February 1, 2026
Readings & Message
MICAH 6: 1-8
In the first scripture reading today, God is having an argument with the people…probably not much different then as it is nowadays…the question is posed about the people’s weariness with God and it’s equally possible that the people are actually wearying God…but this isn’t the crux of the passage…I sense that the real question is, am I weary of God?...and I wonder if you experience something similar, especially around the issues of so many people passing away in the last week or so…but there’s always a bright light at the end of the tunnel and the one here is that God has already shared with all of us what we need to do – share in love, mercy, and kindness…all of the time…ceaselessly…tough rules but they would sure make our world a calmer, more peaceful place…
1 CORINTHIANS 1: 18-31
Interesting passage this one if you read deeply into it…my feeling or understanding of it could be summed up in one question – When do denominational edicts or policies or rules become the ‘wisdom of the wise’?...and this kind of question can be taken out of the ‘church’ context and really put into any context which has structure – schools, businesses, health-care centres, and so on…places where decisions are made…when are decisions, the decisions of the wise?...and do we listen too deeply to those voices?...do they stop us or impede us to the wonderment of new growth?...(well, maybe I summed it up in more than one question but you get the idea…)
MATTHEW 5: 1-12
The Gospel passage this morning is the Beatitudes and when I looked it up to see the exact definition…here it is… “statement of those who are blessed (that’s all of us if we allow ourselves to be)…in the Bible, one of the sayings of Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount about the eight groups of people who will receive blessings in heaven”…and truthfully folks, when I read this to you, you will associate with one of two or more of these sayings and consider yourself blessed to be a part of it…and, it’s lesson or lecture time for him and he’s going to go right back to the basics of blessings and rules and how people are to live out these basic rules…we always must remember, first and foremost, that Jesus was Jewish and he would be following the commandments to the tee…but what he was doing which was so different, was taking these commandments and blessings and putting them into the context of what the people needed to hear and to understand in their present world and their present time…we could – and should – be doing the same thing so that these basic edicts or ‘rules for living’ speak clearly, and I mean clearly, to each of us in 2026…the problem with what I just shared is that each of us has a different perspective or levels of understanding in what these commandments and blessings mean so the ‘playing field’ sometimes becomes a little foggy…and I’m sure that it was foggy to them, then, also…
“THE BREAKDOWN IN COSMIC RELATIONSHIP”
Reconciliation is a lifelong challenge for most of us…scripture doesn’t offer much practical or pragmatic advice about how to go about this… how do we reconcile with each other?...with the environment?...with the depletion of natural resources or of species of animals disappearing or sea life and so on?...how do we reunite ourselves with the cosmic relationship?...with the human to God connection or bond?...these are the questions which I’m going to begin with and I think that some of them stem from my latest readings of some of my books which I’ve read over the last few weeks and lamenting inside of how we sometimes slide into the place of “hey, that’s over there and not here…here in Lakeview or in Calgary…that’s across the world…it doesn’t really affect me”… well…it does…for everything which exists, we are connected to all that is…we are a part of the whole, a part of the grand scheme of creation…we have a cosmic relationship with all that is…and this is fairly new thinking in that if we look closely at the 10 commandments, they focus on relationships – with God and with each other…you shall not murder…don’t commit adultery… don’t steal…do not bear false witness…do not covet…don’t use God’s name in vain and so on…if we put this into a different framework, and this comes from the teachings of the First Nations folk, this is how those 10 commandments have changed…
1) Treat the Earth and all that dwell therein with respect.
2) Remain close to the Great Spirit
3) Show great respect for your fellow beings
4) Work together for the benefit of all humankind
5) Give assistance and kindness wherever needed
6) Do what you know is to be right
7) Look after the well-being of mind and body
8) Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good
9) Be truthful and honest at all times
10) Take full responsibility for your actions.
They are a little different aren’t they?...they may have the same tenet but there is more of a cosmic vein to it and this is what I want to focus on…for if we don’t revisit and recompose older ideas, we stay there and we may not address the issues of this time and place in which we live…in many of the Gospel passages, Jesus changed things also…he moves from concern for outward behaviour to concern about inward disposition or inward character…he moves to places of the heart which are sometimes not as visible as outward appearances or not as noticeable as what used to be called ‘good works’…
the commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery” yet Jesus changes this a little…he brings it much closer to our human consciousness – even the thoughts can be devastating to your spirit, to your soul…Jesus’ new commandment is to keep a pure mind and to focus on that which is ‘relationship enriching’…which is living lives of openness and having a God-centered approach to everything…
When we look back to the First Nations 10 commandments, ‘show great respect for your fellow human beings’ becomes the altered words…it encompasses all…it’s non-gender specific…and not to take away from the power and the truths of the original 10 commandments but as Jesus did, to expand them into our own different culture and society…as mentioned before, they are the basic rules – the basic regulations of living – the basic truths…
And in terms of the commandment, “Thou shall not kill”, Jesus puts a whole different slant on this…Jesus says, if the offering plate is passed to you on Sunday, and you are getting ready to drop your $100.00 contribution into the plate, and just then remember that you are engaged in a dispute with someone else, you get up, leave your $100.00 bill on the pew, go out and make peace with your neighbour, settle the dispute, then come back and drop your money into the offering plate…and it goes back to that word ‘reconciliation’ again which I first began with…we need to be always reconciling with each other…unifying with each other…reuniting with each other…and in the 10 First Nations commandments?... ‘take responsibility for your actions’…and I could add many more instances to this ‘changing of words’ but ultimately, when we experience a breakdown in cosmic relationships, we need to always seek reconciliation…we need to seek the ‘way back home’…
Joyce Rupp, a very popular theologian and spiritual director, shares this incident: she was guiding a retreat for a ministerial group and the retreat was very powerful for one clergy person…he had slowly come to terms with who he was: a person full of strengths and weaknesses who was deeply loved by God…so, as their time came to a close, Joyce decided to give him a cup as a reminder of the emptying and filling days of his retreat…she went to the gift shop and a large white cup with many hearts on it caught her eye…as she picked it up, she noticed that the handle had a chip on it… “Oh too bad,” said Joyce, “This would have been just right for him.”…she put it down…and then she realized that this was exactly the right one for him…he had finally begun to let go of his belief that he had to be perfect before God could love him…
When we put most of our focus on our faults and our flaws, we tend to give most of our energy to this….instead of spending energy on reconciling with our self and with others…
And with God, the cosmic relationship…
May each of us seek to build a better world where peace and love will be the new words to the re-embellished commandments and may we always keep ourselves focused on the love of God……Amen