The church office will resume its normal opening hours as of Monday, August 2.

Mark 4:3-9
1 Corinthians 3:4-7

The two scriptures I’ve chosen today are ones from my covenanting service 8 years ago.  Some of you will remember  Ian Smith preaching on them and giving us seeds to plant and to tend together in ministry. Well its time to reflect on the harvest!   

But first,  Paul’s  letter to the Corinthians.  He reminds the folk in that ragged Christian community that church leaders come and go,  But that the God who gives growth does not.  The ministry belongs to God and to the community here. At Cedar Park, you have been blessed with excellent ministry leadership’;Victor Rose,  Lorne Brown, Jack Nield, Paul Evans, Brenda Bell and for the last 8 years me. Some of you have lived through all of those leaders and know that not all had the same gifts, not all growth was the same,  But God used each one to grow this ministry that we celebrate today. And God will continue to use new leaders;  Ron Couglin, and whomever you choose as your new minister in the future.  

 I think there’s also a slightly hidden message in this passage. That is don’t say to your next minister….”But Sharon always did it this way”.  I hope you will give your new ministers the same generous support and accompaniment that you have given me. And I hope you will wear name tags to help them (and one another as well).

Now to the harvest.

Jesus told a story of a generous God who squanders grace recklessly.   A sower  went out to sow.  Some seed fell on the path and birds took the seed to other places.   I  think of all those whose ministry journeys touched our work these last 8 years. Jen DeCombe, Phil Reade, Elaine Beattie, Genevieve Trudel, Margie Ann MacDonald, even our own Elisabeth Jones.   Seeds of Cedar Park’s vision of church have been carried on the wings of the spirit to many places.   Many lay people  have moved to new congregations and brought with them seeds from this congregation. Others have brought the seed of other places here.  Our healing Pathway ministry has sown seeds in many other congregations where they have grown and taken root.

Seeds of discipleship have grown plentifully here and been carried elsewhere.

Truly God has blessed us with abundance.

The story goes on to speak about seed that fell in rocky ground where it sprang up because it had no depth, but wilted in the sun because it had no strong roots.  This is part of the nature of a generous seeding God. God offers the seed of transformed living everywhere, generously, even to those who are not ready or able to let it  grow deeply in them at this stage of their journey.  We know from our own experience of life,  that just because this is not the time for the  spirit to root deeply, does not mean that there will not be other times, and other opportunities to receive and to grow.  

Then the story speaks of  seed falling among thorns which choke out  new growth.  You might want to reflect on what strangles growth and fullness of life in you.  Might be addiction to work or fear, or control, or perfectionism.  Or maybe to powerlessness,  negativity, busyness or poverty thinking.  Might be other things.     Jesus was very realistic that there are things which crowd out healthy growth, and they are usually like weeds which grow wildly and selfishly demanding all the attention and energy for themselves.

But the real focus of the story is the shocking abundance of the seed that falls on good ground that multiplies exponentially-30,60,100 fold.  Truly a miraculous harvest!!

There have been so many seeds of God that have flourished abundantly in this community in these past 8 years!  I spoke of seeds of discipleship carried elsewhere.  But such seeds of discipleship have remained right here!  This congregation has some of the strongest lay leaders I have ever known…at the board level, Kidzone, in our various ministries. CD, Worship, Social Justice, Pastoral Care,  Healing Pathways, Welcoming, Stewardship and Finance, Fundraising, Property and Décor. Ministry and Personnel, Trustees.  We have had strong leadership for our programmes bible study, faith discussion, journalling, care for the caregivers, We have had strong leadership for our projects like Free the Children,  Grandmothers to Grandmothers, and Coffee House, and Raising the Roof, Gourmet food fairs and so much more.

Our staff team of Elizabeth Chown, church administrator and Douglas Knight, Music Director is the strongest and most committed I have ever worked with.  Together, we share a vision of reaching out beyond our walls, discovering people’s gifts and integrating new people into the heart of community. Both of these staff partners  have done that in very powerful ways. I have been truly blessed.   You have been truly blessed!   Shocking abundance  

Seeds of leadership and discipleship have grown here

Truly God has blessed us with abundance.

 And  our numbers have grown. Shocking abundance! This  happens for a reason.  It  happens because this congregation speaks a message.  and creates a vision of community that matters to people’s lives, and makes faith relevant to daily living.  We are an open faith community seeking to keep Jesus’ message relevant and real in our complex world – a message of abundant life for all.  We have committed to a powerful statement of our Values as a congregation and also to a clear covenant for harmony in how we will treat one another in community and how we will make decisions.   We have also made a strong decision to become an Affirming Congregation welcoming  the GLBT community and their families, committing to work in advocacy and justice for Gays and Lesbians Bisexuals and Transgendered.  Here All are welcome, really does mean all. In Sept. you welcome an openly gay minister in a committed relationship.  These statements, seeds of purpose and meaning,  will continue to orient your life together, and will continue to challenge you to grow into them .

The seeds of strength of purpose and meaning have grown here.

Truly God has blessed us with abundance.

Our influence in the larger community has also  multiplied many hundred fold.  As we have risked going beyond our doors to encounter and partner the community, we have been blessed with abundance. The Dix Mille Villages fair trade ministry continues to work for justice and to change lives of the very poor around the world.  Youth in Action, Free the Children has raised over 90 thousand dollars for projects in Africa and China and will now turn its attention to rebuilding Haiti.  Not only lives across the world, but the life of every one of the young people in this community who have been involved has been changed. They know their lives make a difference!   Shocking abundance!  

This ministry to the larger world has happened through partnerships:  Grandmothers to Grandmothers and our partnerships with Family Life Centre, Monteal City Mission, St. Columba House, and our own Mission and Service fund of the United Church.

Seeds of community partnership and justice  have grown fruitfully here.

Truly God has blessed us with abundance.

Please do not become a congregation who becomes so focused on what goes on inside, that you lose sight of how much Cedar Park plays a key  role in the soul life of the larger community.

Seeds of Creativity have also grown here.  We have one of the best choirs in Montreal!  At a time when many congregations don’t have a choir, we have to create  space for our growing choir.  We have our own choir, but we also have the Voices for Hope community choir that Douglas began touch the lives of many lives in our community but also the lives of those for whom their fundraising brings hope.   Well Done Douglas!  

But our music creativity is even deeper rooted in our coffee house that showcases creative talent, in groups like the Purich family, Perfect Blend, Lisa Walsh, Brian Clarke. And of course the DANCING QUEENS!!!

And then there’s Bob and the banner making!  And Rosemary Cass Beggs and our dancers, and our budding acting troupe!

 And weren’t those seeds of creativity powerfully demonstrated at the living wake you gave me a week ago Saturday?  Wow . Creativity is abundant in our midst in so many other parts of the life of this place too numerous to mention

Seeds of creativity have flourished here

Truly God has blessed us with abundance.

Seeds of caring, of healing, of  love have multiplied many fold  in this place; Lives have been profoundly changed by being here; experiencing the ministry and community that is here!  Much of it happens behind the scenes, unseen, unknown;   Like the woman who visits every week for several years with one of our elders.   Or the work of the pastoral care team who have helped people die with dignity,  surrounded by love, But they have also helped people LIVE as they have listened and walked beside those going through stressful times. Healing Pathways is one of the most powerful, life-changing ministries of our congregation, and we have seeded that ministry in many other churches.  We have visited in hospitals, offered treatments in homes, or in our Monday clinic.  Every day we see God’s grace and healing become incarnate.   Then there’s morning connections and elves creating gatherings for seniors and friends. and  those who lovingly care for our space and our resources, and worry whether we will be able make ends meet.  Quiet faithful loving, concrete ways of making the love of Jesus Christ real.  There is much caring, supporting, listening that goes on in this congegation beyond official channels;   people being who they are; passing on the love they have received to others.

Seeds of caring love have grown wildly here.

Truly God has blessed us with abundance.

But there is an even greater abundance that I celebrate from this time of shared ministry.  Countless people in this community have come to experience the presence of God in their own lives.  People who thought God wouldn’t care about them, have discovered the God of grace at the core of their beings, their own holy ground, the spirit of God that lives and moves in each one and breathes life and wholeness into each one.  Through meditation, retreat, prayer, study groups, healing services, healing pathways, and Sunday worship, God has found  many ways to bubble up in the life of this people with life-changing energy and power.  

And as we encounter God, we are challenged to grow in wholeness, and to  unlock and use spiritual gifts.   My prayer would be that you will continue to  call out and nurture the seeds of spirituality and call out the spiritual gifts of one another so that you can use them for the building up of the whole.  

The seeds of spirituality and spiritual giftedness have flourished here

Truly God has blessed us with abundance.

Thanks be to the God of abundance. May God continue to bless you as God has already blessed you.  When you start to feel discouraged because everything is not happening yesterday, or irritable with one another or fearful of what lies ahead, I hope you will call one another to remember the Abundance of God  present in your midst.

Truly God has blessed us with Abundance

Choral Voice Workshop, Sunday, Sept. 19, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Given by Douglas Knight, these well-attended workshops are directed to anyone who likes to sing, wants to start, wants to improve, and needs to know the do’s and don’ts; a must for the novice chorister, a helpful refresher for the experienced. Freewill donation. Call 514 630-0331 by Sept. 15 to register.

Fun, practical, informative. Free to anyone with chronic health conditions; meets for 6 consecutive Tuesday afternoons from 1 to 3 p.m. at Cedar Park, starting Sept 7. www.mytoolbox.mcgill.ca.

A new workshop series for women …

6 Thursdays from 1 to 3 p.m., starting Sept. 23. Facilitator Terri Coyle. $5 per session. Co-sponsored by CPUC and the Family Life Centre. Topics include how to find meaning and purpose, staying fit, making personal connections, planning and managing time, dealing with change, exploring new facets of yourself, and more. Register at 514 630 7794 or familylifecentre@gmail.com.

The Congregational Board approved two new fund-raising links for our website. The best part is, they are labour-free! The church will receive a percentage of the amount of any purchases made through these links:

For Amazon.ca, go to http://www.cedarparkunited.org/giving/

For SheetMusicPlus, go to http://www.cedarparkunited.org/music/

Please pass this message on to friends and family. The more who order, the better for our church.

 July 14  The Kingsburys, 18 Westwood, Pointe-Claire

Aug. 4   The Brays, 58 Devon Rd., Beaconsfield

Aug. 18  The Sutherlands, 28 Lansdowne, Pointe-Claire

1) If you’re aware of anyone who you believe may be a suitable qualified and gifted potential candidate, whether or not they are currently looking for a new call, please provide their name to Elsa Dondenaz Harvey edondenaz@gmail.ca. 

 2) If you’re aware of a person with significant knowledge of ministers in the United Church who might be in a position to help us identify potentially suitable candidates, please provide the name of that person to Elsa.

 3) As we go into the summer, please keep the process of search and call in your thoughts and prayers as we hold ourselves open to the Spirit’s call.

He says ” It just turns your whole world upside down when you can turn the faucet on and stick a cigarette lighter under it and you get this explosion of flame.  People were showering with their light bulbs off because of fear of a spark setting off a huge fire.  He says”The first thing that I heard about was a woman [whose] water well exploded on New Years Day of 2009. And it sent a concrete casing soaring up into the air and scattered debris all over her yard. And then other people started to notice that their water was bubbling and fizzing, that their water had been discolored. By the time I got there a month later, there were children who were getting sick [and] animals who were getting sick and the whole place was pretty much laid to waste. There were gas well pads everywhere. There was incredibly heavy truck traffic. It seemed like normal life had just been turned completely upside down.”
But surely people can make a choice of whether they have this on their land you might think. Like Nabboth, they can say, “No this is my ancestral land. I will not sell it out.”

Not so simple. Though he and his family have decided not to lease the land, some of his neighbours have.  In many states there is forced pooling.  If 60% of a community have signed, you are forced to lease whether you sign or not. People said that the first time the gas people came they were friendly showing how much money a farmer could get.  Next time they put on stronger, nastier pressure. The third time they say, well, we’re taking your gas anyway, so you might as well make some money out of it. He says we are talking about 65% of Pennsylvania and 50% of New York.

But surely there are regulations to protect the environment and the people you say….”The gas industry were exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act by the 2005 Energy bill. The Safe Drinking Water Act monitors underground injection of toxin. They were also exempted in previous years from the Clean Air Act, the Superfund Law. … It’s an unregulated industry.”
Josh Fox, this very ordinary farmer from Pennsylvania is becoming a modern Elijah, pointing out injustice; naming the dirty business of manipulative abuse of power. And as he points out in his film, this is also happening in Alberta.

We still live in Naboth’s world. Some questions this passage forces me to reflect on- Where have we experienced ourselves in conflict between values of justice and concern for the powerless?  Where are we seduced by the notion that progress and getting ahead, requires its victims? How do you feel when little people make life inconvenient for you, stand in the way of something you want to accomplish and feel you have the right to do?   Where do we experience ourselves being seduced by the divine right of privilege?  Have you ever, like Jezebel, felt that you had to do someone else’s dirty work in order to stay on the right side of the power game? in order to keep your job?  Have you ever found yourself justifying the means by the end result?  Have you ever been in Naboth’s position where you have had to withhold something that another with more power wanted, even at personal risk?   Have you ever thought about land or possessions in terms of their relationship to God  as a trust for future generations?  Have you ever been in the Elijah position, where you have had to stand up and cry out injustice, where you have had to name the oppression, make judgement, refuse to pretend that  no one is being hurt, that everything is fine and proceding as it should?  Have you ever had to break the silence about abuse, violation, injustice?
 
There will be a need for a great many more Elijahs in these times as a leaner, meaner, more selfish spirit invades our world. He refused to be silent in the face of injustice.  He recognized  that God cares about the way power in used, the way land is used, the way people are treated, the way people are governed, the way a society treats those who are less powerful.  God cares profoundly, and invites us to care as well, and to risk breaking out of the complicity of denial, and to speak our truth, even into the places of power.
 
There are too many Naboths in the world.  God cares.