Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
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Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
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Being One” may be one of the toughest things in life. “Herding cats” was the expression one of my former colleagues used to say when she was bemoaning the fact that the sum total of her colleagues, including me and her, was much less than the sum of our individual talents.
There are many reasons why a community cannot be united as one. The church in Galatia was no exception in having difficulty uniting into one. There were discussions and arguments over whether or not the followers of Jesus had to follow the Jewish laws in order to become proper followers of Jesus. Paul’s answer to the community is one of the best known phrases in Paul’s letters.
To those who were arguing about the proper way of being a Christian, Paul stated, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” I do not hear Paul saying that everyone is same. I hear him saying that the markers that gauge people as better or worse no longer apply in Christian community. For Paul, God’s unconditional love shown through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ means that everyone is valued as integral parts of the whole – valued and loved unconditionally.
It is not just the Galatians who are stuck with the rules and regulations. After all, rules and regulations help us to know how to relate to one another in our community. We all have them. Rules help us to know what the community norms are. But what if people are so stuck on the rules and regulations that they end up preventing people from becoming part of their community?
There are many reasons why a community cannot be united as one. The church in Galatia was no exception in having difficulty uniting into one. There were discussions and arguments over whether or not the followers of Jesus had to follow the Jewish laws in order to become proper followers of Jesus. Paul’s answer to the community is one of the best known phrases in Paul’s letters.
To those who were arguing about the proper way of being a Christian, Paul stated, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” I do not hear Paul saying that everyone is same. I hear him saying that the markers that gauge people as better or worse no longer apply in Christian community. For Paul, God’s unconditional love shown through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ means that everyone is valued as integral parts of the whole – valued and loved unconditionally.
It is not just the Galatians who are stuck with the rules and regulations. After all, rules and regulations help us to know how to relate to one another in our community. We all have them. Rules help us to know what the community norms are. But what if people are so stuck on the rules and regulations that they end up preventing people from becoming part of their community?
Ajahn Brahm, a British Australian Buddhist monk, tells this story. A father and a thirteen year old son were in a beaten-up old car on a side street of one of the poorest suburbs of London. The Father turned to his son and told him, “Son, whatever you do in your life, know this: The door of my house will always be open to you.”
The child did not really understand what the father was saying, but he felt that it was something important, so he remembered it. His father died three years later.
Their home when he was growing up was a small government subsidized apartment in a poor part of London – not much of a house to open a door into. But after he grew up he realized this was not what his Dad really meant. He realized that what his father meant was this: “Son, whatever you do in your life, know this. The door of my heart will always be open to you.” His father was offering unconditional love. The child was Ajahn Brahm, a British Austrialian Buddhist monk. He recollects his father’s unconditional love this way – “I was his son and that was enough.”[i]
Too often, I hear stories from my Gay and Lesbian friends that are quite contrary to Ajahn Brahm’s story. I hear stories of denial and rejection when sons and daughters work up enough courage to reveal their sexuality to their parents and family members. I hear stories of hatred hurled at transgender and bisexual folks because the rest of the society is still grappling to understand them as part of our community.
Today is Pride Parade Day in Toronto. Kingston Road United Church’s name will be proudly attached to the United Church float at the parade, stating to those who are at the Parade that our faith community is proud to stand with LGBT brothers and sisters. We are telling people in our city that our church’s doors are open to them and that our hearts will always be open to them. By our action of becoming an Affirming Congregation we are also asking that the hearts of our LGBT brothers and sisters be open to us as well.
We are also celebrating “First Nations’ Day of Prayer” today. As the back of the bulletin indicates, we are living on a land of countless broken treaties. As the Canon Rev. Laverne Jacobs shared with us in February at our church, all of us Canadians – First Nations Peoples and the rest of us in Canada – are treaty people since it takes more than one party to make a treaty. When a treaty – a covenant among human communities and God – is broken, the entire global community is broken. Most of Canadians are either not aware of this brokenness or do not care to know how this brokenness affect us as a whole in Canada. In order for us to be whole as Canadians, healing needs to take place in First Nations communities as well as in the rest of the communities in Canada. When one part is broken the entire community is broken.
Too often, faith communities have denied people who are considered as outsiders to be integral parts of the community. “Unstoppable!” is the slogan for the Pride Week 2007. I think of Ajahn Brahm’s father’s unconditional love toward his son when I think about men and women who will be joining the Parade today. I think of God’s unconditional and unstoppable love as we celebrate and participate in the Pride Parade as an Affirming Congregation of the United Church. I think of God’s unstoppable and unconditional love as we remember our brokenness and broken treaties with our First Nations’ sisters and brothers across Canada on this beautiful Sunday.
May each one of us carry the unstoppable and unconditional love of God as a blessing to those who encounter us in our life so that all may be one in God’s compassion.
Amen.
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[i] Ajahn Brahm, Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life’s Difficulties, (Summerville: Wisdom Publications, Inc., 2005), 27.
The child did not really understand what the father was saying, but he felt that it was something important, so he remembered it. His father died three years later.
Their home when he was growing up was a small government subsidized apartment in a poor part of London – not much of a house to open a door into. But after he grew up he realized this was not what his Dad really meant. He realized that what his father meant was this: “Son, whatever you do in your life, know this. The door of my heart will always be open to you.” His father was offering unconditional love. The child was Ajahn Brahm, a British Austrialian Buddhist monk. He recollects his father’s unconditional love this way – “I was his son and that was enough.”[i]
Too often, I hear stories from my Gay and Lesbian friends that are quite contrary to Ajahn Brahm’s story. I hear stories of denial and rejection when sons and daughters work up enough courage to reveal their sexuality to their parents and family members. I hear stories of hatred hurled at transgender and bisexual folks because the rest of the society is still grappling to understand them as part of our community.
Today is Pride Parade Day in Toronto. Kingston Road United Church’s name will be proudly attached to the United Church float at the parade, stating to those who are at the Parade that our faith community is proud to stand with LGBT brothers and sisters. We are telling people in our city that our church’s doors are open to them and that our hearts will always be open to them. By our action of becoming an Affirming Congregation we are also asking that the hearts of our LGBT brothers and sisters be open to us as well.
We are also celebrating “First Nations’ Day of Prayer” today. As the back of the bulletin indicates, we are living on a land of countless broken treaties. As the Canon Rev. Laverne Jacobs shared with us in February at our church, all of us Canadians – First Nations Peoples and the rest of us in Canada – are treaty people since it takes more than one party to make a treaty. When a treaty – a covenant among human communities and God – is broken, the entire global community is broken. Most of Canadians are either not aware of this brokenness or do not care to know how this brokenness affect us as a whole in Canada. In order for us to be whole as Canadians, healing needs to take place in First Nations communities as well as in the rest of the communities in Canada. When one part is broken the entire community is broken.
Too often, faith communities have denied people who are considered as outsiders to be integral parts of the community. “Unstoppable!” is the slogan for the Pride Week 2007. I think of Ajahn Brahm’s father’s unconditional love toward his son when I think about men and women who will be joining the Parade today. I think of God’s unconditional and unstoppable love as we celebrate and participate in the Pride Parade as an Affirming Congregation of the United Church. I think of God’s unstoppable and unconditional love as we remember our brokenness and broken treaties with our First Nations’ sisters and brothers across Canada on this beautiful Sunday.
May each one of us carry the unstoppable and unconditional love of God as a blessing to those who encounter us in our life so that all may be one in God’s compassion.
Amen.
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[i] Ajahn Brahm, Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life’s Difficulties, (Summerville: Wisdom Publications, Inc., 2005), 27.
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