{"id":1321,"date":"2012-10-30T15:42:12","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T15:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=792"},"modified":"2012-10-30T15:42:12","modified_gmt":"2012-10-30T15:42:12","slug":"sermon-by-marilyn-zehr-october-28-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/?p=1321","title":{"rendered":"Taking it Off LIne? Sermon by Marilyn Zehr, October 28, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

View Archived Sermons<\/font>
<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to this Sermon<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

Sermon by Marilyn Zehr<\/h3>\n

Taking it Off Line?<\/h3>\n

October 28, 2012\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Texts: Psalm 34:1-8, Colossians 1: 15-20<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Okay, last week\u2019s sermon, chock full as it was of information about trending technological changes and how they are shaping and changing us, probably came across a bit like an instruction manual for putting together Ikea furniture.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who reads those instruction manuals anyway? \u00a0Helpful maybe – but only if you manage to figure them out. \u00a0<\/p>\n

This week, with the living room furniture assembled, I would like you to sit down on this furniture and look at each other; or maybe not. \u00a0We don\u2019t really look at each other quite as often as we used to. I suspect that if we are a typical family in a living room, at least one person sitting on this living room furniture will have a laptop open. \u00a0Another will be texting someone who is not present or at intervals we will hear the tweet or whistle or bell or of an incoming text. \u00a0A third person may be sitting in the corner of this room at the desk top computer and for those who still have TV\u2019s the baseball game or recent leadership debate might also be on.<\/p>\n

If you are one of the persons in the room you might even receive a text on your mobile device from a family member who is already in this room with you or somewhere else in the house.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately I can vouch from some experience that this isn\u2019t quite as far-fetched as it might seem to those whose children are under the age of 2 or those who choose quite deliberately not to carry cell phones or in other ways participate in this emerging picture.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, I want you to imagine Jesus trying to connect with this family. \u00a0Would the message be an email copied to each of them,<\/p>\n

– subject line, \u201chello,\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0– body of the text, \u00a0\u201cjust thought I\u2019d drop you a note because I haven\u2019t heard from you in a while. How are you? \u00a0I\u2019m pretty much as busy as ever, but wanted you to know that I\u2019ve been thinking of you.<\/p>\n

Love always,<\/p>\n

Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or a twitter message from Jesus Christ who \u201cis wondering if you\u2019ve thought of me lately\u201d #tryingtoconnect<\/p>\n

or at the edge of your facebook page \u2013 you know where the People You May Know category is \u00a0– Jesus of Nazareth 1500 mutual friends Add friend?<\/p>\n

Okay, a bit \u201ccheesy\u201d I know, but think about it. \u00a0Isn\u2019t Jesus\u2019 comment, \u201cI stand at the door and knock, a bit of an outmoded metaphor?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who just goes and knocks on anyone\u2019s door these days without at least first texting a warning \u2013 \u201calmost there,\u201d or \u201cbe there in five.\u201d \u00a0 I\u2019d like this sermon to be our opportunity to think about this for a few minutes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I said in the conclusion to last week\u2019s sermon, at a time where we are in many ways more connected than ever, the general longing of society for authentic community is deeper than ever.<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>Does our Christian message have something to say about how we connect with one another in authentic and meaningful ways as a community in light of all the myriad of ways that exist now for us to \u201cconnect?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>Colossians 1:15-20, known to be an ancient hymn of the 1st century church may have some clues for us as does several other parts of this letter. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>I will share part of a poetic paraphrase of this text to help us better grasp its connection to our own culture. \u00a0This remixing of an ancient hymn comes from Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat\u2019s 2004 commentary on Colossians, entitled, Colossians Remixed.<\/p>\n

They begin:<\/p>\n

In an image-saturated world,<\/p>\n

a world of ubiquitous corporate logos<\/p>\n

permeating your consciousness<\/p>\n

a world of dehydrated and captive imaginations<\/p>\n

in which we are too numbed, satiated and co-opted<\/p>\n

to be able to dream of life otherwise<\/p>\n

a world in which the empire of global economic affluence<\/p>\n

has achieved the monopoly of our imaginations<\/p>\n

in this world<\/p>\n

Christ is the image of the invisible God<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>in this world<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>driven by images with a vengeance<\/p>\n

Christ is the image par excellence<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>the image above all other images<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>the image that is not a fa\u00e7ade<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>the image that is not trying to sell you anything<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>the image that refuses to co-opt you<\/p>\n

Christ is the image of the invisible God<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>the image of God<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>A flesh and blood<\/p>\n

here and now<\/p>\n

in time and history<\/p>\n

with joys and sorrows<\/p>\n

image of who God is<\/p>\n

the image of God<\/p>\n

a flesh and blood\u00a0<\/p>\n

here and now<\/p>\n

in time and history<\/p>\n

with joys and sorrow<\/p>\n

image of who we are called to be image-bearers of this God<\/p>\n

He is the source of a liberated imagination<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>a subversion of the empire<\/p>\n

because it all starts with him<\/p>\n

and it all ends with him<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>everything<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>all things<\/p>\n

whatever you can imagine<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>visible and invisible<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>mountains and atoms<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>outer space, urban space and cyber space<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/span>all things have been created in him and through him<\/p>\n

he is their source, their purpose, their goal<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>In the face of a disconnected world<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>where home is a domain in cyberspace<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>where neighborhood is a chat room<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>where public space is a shopping mall<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>where information technology promises<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>a tuned-in, reconnected world<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>all things hold together in Christ<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>the creation is a deeply personal cosmos<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>all cohering and interconnected in Jesus<\/p>\n

And this sovereignty takes on cultural flesh<\/p>\n

And this coherence of things is socially embodied<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>in the church<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>against all odds<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>against most of the evidence<\/p>\n

In a \u201cshow-me\u201d culture where words alone don\u2019t cut it<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>the church is<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>the flesh and blood<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>here and now<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>in time and history<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>with joys and sorrows<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>embodiment of this Christ<\/p>\n

as a body politic<\/p>\n

around a common meal<\/p>\n

in alternative economic practices<\/p>\n

in radical service to the most vulnerable<\/p>\n

in refusal of the empire<\/p>\n

in love of this creation<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>the church re-imagines the world<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>in the image of the invisible God<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If as is apparent in this particular poetic version of this passage, the church is the flesh and blood\u00a0<\/p>\n

here and now<\/p>\n

in time and history<\/p>\n

with joys and sorrows embodiment of this Christ, then we need to understand this Christ in order to understand the corporate body we have been called to be.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As we claim and understand it Christ is God with a body, love with skin on \u2013 and lived as a person named Jesus<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jesus \u2013 God with a body \u2013 \u00a0was someone who knew what it was like to live in community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jesus lived and breathed, taught and healed and preached and got hungry and prayed in Nazareth, Galilee and Jerusalem. \u00a0People knew he came from a little no account town called Nazareth. \u00a0Lot\u2019s of people knew who his parents were. Jesus lived in a small enough community that people actually knew who he was. \u00a0He was not anonymous.<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>Second, Jesus was a body who knew intimacy, joy and love. \u00a0He spent much of his time within a small circle of intimate friends he called disciples. He went boating with these women and men and occasionally they went fishing. \u00a0Sometimes they\u2019d have picnics with bread and fish. He went to weddings with them and enjoyed fine wine. He regularly dined with them. Jesus was a body who even knew the touch of woman\u2019s hair on his feet. \u00a0In the gospel of John from chapter 14 on he called this inner circle of disciples his friends.<\/p>\n

Third Jesus was a body who knew he was taking risks when he took on this smaller circle of friends. \u00a0He seemed to have known that some within this circle would hurt him, the kind of hurt that anyone who loves exposes oneself to when one risks loving others. Remember Peter\u2019s denial and Judas\u2019s betrayal?<\/p>\n

Fourth, Jesus was a body who knew conflict. There were skirmishes within the intimate circle of friends. \u2013 James and John wanted special seats beside him when he came into his kingdom and it made the rest of the group jealous. And we know that his message of compassion as the fulfillment of the law met with significant resistance from some of the Jewish leaders of his time.<\/p>\n

Fifth, Jesus was a body who was acquainted with grief. Remember the story of the death of his friend Lazarus. \u00a0Jesus wept.<\/p>\n

Sixth, Jesus was a body who knew the agony of difficult choices and their consequences when he refused to resist those who were so angry and afraid about the power of his message of love above all else\u00a0<\/p>\n

and the powerful nature of the community this would engender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These people were so angry and afraid that they rejected his message completely. The risky nature of Jesus\u2019 final choice not to avoid their fear and anger even led to his death as he chose to lay down his life in the face of these powers rather than attempt to defeat them through force.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And finally, Jesus was a body who was raised by the power of God and we his body the church are raised with him to be an alternative to the powerful forces that continue to resist and reject the demands of love rather than the demands of everything else that clamors for our allegiance.<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>So if we look in this mirror behind me \u2013 corporately – fundamentally we are called to be\u00a0<\/p>\n

a body like Jesus;<\/p>\n

one that derives its fundamental identity from living in community.<\/p>\n

As such we are called to be a body that knows intimacy, joy and love<\/p>\n

and a body that knows risk, conflict, grief, resistance, rejection and even death<\/p>\n

and ultimately a body that knows resurrection power.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And so the question becomes or remains \u2013 can we be this kind of body \u2013 online – through social media, email, text, twitter facebook etcetera?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As you might imagine the answer is complex and you may not agree with me on all points \u2013 but such is the nature of community \u2013 I welcome your debate on these matters, but I will begin.<\/p>\n

Can we be this kind of body, \u201conline?\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s begin with facebook.<\/p>\n

Does use of facebook require real relational risk?<\/p>\n

Not if we take our \u201cfriendships\u201d there lightly and when we can \u201cunfriend\u201d someone anytime we want. \u00a0However, depending on what we share there are risks to facebook and other social media use. \u00a0If you share too much and it is used against you for example as many youth are tragically discovering, the risks are huge. \u00a0What about the lesser risks? \u00a0What about the risk of having no one notice or \u201clike\u201d your post? \u00a0Unlike face-to-face communication it is hard to know what the real response to your posting is. \u00a0Social media is a medium that can be manipulated in ways face-to-face communication cannot. On the other hand \u2013 knowing that someone has enjoyed a concert, travelled, is living through a renovation, or wants to share something they\u2019ve thought about or become aware of, can be a conversation starter the next time we meet, but I would say the core of the relationship exists when we meet, with our bodies present, not in cyberspace \u2013 but rather in real flesh and blood, here and now, in time and history, with joys and sorrows kind of way.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moving on to email. \u00a0Again it\u2019s complex. \u00a0Being a Christ-like body while using email is especially difficult when sensitive and conflictual topics are raised. \u00a0 \u201cYes,\u201d conflict is part of community and part of relationship, and for precisely this reason, conflict needs to be dealt with in communal and relationship enhancing ways. \u00a0Email that is primarily a conveyor of information, and can be used very well as a conveyor of information when you want to a lot of people to receive exactly the same information and you aren\u2019t all in the same place, is not often a very good vehicle for relationship enhancement. \u00a0Without body language and tone of voice, it is very difficult to convey what one really needs to or hopes to convey. Another problem with email is that statements written there can come across like position statements or propositions that we find out later in conversational exchange weren\u2019t quite so non-negotiable. \u00a0One might argue that when you are communicating with someone with whom you already have a solid relationship, someone who knows your \u201clanguage,\u201d it may be effective, but if there is a misunderstanding of your \u201clanguage\u201d and the way you are using it and the topic is sensitive \u2013 type written communication can really complicate things or heighten tensions.<\/p>\n

You may have noticed that as pastor of this congregation I strongly encourage that whenever possible sensitive conversations and conflicts are taken \u201coffline.\u201d<\/p>\n

And before I wrap up, a word to those of us with strong introverted aspects to our personalities. \u00a0We love electronic communication and social media because, as one person put it recently, we can be surrounded by friends without being overwhelmingly surrounded by friends and don\u2019t we also love being able to edit our prose \u2013 making sure we get it just right before we \u201cpost\u201d or hit \u201csend.\u201d \u00a0And yet there is simply no exchange for the commitment required by face-to-face interaction. \u00a0You know – flesh and blood, here and now, in time and history, joys and sorrows, embodied communication. \u00a0<\/p>\n

And we as a church, all of you here today are making
\na radically alternative choice in an increasingly virtual world where it is easier to cocoon in our homes especially on Sundays. \u00a0You have chosen instead to be here in flesh and blood, here and now, in time and history with your joys and sorrows kind of way. \u00a0<\/p>\n

This is harder,\u00a0<\/p>\n

it is riskier\u00a0<\/p>\n

and it is worth it. This is what Jesus modeled for us.<\/p>\n

God in body form did not arrive on earth virtually. \u00a0Nor do I think Jesus would show up virtually today or text that he\u2019s \u201calmost here\u201d or \u201cwill be here in five.\u201d Rather, God came to us; God comes to us in the flesh. \u00a0God is still more likely the stranger or friend who knocks on the door, or who actually walks through the door and still wonders what\u00a0<\/p>\n

embodied community,\u00a0<\/p>\n

this kind of community gathered here,\u00a0<\/p>\n

is all about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, we can say, it\u2019s about welcome, acceptance, support, intimacy and grace. \u00a0It\u2019s about conflict, and risk and rejection and again grace. \u00a0And it is about embodying the resurrected body of Christ in the world so that his powerful message of love above all else can in fact be lived. \u00a0<\/p>\n

And this sovereignty takes on cultural flesh<\/p>\n

And this coherence of things is socially embodied<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>in the church<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>against all odds<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>against most of the evidence<\/p>\n

In a \u201cshow-me\u201d culture where words alone don\u2019t cut it<\/p>\n

\t<\/span>the church is<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>the flesh and blood<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>here and now<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>in time and history<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>with joys and sorrows<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/span>embodiment of this Christ. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon Sermon by Marilyn Zehr Taking it Off Line? October 28, 2012\u00a0 Texts: Psalm 34:1-8, Colossians 1: 15-20 \u00a0 Okay, last week\u2019s sermon, chock full as it was of information about trending technological changes and how they are shaping and changing us, probably came across a bit like an instruction manual for putting together Ikea furniture. \u00a0 Who reads those instruction manuals anyway? \u00a0Helpful maybe – but only if you manage to figure them…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-a-worship-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}