Sermon - Prédication

The following is the sermon delivered by Rev. Cathy Hamilton at the Celebration of Ministry Service.  A PDF version is attached (see below).

Ici vous trouverez la prédication de la pasteure Cathy Hamilton pendant la culte de célébration des ministères.  Une version PDF est en pièce joint (en bas).

Where'd the River go?  
Celebration of Ministry Service   
Cathy Hamilton
Scripture  Acts 16
    
I want to talk to you about a bridge, about a bridge and a river.   If you have a wireless- google "Cho-lu-te-ca" or "bridge to nowhere" and share the image with those around you.    Link  to picture

 In November 1998, Hurricane Mitch ravaged Honduras and Guatemala.   Hurricane Mitch stole the lives of 18,000 people.  It forever changed the lives of many thousands more.    I want to talk to you about a bridge, the Choluteca Bridge, the most modern of all the bridges in Honduras, a bridge which survived Hurricane Mitch.     En 1998, l'ouragan Mitch, a fait sortir la rivière Choluteca de son lit, de plus de 6 fois sa largeur normale. Douze pieds de boue ont inondé des villages. Le grand pont a survécu….mais ne servait désormais plus à rien. Le pont est toujours debout, un magnifique pont qui ne mène nulle part, et la rivière traverse maintenant les vasières à quelques kilomètres plus au sud du pont.

During the hurricane, the river swelled to 6 times its normal width, and when the water retreated, the magnificent bridge now leads nowhere.  The river had moved several kilometres to the south.    Like the bridge in Honduras, the church is a fine construction, strong, well designed, and some would argue that the church goes nowhere. Like the course of the river, the spiritual life of the community has changed.

Notre Église ne ressemble-t-elle pas au pont?  La vie spirituelle de la communauté a tellement changé, tout comme le cours de la rivière.  

Aujourd'hui, peu de femmes donnent leur vie pour le bien-être de l'Église.  Women for the last 40 years have been fully engaged in building careers, raising families, in serving God in ways that do not directly sustain the Church. The river has moved.

The Bible, and the exceptionally well educated ministers who interpret it, no longer have automatic authority by virtue of status, infallibility or sacredness.  On nous encourage à remettre en question l'autorité, l'autorité des pasteurs, l'autorité biblique.   La rivière a change son cours.   

Le dimanche n'est plus la journée où tout le monde va à l'église.  Sundays are for family and for hockey and, like any other day, for getting on with what has to get done.  The river has moved.

And not only that, but the river moved in 1998, when Bill Clinton was president of the US.  In 1998 the Galaxy IV the satellite failed and 80-90% of the world's pagers were out of service.   Can you imagine the chaos if all your pagers were….no wait a minute you've got cell phones now…

By 1998 cell phone batteries had finally become small enough that you could start unplugging your brick from your car, and start carrying it in your purse.  But, Googling as you sit in a Celebration of ministry service, not even imagined in 1998.

The river has moved.  La rivière a  vraiment changé son cours.   Donc, qu'est-ce que nous devons faire?  So, what is the church to do?

We could try to move the river back.  And we have great leadership right here:  Mark you're in charge of getting the women to stay home, D'Thea  you shut down the internet, and, Rolanda would you take on that plague Sunday shopping…oh and the arenas too.  

S'il est impossible de déplacer la rivière,  nous pourrions peut-être rallonger le pont de sorte qu'elle traverse le lit de la rivière actuelle et espérer que les gens reviennent. Mais cela semble peu probable.   En 25 ans, une nouvelle génération est venue au monde et d'autres façons de vivre ont vu le jour avec elle. Cette nouvelle génération voient le pont, l'Eglise comme une relique d'un temps bien ancien. La rivière s'est vraiment déplacée.  

 We could build a new bridge, with rock bands and video projection and tweets and real-time sermons and a dynamic Facebook presence.  But isn't that just trying to recreate the old church with new building materials.  The river has really moved.  

Our holy scripture has many texts about rivers and water. The crashing waters of creation.   And Noah.  Moses dividing the water, Joshua crossing the Jordan,  Living water of women by the well (preached at my ordination)   

And I love water, the sound of the brook babbling over the weir in a hot summer day, the mist of soft rain moistening life out of seeds, the lap of the lake through the planks of a dock, the rhythm of a rock as it skips two, three, four, five six … times across a sunset.  I love water.
So, really, this sermon is less about the bridge, and more about where the people gather, by the water, in prayer.   Mais en fait, le plus important, ce n'est pas le pont, mais plutôt la rivière. C'est la rivière qui est vivifiante. Donc, dans ce sermon, plutôt que de vous raconter l'histoire d'un pont, j'aimerais vous parler d'un espace de prière, à coté d'une rivière, où Dieu a fondé une Église.

  (FLS)  L'une d'elles, nommée Lydie, marchande de pourpre, de la ville de Thyatire, était une femme craignant Dieu, et elle écoutait. Le Seigneur lui ouvrit le cœur, pour qu'elle fût attentive à ce que disait Paul. Quelle richesse comme phrase!  

And St Paul only got there, to the women by the river, because his plan had failed.   His strategic plan for Congregational development failed.  Maybe the census data told him to head to Asia Minor, but twice, the text says, the Spirit prevented them.  A failed plan.

Donc, à cause d'un échec, Paul se trouve en Grèce.   L'Esprit le pousse à changer ses plans. C'est ainsi que Dieu conduit Paul vers une terre nouvelle, là où il y avait une rivière où Lydie venait chercher Dieu. Ce qui semblait être, à prime abord, un échec pour Paul, a permis à Lydie de vivre une expérience spirituelle authentique. Et c'est ainsi qu'une nouvelle Église a été fondée

This is the story of Lydia finding God as she searched by the river. It is the story of Paul finding Lydia.   And it is the story of the founding of a church.

Paul needed some sign. And who was provided?  C'est une Marchande de pourpre une étrangère de Thyatire - la ville, où Paul avait été déjoué - qui, par la grâce de Dieu, ouvre le chemin pour Paul  Sometimes it takes strangers to show us the way.  This is the story of a chance meeting of a frustrated missionary and a foreign business woman by the river one Sabbath.  

I visited that spot, that exact spot, where Lydia met Paul.  I sat on the rock, by the stream, for it can really no longer be called a river, and listened.  There was a murmur, a calling.  I had to take off my sandals and wade in.

Le jour du sabbat, nous nous rendîmes, hors de la porte, vers une rivière, où nous pensions que se trouvait un lieu de prière. Nous nous assîmes, et nous parlâmes aux femmes qui étaient réunies.     

We supposed it was a place of prayer, where the people gathered.  And we sat down.  
So now, ordinands,  what is it that you've been called to do?  Alors nous autres,   qu'est-ce que nous avons été appelés à faire? Nous nous trouvons dans un nouveau pays parmi les étrangers, assis près d'une rivière, et nous voulons jouer dans l'eau.

From the bridge, it may look as if the river has dried up, but the good news is that it still runs, boldly and strongly.  The river of the Spirit is flowing and calling just as it always has.    
  Malina and Pilch talk about Jesus Group change agents.    As a change agent, you will sit where the people are gathered, listen to the water, throw a few stones, and trust in the stranger who is brought to you.  Look out for the marchande de porpre.   But it won't be easy.  Robert Schnase writes on the Ministry Matters site.  He has a deep yearning for a revitalized church.  "We see a new church, a church that is clear about its mission and confident about its future, a church that is relevant, reaching out, inviting, alive, agile, and resilient. We see a church that is hopeful, passionate, nimble, called of God, outward-focused, courageous.  (United Methodist Robert Schnase Ministry Matters)

But in that yearning we have to admit to a willingness to let some things die so that others can be born.

 Some may have to sell church buildings, as we see in the Montreal presbytery.   D'autres auront besoin de partager le leadership, comme nous voyons dans Seaway Valley.  Il y aura les églises sans abris, les églises virtuelles, comme La Passerelle.  Strangers will invite us to messy churches and Arts churches and lunch churches.  There will be churches that we have not even imagined yet.    

The river has moved, but the Spirit of the Lord is still powerful.  The bridges that we built may seem at best weighty, at worst, like bridges to nowhere.  But the Lord is faithful.  

And so we gather at this table of the lord, in worship like the women by the river. Nous nous réunissons à coté de la rivière, les oreilles ouvertes par  Dieu, prêts à entendre sa parole pour nous. Trust that we will be guided to a ministry that is not at all as we had envisioned it.  Let us gather at this place of prayer, trusting that God's vision for us will be made clear.   Let us go, empowered by the faithful God of Love.  

 Amen