For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isa. 55:8-9).

    Have you ever heard people talk about the “ways of the world”?...  What are some of the things that we could say might be part of the ways of the world?... Any suggestions?... [The rich get richer and the poor get poorer?  Money and power are where it’s at?  Money talks?  You only get what you pay for?  Do whatever makes you feel good?  Bigger is better? Make what you can, can what you make, and sit on the lid?] However you might define it, there are the ways of the world, and then there are the ways of God.  Or, if you prefer the singular, there is the way of the world and then there is God’s way, and they are most definitely not the same thing!

    God’s way, at least in part, involves an open invitation for everybody who is thirsty to come to the waters.  God’s way involves hosting a feast of good food and good drink that is open to all nations and requires no money in order to come.  God’s way is a way of mercy and grace, where all who come are welcomed and forgiven and given new life.  God’s way involves an everlasting covenant - a relationship in which God has taken the initiative and has made lasting and eternal promises.  This is God’s way, into which all of us are invited.  Yet, the way of the world continues to get in the way.

    You may have heard by now that the theme for celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation is “Liberated by God’s Grace.”  And under this theme there are three sub-themes (help me out here...): Salvation: Not for Sale; Human Beings: Not for Sale; Creation: Not for Sale.  And do any of you know what the Youth Gathering theme is?... [Not for Sale!] While God gives gracious gifts (including our salvation!), human beings have a distinct tendency to take those gifts and try to sell them.  Once again, the way of the world clashes with God’s way.

    One of the speakers at our MNO Synod Convention in April was the Rt. Rev. Mark McDonald, who is the National Indigenous Bishop for the Anglican Church of Canada.  He spoke about how it was absolutely blasphemous to First Nations people to talk about buying and selling land, or actually owning land.  He said it was the equivalent of selling your mother, for the land to them is Mother Earth.  When settlers first talked to aboriginal people about selling land, the native people laughed at them.  “What are you going to sell next?” they asked.  “The water?”  And yet, look at the world around us today.

    If you were here in this park today and needed a drink of water, where would you get one?... [assume you didn’t bring any with you]... Wouldn’t you need to go to the restaurant and buy water?  Are there any working water fountains here any more?... In more and more places around the world, you cannot find drinkable water unless you buy it.  And yet, Isaiah says to us, “everyone who thirsts, come to the waters” (Isa. 55:1), for the water that God provides is good and clear and clean.

    The irony, of course, is that it is many of our first nations people here in Canada who do not have drinkable water on their reserves.  That’s what the “Right to Water” National Youth Project has been all about over the past few years.  The goal has been to raise enough money to provide one home in Pikangikum with clean, safe water, which is not cheap when you’re talking about a remote community.  It is one, small step in addressing the right to water that belongs to all people.  It is one small sign of following God’s way instead of the way of the world.

    Then, of course, there is the buying and selling of human beings that goes on - also part of the way of the world.  God’s way sets people free.  As we heard in the gospel of John, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (8:36).  However, in our world there continue to be slaves.

    I’m wondering how many of you have actually heard stories about modern day slavery?...  Can you name one or two instances?... [Possibilities: young children picking cocoa beans; “sweat shops”; ISIS brides; human trafficking] Unfortunately, there are far too many instances all around the world of people who end up either literally being bought and sold or simply being used as slave labour because they are so poor that they do not have a choice.

    And is there any modern day slavery here in Canada?...  How many of those missing aboriginal women have been taken for the purposes of human trafficking?... It happens here, and it happens in far too many places around the world.

    So what do we do with this, when we are aware of what is going on in our world, and see how God’s good gifts have been turned into commodities?  To some extent, we are presented with the same choice as those who first heard Isaiah’s message.  Members of the Jewish elite, who had been carried off to Babylon, were being asked to choose God’s covenant with them rather than the production and consumption that was part of the Babylonian empire (Brueggemann).  It is truly amazing how similar our choices are today.

    Do we want to be part of God’s way?  Do we want to be in a relationship with God that recognizes that all of creation and all human beings and our salvation are all gifts that come from God and belong to God?  Do we want to participate in the abundant life that God offers and in the reign of God that was initiated by Jesus Christ?  When we say yes to God's way, we stand against the way of the world and refuse to support products and practices that enslave people and that decimate God’s creation.  When we say yes to God, we live trusting in Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit as ambassadors for Christ in this world.

    Our God redeems and sets free.  Our God loves and forgives.  Our God participates with us fully and deeply, having come in Jesus Christ for the life of the world.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Pentecost 12  (Youth Sending Service)                    Isaiah 55:1-11
August 7, 2016                                John 8:31-36
Kildonan Park
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2016 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved