More Busy and More Tired – Pastor Thoughts for Pentecost

May 28, 2023 The Rev. Erik Parker Leave a comment

As I was driving with Pastor Courtenay to a pastors’ meeting this week, I mentioned that folks seemed tired these days. She agreed.

[And yes, I know that whenever I talk about being tired, I am probably getting close to needing a vacation. And that is probably true; I am certainly looking forward to vacation time coming up this summer. ]

I have been noticing folks lagging in many different corners:

A good friend who is a pastor mentioned that he was meeting with some folks in his congregation to talk about the challenges of finding volunteers.
The dance parents that I hang around with are counting the weeks until dance is over with big tired sighs. The dance school is looking for volunteers to be back stage with the kids for their big year-end recitals.
The Parent Action Committee at school is still looking for more members with a month left in the school year. The parents at School Pickup often remark at how tiring the end of the year is.

Everyone is looking for more volunteers these days, though those same people are all simultaneously running on fumes themselves.

And yet, the world hasn’t fully ramped up from the pandemic. We all remember a busier even more hectic normal time pre-pandemic. Every year felt busier than the present one. As we enter into a decidedly post-pandemic era (where COVID is endemic, meaning everywhere), I wonder if we are questioning the pace at which we all used to live life pre-pandemic. If 70%, 80% or 90% of the level of busy-ness compared to the “before-times” is exhausting, can we even go back to full steam ahead?

As we approach Pentecost Sunday, I cannot help but think about the tired disciples who were also wondering who was going to do the work of their new community. Fifty days after the Resurrection, they too were exhausted in all the change that they were facing without Jesus among them.

Then, in their exhaustion, the Holy Spirit sent them out into the streets to preach the Gospel in many languages and to preside over 3000 baptisms! [Two Baptisms this Sunday feels like a lot – 3000 is unimaginable!]

Of course doing more wasn’t the answer to the tiredness of the disciples. Pentecost lasted only one day – the chaos of 3000 baptisms wasn’t the new normal. The Early Church slowly became small groups of 10 to 15 folks in one city, 15 to 25 in another. These became the little communities that we have heard of: Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Thessalonians, Colossians and so forth. Little communities that, over time, discovered new ways to be faithful people and slowly grew into something more.

I have a feeling that finding our way in 2022 and 2023 has been more of a temporary Pentecost moment, which might last for a while yet. We are still just at the beginning of this reality of what it means to be Church in this age. And our time for slowly-growing communities of faith time is coming.

Se let’s endure the busy-ness and tired-ness for now, knowing that the Spirit has new ways of being in mind for us soon.

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Finally Some New Easter Life – Pastor Thoughts

May 21, 2023 The Rev. Erik Parker Leave a comment

At this time of year, one of the things that I usually find myself on the lookout for are the first signs of the greening that happens in springtime; the brown grass and leafless trees begin to sprout new life. In the past few days, I have really noticed the grass turning green, the trees and plants beginning to show little buds and blossoms of life. Living in our new neighbourhood we are seeing all the things happen for the first time. We moved in one day after the first snowfall in November, so we barely saw our green yard. Now it is kind of like little daily surprises to see which plants are budding each day.

But it isn’t just the plants and trees and grass. The whole neighbourhood seems to be coming alive. After being cloistered in our homes all winter, people are coming out into the streets, sidewalks and parks. Most evenings there are kids riding bikes or playing street hockey, families out for walks and playground adventures, schoolmates to be found at newly explored parks, soccer and baseball teams practicing at local fields. The Harte walking trail is so busy there could almost be traffic lights required.

It is a wonder to watch the whole world seemingly come to life out of the winter depths. I know the same resurrection is happening all over the city, probably all over the prairies.

I don’t know about you, but I have noticed it too at church. Maybe not as dramatic the transformation of our outdoor world, but this winter and spring there has been noticeable new life growing in our midst. There are a few more folks in the pews most Sundays; we now even sit on both sides of the sanctuary, instead of clumping all together on one side. Our online views have remained strong (often in the hundreds!) and yet there are just a few more folks consistently at church. Not to mention the life found in our Lenten study, our music groups picking up a great deal of our musical leadership, and the cautious optimism that we shared in our town hall.

Of course, soon summer holidays, campground reservations and weekends at the lake will be calling out to us… but I suspect that we are taking a step into a new kind of stability (I won’t say “normal” just yet). Sure there is still COVID-19, inflation, war, Artificial Intelligence (like ChatGPT) taking jobs, forest fires, climate change and so many more things to worry about.

But maybe, just maybe, in our fourth Easter since going into those pandemic lockdowns, we are actually experiencing a shift towards more tangible and visible signs of communal resurrection around us. I think that might be part of what it going on.

As we come to the end of the Easter Season for this year, I have a feeling that the resurrection vibes and the feeling of being an Easter community might carry on.

Of course, after a couple years of pouring ourselves into coming out of the pandemic tomb and into new life, it is only after we begin to accept and come to terms with who and what we are now as a community of faith that God begins something new with us again.

Whether we like it or not, I think this may be what it looks like to be an Easter People – a little bit messy but with new life appearing in surprising ways.

Christ is Risen Indeed!

Sermon, Theology & Culture

Choosing paths with Jesus – A Sermon for the 6th Sunday in Easter

May 7, 2023 The Rev. Erik Parker Leave a comment

GOSPEL: John 14:1-14
Jesus said to the disciples:] 1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me…

*Note: Sermons are posted in the manuscript draft that they were preached in, and may contain typos or other errors that were resolved in my delivery. See the Sherwood Park Lutheran Facebook Page for video

“How can we know the way?”

This is the question that is asked of Jesus this week in the gospel lesson.

We have arrived at the 5th Sunday of Easter. After 3 weeks of resurrection stories, and then a week to uplift Jesus as our Good Shepherd, we now start to head away from Easter Sunday and orient ourselves towards Pentecost. Towards that moment when the rag tag group of Jesus’ followers are driven by the Holy Spirit out into the public square. There they become the visible community and body of Christ in the world. But before we get there, this aimless group of disciples needs to figure out what it means for them to become the Body of Christ – without Jesus leading the way as he had done for the 3 years prior.

So we go back a bit in the Gospel of John. We hear a conversation between Jesus and the disciples that is taking place around a table. The table of the last supper on Maundy Thursday where Jesus is giving final instructions for the community he intends his followers to become – even though they still have not fully realized that within hours Jesus will be arrested, on trial and nailed to a cross.

In a passage that is the most common gospel reading heard at funerals, Jesus promises that there is a place for his followers in his Father’s house. Thomas, ever rationalizing may be sensing something ominous behind what should be a promise of welcome and belonging. Thomas interjects,

“Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

How can we know the way?

Then Philip, speak out loud the anxiety of all of Jesus followers. He wants Jesus to just show them the father. Thomas and Philip want to know the way, the destination. They want the roadmap, they want to be able to get there themselves. If Jesus can provide the directions and a destination, maybe the journey won’t feel so scary to imagine.

It is a feeling we share. We all much prefer knowing the directions, having a map, knowing the destination… whether it is a literal trip or journey, or whether it is the journey of life choices and experiences. We want to know where we are headed and how we will get there. Whether its finding a job or vocation, settling down and starting a family, choosing a place to live. Whether it is making sure that the church community we love continues on, or that the Jets don’t leave town again, or if we can let ourselves start worrying less about a 3 year old pandemic and on and on. We are full of wonderings and questions about our futures, our destinations and the paths we will take to arrive at them.

When I was little, maybe four or five, my mother took me to the University of Alberta (UofA) for “an appointment.” We met a kind woman there who took my mother, sister and I on what felt like a long walk through the UofA campus. At one point, she just stopped and looked at me and asked, “Erik, do you think you can find your way back to the office?”

So I started leading our little posse back to the office where we had first met this nice woman. I know that I made a few wrong turns along the way, but I eventually figured out our way back to the office. All along the way, I remember the woman asking me questions about why I had chosen the path I was taking, landmarks I was using, my sense of direction etc…

Years later when I recalled the experience to my mother, she told me that I was part of a study about direction sense in children. There were three groups. The first group was told they were going for a walk and would need to find their way back. They’re also given help and hints as they led their way back. The second group was told about the walk and the need to navigate their way back, but were given no help once they started to lead the way. The third group – the group I was in – were not given any notice about the task and given no help finding our way back.

If on the various journeys we take in life we had the option of getting clear instructions and then help navigating where we were going, or at the very least, the knowledge that we were going to have to find our way to our destination, we always choose to be in group one or group two. We wish that the path to find our way through ministry as a church, and in life in general, had a kind researcher reminding us to make note of landmarks as we travel, and gently correcting us when we make a wrong turn.

Yet, we know that life after a certain point the parental figures, teachers, guides and coaches have to let us figure it out ourselves. And all of sudden we are in that 3rd group where we do not even know that we are getting lost and then someone turns to us and says, “Do you think you can find your way back from here?”

When you are navigating blind, you don’t really know if you have taken the right path or made the right choices until you get to where you are going. Providing a map or turn by turn directions or a guide we can hold onto, is not what Jesus is about. Instead, Jesus has a very different idea of what it means to navigate our way down life’s paths and what it means for us to know the way.

“How can we know the way?”

As Thomas and Philip press Jesus for more than a promise that there is a place where they belong, they are casting about for something that they can do, something they feel like they have some agency. But they have also missed tthat Jesus has shown them everything they need.

Jesus promises them a place in his Father’s house. Jesus reminds them that he is the way. Because they know Jesus, they have seen the Father.

Because they know Jesus, they can make the journey.

Because they know Jesus, they belong already to the Kingdom of God.

The dimples want roadmaps and directions, they want the certainty that the destination is a good place to end up. But that is about their own fears and anxieties, those are just means for their own control.

Jesus provides community.

It isn’t just that there is one room, or one place at the table. It is that there is a whole community of faithful disciples who are now part of God’s house. There is a whole table of siblings in Christ who are on the pathways with us. Knowing the way isn’t so important as is knowing that we are not going alone, we have the people who are walking with us, to rely one, to support one another, to care for each other.

Jesus gives us himself.

It isn’t just that Jesus is a teacher and friend. Jesus is the one whom brings God close and near. Jesus reveals the Father to us. Jesus show us God: God’s face and voice, God’s flesh and image. Because the disciples know Jesus, they know God. And God knows them, in the flesh, face to face.

Jesus is the way.

As we struggle like the disciples to know where we are going, to know what is going to happen to us, what we should do as people living our lives of faith, Jesus reminds us that he is the place, the One, to whom we are going. Faith isn’t a task or job or set of instructions to follow. Faith is relationship with God who promises us new life. In a world that always ends with sin and death, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

And in Jesus the way, we are transformed. God declares that we belong no matter where we are. God goes with us no matter what path we walk.

So like those disciples who were trying to figure out what it meant for them to become the visible Body of Christ in the world, Jesus reminds us that the destinations or pathways that we imagine might not be the point. Instead knowing the way is about God who promises a place to belong, room in God’s house.

Hear again the reminder from 1st Peter”

9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

10Once you were not a people,

but now you are God’s people;

once you had not received mercy,

but now you have received mercy.

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

How can we know the way? – Pastor Thoughts

May 6, 2023 The Rev. Erik Parker Leave a comment

“How can we know the way?”

This is the question that is asked of Jesus this week in the gospel lesson.

When I was little, maybe four or five, my mother took me to the University of Alberta (UofA) for “an appointment.” We met a kind woman there who took my mother, sister and me on what felt like a long walk through the UofA campus. At one point, she just stopped and looked at me and asked, “Erik, do you think you can find your way back to the office?”

Years later when I recalled the experience to my mother, she told me that I was part of a study about directional sense in children. There were three groups. The first group was told they were going for a walk and would need to find their way back. They’re also given help and hints as they led their way back. The second group was told about the walk and the need to navigate their way back, but were given no help once they started to lead the way. The third group – the group I was in – were not given any notice about the task nor given any help finding our way back.

I think both the kind researcher and my mother were surprised that I found my way back to the starting place. And in fact, my whole life I have been blessed with a pretty good sense of direction. I can find my way in new cities, find my way between towns out in the country, and navigate airports, malls or other large buildings pretty well. I even had a better sense of the horse trails around Wilderness Ranch (in the foothills of Southern Alberta) after a few weeks than some other staff who had been riding them for years.

My good directional sense has been a blessing in other areas of my life, giving me the confidence to trust that most of my decisions will get me to where I am trying to go, whether it is personally, in my family life or in ministry.

Now, my point here isn’t to brag. And in fact, my good directional sense has limits. Most cities I have figured out in a few days, but Winnipeg has felt like it has taken years to get straight (unnumbered streets that are named seemingly randomly, few roads that actually run true North-South/East-West, big thoroughfares that just end, streets that just change names, quaint little side streets that are actually main traffic arteries….) Don’t get me started on Winnipeg’s utterly confusing city design!

But rather, my point is that we are like the disciples, who are asking Jesus “How can we know the way?” We wish that the path to find our way through ministry as a church, and in life in general, had a kind researcher reminding us to make note of landmarks as we travel, and gently correcting us when we make a wrong turn. Yet, we usually encounter the other experiences of not even knowing that we are getting lost or not knowing where we are going until someone turns to us and says, “Do you think you can find your way back from here?”

And when we are navigating blind, we don’t really know if we have taken the right paths and made the right choices until we get to where we are going. Providing a map, or turn-by-turn directions, or a guide we can hold onto, is not what Jesus is about though. Instead, Jesus has a very different idea of what it means to navigate our way down life’s paths and what it means for us to know the way.

So… “How can we know the way?”

What that is, is something you will have to come on Sunday to hear more about. I hope to see you there.

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Following the call to be a Shepherd – Pastor Thoughts

April 29, 2023 The Rev. Erik Parker Leave a comment

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

The 4th Sunday of Easter is the middle Sunday of the seven weeks of Easter. And for the past 50 or so years, it has been the Sunday we observe Christ, the Good Shepherd.

Good Shepherd Sunday has a centuries-long history of being a Sunday to talk, not just about how Christ is our Shepherd, but about the call to ordained ministry, as well.

In the ELCIC we are calling it Vocational Sunday, a Sunday to reflect on the ways in which all the Baptized are called to the ministry of God’s Kingdom. And also to lift up the particular call to ordained ministry.

The idea of Call carries with it some sense of the holy or mysterious. I get asked quite a bit how it was that I felt called to be a pastor. I sometimes get the feeling that the expected answer is a story such as that of Martin Luther. The legend goes that Luther was out travelling in a lightning storm when a bolt struck near by. Sorely afraid for his life, he prayed to God that if he survived he would switch from law school to theological school and become a monk. Of course, many historians wonder if this might have been a story Luther concocted because he didn’t want to become a lawyer, and his father had saved money to pay for law school!

Nevertheless, my own call story is not nearly as dramatic. I grew up in a family that already had some pastors in it. We went to church most Sundays and often to other programs during the week. My parents made sure to remind me that being a pastor was a true and viable career option. Then in university, I discovered that I really liked my history and theology courses. There were no desperate prayers to God, no voices from heaven, no signs that I should follow a certain path.

I know that there are some with those kinds of call stories among my colleagues. But there are many others who have similarly mundane stories like mine.

However, there is one thing that I think is often missed. Because pastors are almost always called from outside the congregation, there is a sense that we come from some special place.

Here is the secret: We normally come from other ordinary congregations, where we were usually just ordinary people in the pews. Often those who become pastors were quite involved and leaders in their home congregations, but not always. The important thing is that pastors are raised up from the baptized, from the ordinary folks who sit in the pews, usher, sing in the choir, go to youth group (a key place!), work at bible camp, serve on council, etc….

But, most importantly, pastors and deacons and all clergy were most often encouraged and identified by other discerning lay folks as people with a potential call to serve. Maybe it is a confirmation student who actually takes interest in the material. Maybe it is someone who gets involved with leading music, reading the lessons, ushering or other parts of worship. Maybe it is a wise and thoughtful person who has been asked to serve on council. Maybe it is someone that there is just a hunch about (a feeling that might be from the Holy Spirit).

As we take the time this Sunday to consider Jesus, the Good Shepherd, I encourage you to think about folks you know in our congregation and beyond who might be called to ordained ministry – and if you are comfortable, let them know. And maybe it is you!