick past a news channel as it was covering the fire after the first plane had hit.  I started watching just in time o see the second plane hit.  Then I knew it was not accidental.  Over the next hour I watched while having breakfast and so on.  I headed over to the church shortly after teh first tower fell.

Like most of the Western World I spent most of the rest of the day listening to the radio or watching TV.  Noot that it was a healthy thing to do though.  The saturation point was reached by noon EDT after all.  My memories include people coming by the church to talk, and the comment "he'll [President Bush] go to war now".  I remember another person coming to the realization that they were commercial jets used whle sitting in the office.

LAter that afternoon (or maybe the next morning) I called the church musician and we totally redid the hymn selections as we realized we needed to plan not the upbeat servic I had thought but rather something more akin to a memorial.  There would be a time for analysis and prophetic words, but not that week.

What happened over the next years is a matter of history.

But where are we now?  Are we better off? NO    Safer? Not likely     Closer to the PEaceable Kingdom of our faith?  If so the signs are few and far between.

Wiser people than I have mused openly over the last decade how a window that opened that day was closed quickly.  How the US Government parlayed worldwide attention and sympathy into almost pariah status within a few short years.  How instead of seeking justice it sought vengeance.

But as a person of faith I think it gets simpler.  Instead of looking for another way the West fell victim to base animalistic human intstincts.  the desire to strike back, to inflict pain, to get payback.  But as people of faith we are called to another path.  We are called to seek justice through forgiveness, peace through justice, and part of that is finding the way to forgiveness.

The desire for vengeance that has led us here does damage to all parties.  Arguably it has damaged the US more than anyone else.  There is wisdom is the old warning that we have to avoid becoming that which we hate.  I think the US has used the events of 10 years ago as an excuse for many things (I am sure a reason to invade Iraq at least and possibly Afghanistan as well would have been created either way) but many of those things have harmed not only their  reputation (which wasn't as clear as some would like to claim anyway) but also the soul of the country.  This morning I preached about forgiveness and on the way out one person described the quest for revenge as holding a red hot iron for years in the hope that you might have a chance to jab it at someone else for a few seconds.  Who gets burnt more?

SO where do we go from here?  How do we get back to the path of forgiveness justice and peace?

I don't know.  Other than it will require transformative change in our understandings of interpersonal and international relations.  But as a person of faith I believe that such transformative change is possible.  AS the old hymn says (one I used to bookend the sermon this morning):
We shall overcome
we shall overcome
we shall over come some day
deep in my heart, I do believe
we shall overcome some day

Book 10 of 2011 -- The Forest Laird

I happened upon this one whilst grocery shopping one day.  ANd since I like Jack Whyte's writing and needed a "nothing" book to read I picked it up.

It is a different choice.  A William Wallace story that ends as the legend begins.  THe last lines of this book talk about Wallace heading off down the road that will lead to Stirling Bridge, then Falkirk, then Tyburn Tree.  But the novel itself is maybe best described as the formation of William Wallace.

This is book 1 of a trilogy on Scottish heroes.  Next will be Robert the Bruce.  Last will be the Black Douglas.  Given that Whyte set the last book of his Templar trilogy in Scotland during the years leading up to the Bruce's victory at Bannockburn, I am sensing a trend here...

I liked this book.  Whyte has a way of writing the epic (which can be a challenge).  ANd he does a good job of weaving history with legend and fiction.  I look forward to his treatment of the Bruce.

Road Trippin' Friday 5

Over at RGBP Jan gives us this challenge:

Tell us about five road trips--in your childhood, in your family, in your recent past, with friends, and/or hoped-for-places-to-drive-to. Don't forget the one that stands out as the BEST or as the worst time. 

 1.  in 1984 we drove from Alberta to Chicago, up through Ontario to Sarnia, Toronto and Ottawa then back via the north shore of Superior.  Highlights included driving past Flint in the midst of a storm that was spawning tornadoes (quote from that section as my mother was looking at a map: "remember that mall we just passed?  that is where they just said a tornado touched down") finding out just how long the trip through Northwestern Ontario could be, and lots of grasshoppers through the prairies.

2.  worst road trip ever.  in 2002 Beloved and I were planning a trip out to BC for my grandparents 60th Anniversary.  WE were to leave on a Monday.  4:00 Friday afternoon the alternator light came on in my car, no garage open until Monday morning.  So we spent Saturday arranging for alternate transport to Edmonton where we could continue with my parents -- 28 hours on the bus.  On a full bus for most of it.  Not fun.

3.  a trip we plan to take.  Beloved and I would dearly love to fly to Halifax and take the train back across the country.  With stops to explore various places along the way.  But we want to wait at least 5 years until youngest is 6.  Sadly it will be a very expensive trip.

4.  most recent trip.  LAst summer.  Our big move.  Thunder Bay to Edmonton over 4 days, travelling in a convoy of 3 vehicles, with a 1 month-old.  It was a bit of an adventure.  Then after a couple of recovery days a final day up to our new home.

5.  last fall Beloved and I joined the other members of this Presbytery for a bus trip up to Whitehorse for the fall meeting.  First time either of us had been north of here (not surprising since the move was the first time we had been this far north [apart from interview and house-shopping on my account]).  And in 2015 the PResbytery should be due for a bus trip to Yellowknife.

Book 9 of 2011 -- Order in Chaos

I have been waiting to read this one for a couple of years.  It is the third of the Templar Trilogy.  However I read the second in paperback before the third even came out in hardcover and so I have waited (I prefer to read books in paperback whenever possible).

The trilogy as a whole is good.  Not something that is going to become a piece of classic literature by any means but good.  I also enjoyed Whyte's Dream of Eagles cycle (about the transition from Roman Britain to Arthurian Britain) and the next one I am reading is the first of a trilogy based in Scotland (where in fact this book largely takes place after the Templars are dissolved in France).

THe trilogy has been well immersed in the mythic nature of the Templar story, and this one gives a hint of the old folk legend that the Templars became the Freemasons.  I would recommend it.  It could stand on its own but obviously follows better if one has read the first two volumes.

FRiday???? Five, Also Blogiversary

What with the parade and the Canada Day Festivities last week I didn't get around to the Friday Five over at RGBP.  However today is my 6th Blogiversary and so I thought these queries would fit well today:

1) Have your blogging (writing/reading) habits shifted since the days of yore? In my first 6 months of blogging I posted 206 times.   THus far this year--31 (on this blog, there have also been posts on my "church blog" and worship resources posted on my "worship blog").  I'd say the numbers speak for themselves.  Reading is on a similar track, although I tend to read more blogs as part of my worship preparation now than I used to.

2) Do you have some favorites that you miss? There aer some who stopped blogging that I used to read.  ANd many folks whose blogging has slowed so much that I miss following them now.

3) Are there some blogs you still put in the 'must read' category? Certainly, most of the ones in my sidebar.  But to be fair I rarely find time to read all of them.

4) If we gathered at your knee, what would you tell us about those early days of blogging? That I spent too much time doing it???  But there was a growing feeling of community, a feeling of getting to know these people in some way.

5) Do you have a clip or a remembrance of a previous post of yours or someone else's that you remember, you know an oldie but goodie? Nothing that really stands out.  There were posts that made me laugh out loud, and posts that have made me tear up.

Book 8 of 2011 -- Theology in a Digital World

This one was recommended to me when I was musing on FB about doing a paper on the use of technology in worship planning and presentation.  (I may still do that paper some day -- when I have the time).

It is not a new book.  I had to order it used.  But what amazed me was how prescient it is, for a book written at the beginning of the Digital Age.

Lochead was, as they say, and "early adopter" of internet possibilities within the United Church of Canada.  He was in fact a pioneer of ECUNET back in the day.  In his intro he says that the first chapter came to form in 1984.  Now I remember 1984.  THink Apple IIe.  THink DOS.  THink those lovely green screens.  The only exposure most of us had to modems and inter-computer communication at that time was movies such as War Games.  In fact a decade later, when I was doing my first internship, modems and ECUNET/othe internet things and so on were still something very few people were doing (and a 28.8 modem was the top of the line).  ANd yet what Lochead describes is eerily accurate to what we have now.

THis was a good book.  An introductory book to be sure.  But a good read.  Lochead raises important questions that still need to be explored, especially as we live into the reality of a social media world.  Given that I am still mulling the concept of doing a DMin exploring what it means to be the church in a Digital World I am really glad this book was suggested to me.

How I spent Last week

LAst week I took two extra days off.  To get a project done while my "work crew"  (aka parents) were in town. 

When we bought the house last year we had noted that the front yard needed to be regraded as it sloped in towards the house (and there was a gap of a couple inches between the bottom of the front step and the ground).  So we replaced the front sidewalk with a bigger one made of paving bricks and put nice big flower beds in to replace the 2 foot wide ones under the eaves.

After day 1 of work

The raised section right at the step, also to show the brick pattern

After completion (almost).  The sides have now been filled with sod clumps, soil and grass seed.  Now we just have to decide what all we want to plane in the beds (perennials and shrubs)

This Isn't Right!

I know it is only June and the only month in which snow has not been recorded in Alberta is July but still...

I mean 24 hours ago it was over 20C!